CDSFA caught up with Alexandra and Angelica Georgopoulos to talk all things about womens football as well as a certain Female Football Festival they held on Sunday at their beloved Strathfield Park.
For the second year running, the Strathfield sisters dedicated countless hours towards one of the most highly anticipated events in the CDSFA season – the Female Football Gala Day at the newly renovated Strathfield Park.
26 female teams across all age groups participated in the football-fuelled day that would not have been possible without the help of tireless volunteers.
Alexandra and Angelica are both in their early 20’s and one of the main driving forces behind their decision to start the female football day was to demonstrate to these young girls that they can have older role models and that they have a future in the sport.
When the Georgopoulos sisters were growing up they did not have the luxury of experiencing these events with barely a girl in sight every time they used to come down to the park.
“We never had that at the club when we were younger. Seeing a girl at the club who wasn’t in a secretarial role when we were like 10 would have been a shock,” Angelica said.
“We have also seen a lot more female coaches emerging. Especially yesterday [Sunday] we saw a lot of mums take on the role. A lot of the mums were stepping up and telling them [the girls] what to do.
Burwood FC and Earlwood Wanderers girls. Image Credit: MMS Sports Photography
It was cool but it was strange for me. The most important thing is those girls now see that as normal that there are older girls playing.
The whole point of our festival was to make sure that these girls say it’s normal that 21-year-olds are playing football and continue to all age women, there were a lot of mums were playing football yesterday.”
If there was ever a story that encapsulated the joy of the day, it would have to be the Jayaseelan family. Dad, Praveen, who is the club’s treasurer was one of many volunteers lending their assistance while his wife was playing in the All Age Women’s team with her number one supporter on the sideline.
“He (Praveen) was such a great help yesterday. His little son is literally in mum’s shadow, standing on the sideline watching her play. It was the cutest moment.”
“Seeing that dynamic change, where the husband is on the sideline watching his wife is so good. The times are changing.”
Angelica, Alexandra and her partner Jamie had been in planning mode for the last six months ahead of the lead up to the magical event last weekend.
“It was good to have the three of us because we all think we different, each of us would remember things that the other might forget,” Alexandra said.
“Jamie just remembers the weirdest logistical things ever. Like yesterday I thought I had everything covered but I forgot to ask the referees for the highest goal scorer and your player of the match. We were about four games in before I remembered.”
“Alex was kind of the communicator with all the clubs and Jamie was the on the day man,” Angelica added.
The organisation of the event clearly took its toll on Alexandra who was unable to have a proper night’s rest in the lead up to Sunday.
“I was sleeping with a pen and paper next to my bed because I was waking up in the middle of the night. There was also one day when I was driving, and I had an idea, but I didn’t have paper to write it down, so I wrote it on my leg. So, I had a to do list on my leg.”
Alexandra and her team had some amazing support on the day with NSW Opposition Leader and Strathfield local, Jodi McKay, as well as councillor, Maryanne Duggan, coming down to lend a hand.
“Between Maryanne and Jodi, they got the fields up. They were so good; they were a great help.”
ACU celebrate their title triumph. Image Credit: MMS Sports Photography
The dust has only just settled on their hugely successful gala day, but the pair have already reflected on the course of events and have come up with one key thing which they would like to change next year.
“I think we have got try get more females to ref, that would be the icing on the cake for me,” Angelica mentioned before Alexandra went on to add: “I asked for a lot of the newbies [new referees] to come out because they also had their annual seminar on Sunday.
“I said to them, I don’t care how bad you are, this is the environment to start. I don’t care how you ref, just learn.”
“It would be really good if they could match up the refereeing courses and use the festival like ours as a training ground or like part of their course just to practice in a game environment before they get approved.
“If I gave feedback to myself to improve for next year, it would be do exactly what you did but find more female referees.”
Action shot from one of the countless matches at the Football Festival. Image Credit: MMS Sports Photography
Unearthing more female footballers is just one of many items on their agenda with the duo aiming to introduce a women’s kit for Strathfield whilst also fighting against the unfortunate stigma across society that considers all girls who play football in their older years to be butch.
Angelica gave her position on the latter: “It’s quite discerning because they’re young parents. That’s the problem, this next generation is repeating a lot of the same things as past generations.”
She has a simple yet effective proposal to change parents’ mindsets: “Come to our game then make your decision.”
By CDSFA Communications Officer – Samuel Greco Schwartz
