Female Football Week begins this Friday May 3rd! NWSF is celebrating with a number of special events, of which you can find further information here.
This includes a Special Presentation on Monday May 6th, featuring prominent women in football and sport on an all-star panel, where attendees will learn about their journeys in football, different roles in sport and what it takes to make it in the game! This takes place at 7.30pm at Christie Park. Please note as this is also the first night of Academy, we advise travelling early and considering parking on Talavera Road, adjacent to Christie.
You can meet our panelists below, and register for the event by clicking here.
Sarah Walsh
Sarah Walsh is a former Australian international athlete with 70 caps and 35 international goals for the Matildas. She has a decorated career including appearances in the 2004 Olympics and 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup. She clinched victory at the 2010 Women’s Asian Cup.
Since then, Sarah has evolved into an accomplished sports executive, Logie-nominated commentator, and compelling public speaker. Her firsthand experience in high-performance sports has translated into advocating for pay equity and inclusion, spearheading innovation in governance and policy driving social change at all levels of football.
Notably, as Head of Women’s Football for Football Australia, she influenced the strategy that generated a staggering $389M for football’s World Cup leveraging strategy through government and commercial investment, with an additional $200M earmarked to improve community infrastructure for women and girls across all sports.
Helen Armson
Helen is currently Football NSW’s Legacy Plan Manager, a role created as a result of the FIFA 2023 Womens World Cup and a $10M investment by the NSW Government into women’s football in NSW. Currently she is also acting Head of Women and Girls Football pursuing equity in football for women. has a strong understanding of every aspect of the amateur sports environment from experience as a participant (and parent of participants), manager, fundraiser, event organiser, registrar, president and board member and has been recognised with awards for both performance on-the-field and contributions “behind the scenes”. Helen was previously President of North Epping Rangers Sports Club from 2011 to 2015, and in 2016 Helen became the first female Chair of the Board and was instrumental in facilitating the merger between GHFA and North West Sydney Womens Football in 2019 to become North West Sydney Football.
Sarah Ferris
In her current role as Female Pathways Manager at Sydney Football Club, Sarah plays a lead role in building and developing a world-class female elite training program. Her primary focus is on creating an environment that identifies outstanding female talent to provide them with the opportunities and resources to thrive. This program aims to close this gap and provide an elite pathway for talented females, and features many of NWSF and NWS Spirit FC’s talented female players.
As a player, Sarah was the captain of the University of New South Wales Football Club NPL2 side, who won the Football NSW’s League One Premiership, including promotion to NPL Womens.
Kim Schaefer
Kim Schaefer is a former CommBank Matilda, representing Australia at junior and senior level between 1987 and 1992. Kim was a goalkeeper at national team level and continues to work in this space as Paramatildas Team Manager and Goalkeeper Coach.
Kim is also one of the founders of NWSF’s PINK (which stands for Play, Interact, Network, Kick) program, alongside Leisl Stimpson, a program manager with Special Olympics Australia. Kim continues to coach in this space regularly in our association.
Emma Petancevski
Emma is currently completing her PhD in Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Technology Sydney investigating the effects of feedback within sport. Alongside this, she is currently the Sport Scientist for the NRL Women’s Indigenous All Stars team, and has previously worked as the Sport Scientist for the Wests Tigers NRLW and Harvey Norman Women’s teams.
Don’t miss out on this special event! Register now!