Two months ago, football administrator Heather Reid went diving into her archives for days on end after receiving a seemingly innocuous query. The question came from the sport’s governing body, Football Australia: “I was asked: could I help them put together a list of all the captains for the national team throughout our journey since the first AWSA [Australian Women’s Soccer Association] team was formed,” Reid says.
It sent her searching through the records to produce, for the first time, a comprehensive summary of every captain, head coach and team manager involved since the national side, now called the Matildas, was formed 45 years ago. On the eve of the Women’s World Cup, the document is a fitting tribute to the long and winding history of the Australian women’s football team.
