She’s just 13, she’s a goalie in the juniors for Queensland Lions and was this week selected in the Under-14 State Squad for the National Youth Championships in Wollongong in October.

You’d have to guess that a tough tie-breaker between football, rugby league and touch has just been decided for this talented Year Eight kid.

New heroes like Matildas goalie Mackenzie Arnold were barely on her schoolgirl radar four weeks ago. That’s the sudden and transformative thing about success and truly mega-sporting events when they are hosted in your own backyard. They have the power to inspire, change thinking and do it quickly.

Being bewitched by the FIFA Women’s World Cup has equally hit mums and dads, corporates and tradies, girls and boys and those who didn’t even realise they had a sporting cheer in their throats.

When the medals have been handed out this weekend and the last goalpost is taken down, just where does this fireball of interest for the Matildas get directed?

I’m interested and I barely know the difference between a nutmeg and last night’s leftover roast. A clean sheet was something you aspired to at your first share house when the drudgery of going to the laundromat loomed.

Is the “greatest women’s World Cup ever staged” going to be replaced by the same old tags as “the greatest under-funded major sport in the country” or “go home smelly because we haven’t a female dressing room for you.”

“Legacy” is a great word but if you are not pre-planned and part-ready to turn the glow into gains people move on to a new, shinier toy in 12 months.

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That’s a big part of the equation. Is Queensland ready to bottle the magic so every parent receives a “yes” when they phone a football club asking for training times for next season or the timing of the next holiday clinic?

Queensland Lions Football Club General Manager Rob Scanlon was in the enviable position of his go-ahead club at Richlands accessing Queensland Government and FIFA World Cup legacy funding. With a licensed club, the Lions contribute cash to improvements too.

The club was the team base in Queensland for Nigeria and with that came a re-fit for four gender-neutral dressing rooms. The club already runs one of the state’s most successful women’s programs with Zara Kruger and the Lionesses recently winning a third straight NPLW title.

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It runs 77 teams from Under-6s to senior sides and nearly 25 per cent of the club’s 986 players are female.

“There is definitely an exciting wave to ride to get more girls into football. The World Cup has not just been a success for women’s football but for women’s sport and our game in general,” Scanlon enthused.

“We’ve already had plenty of enquiries about sign-ups for next season through our social media and website. We knew this wave was coming so you prepare. We have Term Four clinics to run in local schools and other plans.”

I offered Scanlon the fictional keys to football’s throne room for 30 seconds to make the changes he sees as essential. “Infrastructure is the big one. We have seven pitches but not enough green space to handle any more teams. We had to turn away 300 kids for the season gone by. We actually referred kids to other clubs or to school programs,” Scanlon said.

He looks longingly at an open block of ground down the road from his office. He sees three future fields but that’s two or three years away when you need to level the pitch, put in drainage and lights, build a toilet block and dressing rooms.

Registration is another hot-button issue. You are looking north of $400 even if that does include kit, referee fees and so on. The State Government’s FairPlay voucher that defrays that cost by $150 is a popular and practical scheme.

One of the most wretched historical handbrakes on women’s sport have been the clubs who smile a welcome to female teams.
In the next breath, they schedule women’s training for the worst field, put them under the dim fringe of floodlights and expect teenage girls to make do with a smelly dressing room with a urinal.  That’s before game times in the worst slot every weekend.

You have to make girls feel comfortable about playing sport and that old discouraging route is not it.

The Lions have an integrated program where boys and girls can play together through the age groups or in separate teams. The Lionesses senior side will play against the Under-15 boys to sharpen their own standards.

“As a board, we are very particular on equality. The girls get what the boys get at the same time,” Scanlon said.

Across at Logan Metro Football Club at Woodridge, Club President Sam Escobar hopes his club can also contribute to football’s growth.

The club’s two fields are showing the wear-and-tear of constant traffic. He needs more room but there is none.
“We are feeling the power of football and the way it has united the nation,” Escobar said.

“Australia punches above its weight in football. From the local perspective, we need more infrastructure at the grassroots while the hype is here. We are running a Mini-Roos program for girls only from ages six to 11 in Fourth Term that we’ve never had before so field renovations will have to wait.

“We are in a super-multicultural area and we just need more space to play because we are at capacity. We have a great relationship with Logan City Council and got floodlights onto our second field this season.”

Amenities are a different story. “Our women can’t even use the showers. They are old, open showers and you go into the toilets to change. You want that to change,” Escobar said.

Escobar’s two daughters, Maya, 9, and Zara, 7, caught World Cup fever. “I’m a dad of two girls and I’ve never seen them so excited to train and get to games on Saturdays,” he said.

“Zara is a goalie and always wanting me to take shots at her like a penalty shootout. For us in football, we knew the game had this power but the sport has to maximise this time.”

I do think one opportunity can’t be missed. Every freshly-inspired company chief executive, boss or parent with a daughter named Matilda should kick into a fund that can be activated for football’s future. Matildas for the Matildas.

I didn’t mention Matilda Wise by name to start this story.
That’s not the most important element of this story. It’s not about over-hyping a happy kid from Stretton State College as a future Matilda at 13 when she’s just starting out.

The fact she can dream big of being a Matilda is the power that this women’s World Cup has unlocked. That’s all sporting girls want … a fair and equal shot.

JIM TUCKER has specialised in sport, the wider impacts and features for most of his 40 years writing in the media.