Who would have thought girl power from a small regional town of Victoria would take centre stage at the World Cup?
Well, that’s exactly what happened after the Matildas’ loss to England during the Football World Cup finals tournament.
Since then the Kyneton District Soccer Club U8 Girls team has been the toast of the nation, taking to the pitch on the Saturday morning after the Matildas’ loss to England in the semi-finals.
The girls all wore a blue head wrap. It was their way of showing support to Ellie Carpenter, who was the subject of online trolling attacks.
“But what happened next was a complete surprise to the club,” said club president, Ron Cole.
The chain of events started innocently enough. The girls showed up to game day at their temporary home grounds in Kyneton on a foggy winter’s morning ready to play, but something was different.
Coach Lakshal Perera, ‘Lucky’ to players and friends, saw they were all wearing blue head wraps.
“I thought it was cute and strong, a real show of solidarity for their favourite player, Ellie Carpenter, so I asked if the girls could line up in front of the goals for a photo,” Lucky said.
The photo was casually shared on the club’s Facebook page where it was shared and liked by local MP Mary-Anne Thomas, whose post now has more than 12,000 likes and 300 comments.
From there, Channel 7’s Sunrise program featured the girls in their Feel Good Friday segment.
Since that time the club has been inundated with support and featured on National ABC Radio and other national circulating newspapers promoting support for the Matildas, soccer and Kyneton.
