OUR STORY

​We have been led by women and for women since inception, and have been participating in ACT state league community competitions for 47 years. We are open to female and non-binary members of the community - there's no need to be an ANU student to come and play!
 

In 2024, we fielded 2 teams in each division of Capital League plus a team each in NPLW First Grade and Reserves! That's a total jaw dropping total of 14 teams!

 

We are a strong force in the Capital Football Women's Capital League competitions, placing a team in the final or semi-finals in most seasons. Our success is built on our strong belief in community, sportspersonship, player and coach excellence, and our commitment to providing all our members a safe and inclusive environment.

 

Over the years, we’ve seen more than 3,500 female (cis and trans) and non-binary players at the club, and we’ve provided a friendly and inclusive environment in which they can participate in football.

In 2025, we will focus on reducing player injury, and foster productive relationships with local businesses who share our vision of supporting women in the ACT – helping them to develop into strong members of our Canberra community.

ANUWFC provides cis and trans women and non-binary people from across Canberra with a safe, supportive, and friendly environment. Whether they're a first-time player, a highly skilled semi-professional, or a member of our alumni community, there’s a place at the ANUWFC.

Our vision
To be recognised as the leader in female football in the ACT, helping our players thrive both on and off the field.

Our mission
To provide a safe, supportive, friendly, and all-inclusive environment for players to develop and hone their football skills, enabling them to thrive on and off the field.

Our values

• Inclusivity

• Sportspersonship

• Community focus

• Support for our players and coaches

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We welcome new players to the club, so make sure you are following our Facebook and Instagram accounts to get updates on Season 2025 and when trials begin. 

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Our training sessions are held at Willows Oval and Fellows Oval on the ANU campus, on Tuesdays and Thursdays (free parking on site). All ANUWFC teams have a coach-led training sessions on these two days, so training is split into 90 minute slots and alternate between 6pm–7:30pm and 7:30pm–9pm.

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Our history: The Genesis of ANU Women's Soccer Club

By Dr Andrew T Ross

Introduction
The following account is how I saw the events around the first two years of the ANU Women’s Soccer Club. As the coach, I was intimately involved with training and the tactical management of the team, and this is the emphasis in my story. But there are other aspects such as the management of the club and the social interaction which also had a powerful impact on our eventual success. Others must record these aspects.

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For me the story began about eight weeks before the beginning of the 1978 soccer season. I had been a player/coach for some years and thought that I knew what was going on in soccer in ANU which was the Men’s soccer club. However, as I was walking across our soccer ground one afternoon, I noticed an unidentified group chasing a soccer ball. What were they doing on our ground when I was due to run a training session in about 40 minutes? 

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They were a group of about 15 women ranging in age from 18 to about 35 years. Curious, I walked up and was met by a tall blonde and a small brunette, and asked who the group were. I was told that they were an interested party of friends who had been given permission by the Vice Chancellor to play soccer on our ground. That was news to me; and was typical of the administration in most universities in that the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing in many minor matters. Being aware of this reality, I just accepted it and proceeded to sort out when our newcomers could expect to have the ground to themselves. Having established who I was, the smaller of the duo fixed me with a very direct stare and said: “Would you like to coach us?”

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I was not expecting this question as I was completely unknown to them, and I was already coaching three men’s teams. My interlocutor was Heather Reid whose soccer journey would lead her to become the Vice President of the Australian Soccer Federation. Her companion was June Andersen, who was the appointments officer at ANU and was the connection to the Vice Chancellor. The other women were a collection of students and public servants, all of whom decided that it was time to have a go at playing soccer, no matter how inexperienced they were. I soon discovered that only one person of the group had ever played before- not a promising prospect for any coach.

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I liked the attitude the women appeared to have, but I could not see how I could help them with my current schedule. I knew that they would not get any help from other quarters of the men’s coaching staff. I told Heather and June that I would consider their invitation.

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The ANU men’s soccer club was a very informal set up in which the coach of a team was expected to be the team equipment officer, the selection committee, the schedule officer, as well as the trainer and general manager. Most of these detracted from coaching and occupied a lot of time. I was not interested in entering into another of those situations with the women. I decided to ask June and Heather whether they were prepared to set up a committee that could manage everything except the coaching, including team selection. In the men’s club, there were always several members in each team who contrived through political influence to get special preference in selection. I had experienced this pressure, and was keen that it should be deflected from me onto a group of informed individuals- i.e. a selection panel. My other reason was that if I was the coach and the selector, I would be the virtual dictator of the club. I felt that if the women were going to have a lasting impact, they had to be seen to be running their own club, and not be a front for me.

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Within a few days the women had organised themselves into the required committee and sub committees. I then accepted the challenge of coaching them. The support they gave me over the next two seasons was far superior to anything the men’s club offered. They were better organised and had a much better sense of purpose. The equipment was always ready, players turned up to training regularly in contrast to the men. Typically, an ANU men’s side would do no training in the off season and turn up infrequently to training in the first third of the season. The result was that they lost most of their games in the first half. They won most of their games in the second half because they had become fit; and had played enough together to know how to cooperate effectively. This was a chaotic coaching scenario, but I personally had had some success with several of my teams winning their competition from time to time. The women gave me more opportunity to train them than the men, and their results were to be the best that I ever achieved as a coach. But I had never started with a group of complete novices. We had a long way to go if the coming season was not to be one of constant humiliation.

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Season One: How to Survive
Canberra had a burgeoning womens soccer competition in 1978, with about 10 teams. Except for the ANU team, all the teams had had several years experience in playing. Players had mastered all the basic skills such as trapping, passing, and tackling. Most teams had several players who could display good to outstanding skills, including long range kicking and passing. I had eight weeks to teach the basics and to construct some form of a defence system. I had no time to think about an attack. My reasoning was that a defence that was letting in a multitude of goals completely demoralised its team. A loss by one or two goals meant that you were probably competitive and had no reason to feel humiliated.

On my first day of coaching the women, the first point I made was that I would not support any player criticising another. I reserved that right for myself, but warned the players they would probably never see me do it. Instead, I wanted players to encourage each other, no matter how bad the mistake that had been made. The women found this point quite easy to accept, unlike the men, because they were all starting from a very low level of skill. No one could afford to be too critical of anything. Many of the men thought that they were great players and could therefore criticise players that were less skillful. This was always an annoying problem.

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It was soon obvious to me during training that the women were enthusiastic and took literally anything that I said to do without question - another new coaching experience. This meant that we made fast progress with the basics in trapping and passing. Several women began to show that they had a sense of natural timing when they had been shown how to kick a soccer ball. Stephanie Quinn showed that she could kick a ball as far as most men, but with much less effort.

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After a couple of weeks on basics, I turned to creating a system of defence. I went for a formation of three defenders backed by a sweeper and the goalie. The three defenders were taught to meet attacking forwards, but not to commit themselves to a tackle (in which they might be beaten). They were there to channel the attacker so that she had to make an obvious pass that the sweeper could intercept, or an obvious shot at the goal which the goalie could easily capture. At this early stage, the defenders could frequently make mistakes in trapping or position, but that was why the sweeper was there, with the goalie behind her. 

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It was important in this system that whoever was the sweeper had good ball control and anticipation and could direct her defenders. This was a difficult requirement to fill with very new players. But I thought that Cass Hampton could probably do the job mainly because she showed that she read the play well and would talk to her defenders. Her ball control skills would improve steadily the more she played. This proved to be correct. Most of our success in the first season would depend on how well Cass directed the defence.

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I decided on a midfield of three players. They were taught to shadow any opposition midfielder who tried to run through their area. This supported the defenders so that they were not overwhelmed with numbers (i.e. forwards plus midfielders). When we had the ball, our midfielders were instructed to find space and support the forwards. The key position here was the centre half, who more than any other player, had to know when to move up in support of the forwards, or move back to help the backs. I thought that Shauna Quirk was the obvious person because she was our only experienced player and had good ball control. Shauna, who was a shy person, was a great success in this position.

I had little or no time to train our three forwards. I thought that Stephanie Quinn might be a real danger to an opposition on the left wing with her growing skill at dribbling and her prodigious left foot kick. We had a number of promising right wingers. Most players kicked with the right foot. The key forward was the centre forward who had to contend with close marking by opposition backs while trying to control the ball enough to get a shot at goal. Most sides put a big or tall person in that position, but I did not have anyone with that stature who was not already needed somewhere else in the team. I advised the selection committee that I thought the small statured Heather Reid was the best option. I had noted that Heather was very attracted to scoring goals for her team and would commit herself fearlessly to getting the ball. On that basis, I thought that she would probably succeed in scrambling some goals for her side.

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The question of the captain had to be settled. The management committee asked for my opinion. It probably should have been Shauna, because of her experience, but she was too shy to lead her team. I was looking for someone who was pleasantly assertive and who could set a good example to her team no matter what the state of the game. I thought that the person was Heather Reid, and the committee agreed. None of us realised how significant that decision would be.

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Season one: Living with Success and Failure
All too soon, the season began, and we had our first match. My expectations were that it would be a good result if we lost by a goal or two. I was confident that I could prevent a demolition. Our opponent was one of the middle order teams of the previous year, and they should have been too much for us to handle. But we had a simple and clear plan that everyone in the team understood. We would channel the opposition attack onto our defence, and when our opposition had overcommitted itself, we would switch the ball to our wingers to attack the unsupported defenders of the opposition. Our opposition did not seem to have any agreed plan and looked to individuals to supply inspiration. That meant that we tended to dictate the pattern of most of the play. I was impressed over how diligently the women followed the plan for the whole game. This did not often happen in the men’s games.

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The result was that the opposition defence was seriously disconcerted by Stephanie Quinn and tried to crowd her out of the game. That meant that the right winger (Janine) was left almost alone. She amused herself by taking the ball in towards goal, and when the opposition defence scrambled to cover her, she floated the ball into the goal area. This resulted in three goals which was the final score to nil. Our defence had worked systematically for the whole game, something that was not true for our opposition. From that, the opportunity to score goals had emerged. The team was pleased with itself realising that the work of the last two months was realistic in making them soccer players.

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Our next two or three games were against teams that had finished in the bottom half of the previous years competition, and we won them relatively easily. Knowing that we had not yet played the top four, I was anxious that expectations should not become unrealistic. Playing team sport is as much about losing as it is about winning. The team soon realised this. Because we were seen as the up and-coming team of the competition, we were invited to play Canberra City women at the main Canberra stadium, as a prelude to the premier men’s soccer game. Canberra City were one of the top two teams, and they gave us a soccer lesson beating us three nil. We were never in the game, largely because of the brilliant centre half of Canberra who demonstrated that she could dribble, pass very accurately, and kick goals with either foot. Our mid fielders had not yet experienced the impact of a player with such consumate skills whom they did not know how to shut down. I had not had time to teach that. However, I took note of this talented player in preparation for the next time we met Canberra City.

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After this loss, our season settled down where we won most games by the odd goal scrambled over the line by Heather Reid or our wingers. By mid season the competition was dominated by two teams, Canberra City, and Transtate Tyres, who were in a class of their own. Transtate would beat everybody, including Canberra City. The latter beat everybody else.

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Transtate was led by a tall athletic woman called Tina, who like the Canberra City centre half, was a consummate soccer player. Whenever she played, her side worked like clockwork. If for any reason she was not there, her side performed poorly. Around the last third of the season, Tina had to go away for several weeks on a business trip. This was a great relief for the rest of us and Transtate suffered a number of defeats. We had been getting stronger in our play. Each game gave valuable experience in working together, and ball skills improved steadily. Apart from the top two teams, the ANU women had a better tactical idea of what they needed to do, and this had left us in third position. Transtate’s defeats put us in second position behind Canberra City.

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We were scheduled for our return match against Canberra City in about two weeks time. If we somehow won it, we would be level on points. Canberra City was then going to play Transtate, with Tina back, and could be expected to lose. Our remaining four games were against opposition we had beaten before. If game results followed expectation, we would end up winning the competition by two points.

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I sat down with Heather Reid to devise a strategy that gave us a chance against Canberra City. We had noticed two possible weaknesses that we might just be good enough to exploit. The first was the Canberra City forwards relied on their brilliant centre half to feed them the ball for most of their scoring opportunities. What would happen if we managed to shut her down? To do this she had to be very closely marked so that she could not receive any pass without being under pressure. I gave my team mid fielders training in marking, but none of them could get the idea of staying on top of the person all the time. They were concious of the need to attack, and no one wanted to spend the whole game just crowding one player. With some concern over the likely results of this during the game, I asked if any of the other players had played Netball which I knew involved a lot of close marking of one’s opposition. One woman who had just joined us put up her hand. She did not yet have very good ball control, but she knew how to mark her opponent. She understood exactly what I wanted her to do.

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The second weakness of Canberra City was that their mid field players were sometimes slow to get back to help their backs in defence. Their defence system was the same as ours (three defenders and a sweeper behind). They were a very competent unit led by a tall and athletic women called Trish Perman. They were able to handle just about any situation without support from their midfield. With our net ball player hopefully neutralising the Canberra City centre half, Shauna was free to take the ball upfield to draw out the Canberra City defence. As they came out to meet her, there were increased opportunities to make a good pass to Heather, or our wingers.

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Heather and I knew that we had to treat this game like a grand final. Everyone had to be utterly committed to struggle for every ball, not giving any of our opposition time to settle and play their normal game. Canberra City went into the game expecting something of a repeat of our first game. They were knocked off balance at the first whistle by the determination and commitment of the ANU women. They did not realise what we were doing as our netballer would not give the Canberra centre-half a metre of space; and chased her all over the ground. The Canberra City attack collapsed into confusion, but ours did not. By half time, Heather Reid had kicked two goals, Canberra City was nil. 

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The second half saw Canberra City recover somewhat, as good sides will, by covering our attack better. But they could not get their attack working because our defenders and midfield continued to challenge for every ball, talking to each other and backing up for the whole half. As the half drew to a close, Canberra City players became very frustrated as they could not believe what was happening. Nor could I. Despite the planning, the ANU women should have been too inexperienced to be producing this upset, the final score being two nil to ANU.

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The consequences of this victory were that we went on to win all our remaining games with little difficulty. Canberra City lost to Transtate as we had hoped. To my astonishment, we had won the competition by two points, with a side of complete novices. But they had learnt quickly and understood the need to conform to a simple game plan. We had never beaten Transtate, and our victory over Canberra City was audacious and unlikely to be repeated if we stood on our current achievements. I knew that I had to take the team into a new realm of soccer play if we were to match our achievements in season two.

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Season two: Releasing the Kraken
Our cheeky and provocative success in season one was not going to be forgotten by Transtate and Canberra City, or any of the other teams. Our defensive style of play would not be as effective in season two because we were now objects of serious study by the other teams. My squad of now experienced football warriors gave me the opportunity to correct some deficiencies that I had never had time to address, to produce a new set of tactical problems for our would-be rivals. 

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We started training in the off-season, and I was joined by one of my soccer colleagues from the men’s club, Clive MacKillop, who took over the basic training of the women. This gave me time to develop our attack so that it could match the quality of our defence. I decided to adopt the same formation for our backs, but to change the midfield from three to four, and to have only two forwards. Superficially, this did not look like a great change to our attack. The halves and forwards had to learn a new style of play.

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Heather had been studying the tactical moves that I made during a game, and had started to make some of her own in the latter stages of season one. I encouraged this because being a playing captain myself in the men’s competition, I knew the advantage of having someone directing the game on-field. The referees could not interfere, which they did when there was too much coaching from the sideline. The women’s competition had a lot of male coaches who tried to direct the games from the sideline shouting out a torrent of often confusing instructions. From our first match, we had kept our directions to a minimum and made them simple. As a non-playing coach, my best opportunities to influence team play was just before the game started, and at half time. Any other instructions had to avoid the attention of the referee. Heather began to make tactical changes in response to opposition initiatives which most often were exactly what I would have done, but she could implement them more quickly because she was on the field. Heather had been our most effective forward, but being of small stature, she had had a hard time from the larger opposition backs. I decided that for season two, I would pull her back to the centre of the midfield where she was in a better position to direct her team and had room to run round bigger players.

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I now had to find a centre forward to replace Heather. Unknown to Shauna, I had been thinking how I could remodel her game to make her a crack goal scorer. Nothing could have been further from Shauna’s ambition. I was confronting her with a totally new situation that dragged her right out of her comfort zone. She did not want the responsibility for scoring goals. I persuaded her to give it a go. Scoring goals was something that I knew about having been an effective forward for many years.

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Shauna did not realise that she had several qualities that made her potentially a good forward. She was a good header of the ball at a time when heading was not a strong skill amongst most women players. She had good ball skills and was fast in her reactions. Her kicking skills were very sound. The only things she lacked was knowing when to shoot for goal and where to place the shot.

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A good forward is always alert to when an opportunity might arise for a shot on goal. This requires anticipation and being always aware of where the goalie is and the principal defenders. The shot, if made, is always placed wide of the goalie. Most soccer players when shooting concentrate on power and aiming at the goal. This inevitably results in the ball going straight down the middle of the goal, where the goalie is standing. If she is competent, she will always field the ball. My task was to teach Shauna to be situationally alert to her opportunities, and to place the shot wide of the goalie, but inside the goal. This required speed and placement, and less power. As I was teaching Shauna, a new young player arrived called Vera Krikovsky. She had never played before, but soon showed that she was a natural kicker of the ball, and a good header. She was fast and aggressive when going for the ball. I decided that despite her inexperience, she would be the perfect foil for Shauna. She was trained to shadow Shauna and work as a pair.

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Our new formation required that our left and right wingers would be pulled back into the left and right half positions. This meant that they could be involved in the game for longer periods. Stephanie Quinn could for example, acquire the ball in the middle of the field, beat her midfield opposition, and with her speed draw out the opposition defenders. She was instructed to take on and beat the defence if only one person came to meet her. If she succeeded, the defence would crumble, and she could either shoot for goal or get a telling pass to her forwards. If two came to meet her, she was to immediately pass to her forwards because only only two defenders would remain in the goal area giving our forwards great opportunities. The same instructions applied to our right half.

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With the anticipated heading and shooting skills of our two forwards, we expected that the service from our midfield wingers would result in a lot more goals than we had scored in season one. Our opposition would be under a lot of pressure to scramble the ball away from the goal area. But even when they succeeded, our two central midfielders (which inluded Heather) were instructed to move up to about 30-40 metres from the opposition goal to intercept these scrambled clearances and shoot for goal.

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Season two began with a lot of anticipation on our part. We had new skills to utilise, and we were curious to see how we could impact our opposition, particularly Transtate, whom we had never beaten. Shauna and Vera were confident, the midfield knew its new role, and the defence prepared to continue with the outstanding role they had performed in season one. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that our impact was shattering on our opposition. We cleaned up Transtate, Canberra City, and everyone else. With the balls they were receiving through the air or on the ground, Shauna and Vera scored many goals and were supported in this by the midfielders. By mid-season our problem was to stop getting too confident and to maintain concentration. Our closest game was the knockout grand final in which we came up against Transtate. They nearly beat us, but we eventually won by one goal. That was a wake-up, and everyone pulled together once more for the rest of the season. In the end we won all three of the competitions that were available for that year.

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Conclusion
From my point of view, I had never had a group of individuals who had gone so far from such humble beginnings. I had found that the women were much more open to developing new skills and tactical organisation than the men that I had trained over the years. This is probably why they were ultimately more successful. 

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However, this is where my association with the ANU Women’s Soccer Club came to an end. For some years I had been developing knee problems which I had inherited from my father. By the end of season two, I was semi-crippled, despite having had operations to alleviate the problem. Reluctantly, I had to accept that I could not engage in soccer anymore, and that I could not coach the ANU Women. While this was happening, I was also working in Defence Science, playing in a traditional dance band for wool-shed dances and Scottish balls, and beginning a relationship with my future wife.

 

The story of what happened to the ANU Women’s Soccer Club after season two must be told by others. The fact that it is still in existence after all this time is a great credit to all who have continued to play soccer and have administered the club.

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My advice to anyone attempting to do what I did is to never underestimate the possible achievements of an informed and determined group of women.