WALTZING MATILDAS

I promised Eleni that I would do a piece on Womens' Soccer in Australia. We met at the ticket booth for Movin' Melvin Brown, who was performing at the Adelaide Fringe, singing and dancing his way through Otis Redding's life and music. She was charming, checking tickets and clearly enjoyed her soccer. Melvin was "different".

She told me that she played for Adelaide Ladies FC. The Reds, Adelaide ladies nickname, play in the Australian W-League, a league founded in 2008. Only 8 teams play in this ladder but many more women play in smaller competitions. At present Adeaide are fifth in the ladder with 13 points from 12 games. Melbourne City have won 12 in 12 matches and are top.

In order to make a point, she told me that over the weekend Melbourne City Ladies, the W-League champions, were In Abu Dhabi meeting Manchester City Ladies, their sister club. The English won 3-0, but the point was the meeting of the two clubs,who shared training in the luxury of the New York University Sports facility in Abu Dhabi. A good test for both teams.

Melbourne took 15 players on their mini tour with two outsiders coming from Sydney Wanderers' (Keelin Winters) and Seattle Reign's (Rosie Corsie) to boost their numbers.

The first official game took place in September 1921 between North and South Brisbane teams. 10,000 turned up to see the spectacle, a game that many decided more suited to Australia's women than AFL. The women's first international was against New Zealand in 1922 at Miranda, NSW, ending in a 2-2 draw.

The national team has had much success in world tournaments. Originally known as the Socceroos, the women now like to be called the Matilda's.