We were 'full-time': I was a full-time athlete, I was working. "It's important that we acknowledge the past, respect the past, but players these days are doing their own thing now," she says. Her generation of Matildas walked so the current generation could run. Part of the reason why Ferguson-Cook is so proud of her participation in the calendar is because athletes no longer have to do things like this in order to earn money or publicise themselves. She remembers shooting several takes of herself slide-tackling Cheryl Salisbury, as well as the Japanese director hooning around the sand dunes on a quad-bike, shouting instructions to the players via a translator as they ran across the hills dribbling a ball.Įach player got sent a big box of toothpaste (as well as some cash that Ferguson-Cook used to buy her first car: a Ford Laser) as payment. There could have probably been other things suggested to be done, but if you want to make a statement, that's definitely one way to do it."įerguson-Cook was one of around 15 players (including some who didn't participate in the calendar at all) who travelled to Perth to film the toothpaste commercial. The players don't need to do that anymore, because we all talk about their on-field performance. Now, the great thing is we don't need to do that anymore.
"And it got people talking about the Matildas. It's something that has a bit of historical significance for the team, whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not. So I saw it as a bit of an empowering moment. I kind of thought: we're training all the time, I'm confident in my body. "I always had body confidence, and having grown up in football, it always frustrated me how insecure and how many body issues a lot of young women had. "I really enjoyed the experience," Ferguson-Cook says. She remembers her mum running around to several newsagencies buying up copies of the calendar once it had been released, and still has Alicia's photo framed and hanging in her house. Her parents fully supported her decision, trusting her judgement and maturity. She had to get written permission from her parents to take part in the shoot, which happened in a lecture hall at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. One of those players was Alicia Ferguson-Cook, who was just 17 years old at the time the photos were taken, but 18 when the calendar itself was released. That commercial allegedly earned the players $100,000 in total, in addition to building their brand overseas, but was never broadcast in Australia. One of those opportunities was a largely unknown Japanese toothpaste commercial, which featured several Matildas players running naked across Western Australian sand dunes, kicking a football at some unsuspecting fishermen. It also led to more commercial opportunities off the pitch, including a cancer awareness billboard, a partnership with a disability advocacy group, invitations to AFL launches, and more photo shoot invitations for publications like WHO Magazine and Sports Illustrated. They remember a huge surge of attendance at their home games, including 10,000 fans who watched them take on China in a pre-Olympic friendly.īerry recalls several Matildas players being invited to a Liberal Party fundraising event at a famous Melbourne-based club, where the AWSA was able to form relationships with politicians and potential future donors. None of the players anticipated just how big of an impact the calendar would have, both individually and as a collective. Others say it was a Melbourne businessman who approached Fisher, offering to add the Matildas in his catalogue of nude calendars and other raunchy material he published in Australia.Įither way, the enthusiastic CEO took the idea to his board, arguing that it could allow the AWSA to hard-launch the Matildas' brand, publicise their new nickname ( which was decided via a public poll a few years earlier, but hadn't really caught on), and raise funds for the players themselves.
Some say it emerged during a boozy player party earlier in 1999, with a couple of squad members then approaching AWSA CEO Warren Fisher privately with their suggestion in the sober light of day. It's unclear exactly who came up with the original idea. Something that no women's football team had done before. Media coverage was slim, broadcasts of their games were non-existent, and major sponsorships were a pipedream. They needed to do something different. That's the question the board of the Australian Women's Soccer Association (AWSA), the national governing body of women's football at the time, was faced with as they tried to get the Matildas ready for one of the most significant football tournaments of their lives.
0 kommentar(er)
