Greg Downes

Greg Downes is an academic with Southern Cross University who became aware of the many injustices and discriminations faced by young girls and women in their pursuit of playing football (soccer) when his daughter was a junior player. When studying for his master’s and later PhD, he also came to realise that little or no research had been done on the history of women’s football in Australia. The voices of the women were unheard and were yet to be written into the history of the game. He has written two books that address that gap in history: Dedicated Lives – Stories of Pioneers of Women’s Football in Australia (2021) and The First Matildas – the 1975 Asian Ladies Championship (2023).

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