Young players to take centre stage as W-League 2020-21 season kicks off

2020 has been one of the most challenging and transformative years in the long history of Australian women’s football.

Like all other areas of our lives, COVID-19 has forced the sport to reckon with its own fragile existence; to reflect upon where it has come from and to reconsider, perhaps, where it wants to go from here.

The women’s game in Australia was one of the first sports to respond to the pandemic.

From the Matildas’ hastily-rescheduled Olympic qualifiers in February to the W-League’s behind-closed-doors grand final in March, it foreshadowed the bubbles and empty grandstands and social distancing rules that have become the new normal in world sport.

But COVID-19 isn’t the only global event that has dramatically altered the women’s…