New, returning and continuing footballers are seizing the opportunities involved with the low-impact version of the sport. Photos: Keeli Dyson.
A surge in the popularity of a low-impact sport is proving that age or ability doesn’t have to be a barrier to enjoying the physical, mental and social benefits of football, with a walking version of the game attracting hundreds to the Illawarra from across the state for an annual tournament.
It’s a situation that could quickly stop someone from participating in sport altogether, but when Debbie Hoyn injured her hip during a season of outdoor football, the long-time player didn’t have to lose the game she loved.
“It wasn’t getting better and I thought, ‘I still want to play, how do I get involved again?'” Debbie said.
“I thought I’d come back and do some walking football just to try and get a bit of my fitness back, and I loved it.
“The people are great and it’s just a fun way to stay involved, stay connected with people, stay healthy, and I’ve not gone back to outdoor running football.”
Football South Coast started offering the sport in 2017 and throughout the last decade it has continued to grow in popularity, with new and returning players often shocked by the opportunities and enjoyment associated with getting involved.
“What we say to people is ‘come and have a go’ and we have about a 90 per cent retention rate where they come and have a second go,” Football South Coast walking football coordinator Joe Seco said.
“The sport is very inclusive; we cater for everybody but we also keep the social side to the game but we also cater for the players with a higher quality of play.”
As the sport has grown in the Illawarra and right across the state it has also created a vast social community, giving people the opportunity to make new connections while also getting out and about and exercising.
“There’s a lot of physical benefits obviously from exercise but then there’s the mental side,” Joe said.
“Unfortunately as we get older we get lonely, so I think playing walking football is another great outlet for those people to create friendships.
“And we’ve had friendships developed; it’s not just playing on the field anymore, afterwards we go out and we have coffee together.”
Modified rules allow the game to be more low-impact and inclusive to appeal to more players.
Now those communities will all come together at the fourth annual Walk the Field tournament, which has seen record registrations and players coming from far and wide to get involved.
For the first time the event will include two women’s age divisions to cater for the rising popularity in female participation.
“In terms of female players, it’s just grown immensely,” Debbie said.
“We’ve now got two specific women’s age groups for this tournament, so 40/50s combined and 60/65s combined which is really nice to see women getting out there and being involved – you don’t even have to have played before.”
As well as showcasing the increasing prominence of the sport, Walk the Field is a rare opportunity for University of Wollongong (UOW) students to get hands-on experience in all aspects of event planning and marketing.
“From week one they walk in, they do the evaluation of last year’s tournament, and they roll through event plans, communication plans, social media posts, sponsorship briefs, media releases, everything for the topic and that culminates on the weekend when we run the event on the 16th of May,” UOW Public Relation and Sports Event subject coordinator Grant Hughes said.
“It’s very hands-on and practical and you can see the students build their momentum and excitement over the course of the semester.”
Both Football South Coast and UOW students benefit from the unique partnership, with the impact of the event rippling out beyond just the one day.
“We’re incredibly grateful for them to be able to provide this work of embedded learning for our students and then give them the real-world skills so they’re prepared for the workforce once they’re out there,” Grant said.
“Then we also get to support them in what is a growing area of their sport – it’s not the Elite Men’s Premier League or the Elite Women’s Premier League, it’s an opportunity for people of all ages to play the sport, and for our students to get a chance to be able to assist that, it’s something that’s really important to us and really important to football South Coast.”
And as demand grows, so too could the demands and expectations on the Illawarra’s only local tournament of its kind.
“It’s good that we’ve been able to grow, we’ve filled our teams, we’re now looking at how can we keep moving forward with this; we’re on a roll,” Debbie said.
“Who knows, maybe next year we’ll offer a two-day tournament – maybe we’ll offer something bigger.”
Walk the Field is on Saturday 16 May at Ian McLennan Park in Kembla Grange.
