Eschol Park Football Club (FC) enter the Kanga Cup as the leading club for female participation in the Macarthur region, and off the back of a dominant 2023 season, the U-15 girls side are aspiring to continue their heroics in their debut campaign.
Located in South-West Sydney, Eschol Park represents one of the largest clubs in the Macarthur Football Association, as they were formed in 1983. Having picked up the ‘Best Female Club Award’ in 2022, the side’s top tier football environment for women and girls is the overriding reason for their continual strength.
“We have roughly a thousand members, so we are the fourth biggest club in terms of member number, but we are the biggest in terms of female participation,” Club President Ralf Bzdega said. “We put a lot of focus on growing female [involvement], all the way from the under-sixes where we are forming all girls teams.”
As tHe female program continues to blossom at Eschol Park, the club has never been in a better position, and are continuing their upwards trajectory with each passing day.
“Obviously the Matildas effect really helped us, we were lucky that we won a couple of grants as well so we can further support our female growth,” Bzdega said. “We got a 2.8 million dollar grant to get a new clubhouse, with new changing rooms… so more purposeful for what our club now represents.
“We have grown in the last five years, we’ve pretty much doubled our membership numbers, from about 550 to now over 1000.”
Alongside their commitment to developing high-quality female footballers, the club’s philosophy expands to providing aid to those in need.
“We’re all about community and grassroots sports,” Bzdega stated. “The one thing where our club really differentiates itself is that we have a really big cancer fundraiser every year, so we have what we call our Pink and Blue Day, so it’s pink for breast cancer research, blue for prostate cancer research.
“We raised 27 000 dollars through shirt sales, so the shirts that the girls were wearing today are our pink and blue cancer fundraiser shirts, and those shirts are actually designed by our minis at our club.”
With things going well for them off the field, this has translated to some successful performances on the field, with their star-studded Under-15 division one side coming off the back of a fruitful 2023.
“They missed out on finals in the Under-12s and in the Under-13s, and then last year in the Under-14s we actually went undefeated, so we were premiers,” Bzdega explained. “We actually lost in a penalty shootout in the semi final,so the first loss was a knockout game, and last year we also made it to the semi final of the state cup, so we were really good.”
In addition to the clear talent of the squad, Bzdega’s guidance from the touchline has given the Eschol Park girls a clear footballing identity to stick to, and one which has proven its ability to gain victories in the past.
“We pretty much always go with three in the defence, especially in the girls squad we’re then trying to have more passing opportunities through the middle,” he explained. “We like to play attractive attacking soccer, [where] everything is fast-paced.”
Their success over the past year validates a first ever entrance into the Kanga Cup for the club, in an experience that Bzdega and the girls are loving every minute of.
“It’s our first time, so we are taking every experience in full stride,” the President said. “It’s amazing so far, the facilities are fantastic, the organisation of the Kanga Cup is amazing, the communication was great so we are extremely happy to be here, and really proud that we can compete against really good teams from other areas and other districts.”
Words: Sam Watson
