In the wake of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, girls all over Aotearoa New Zealand are taking their first steps into football, and discovering the community and confidence that the beautiful game brings. Fantails, one of New Zealand Football’s World Cup legacy programmes, is creating environments for this to happen in places like Blenheim.  

It’s a crisp, overcast spring afternoon at Blenheim’s A&P Park, and a Fantails hub is in full flight.

Over the afternoon, around 30 eight to 12-year-old girls clad in brightly coloured bibs chase footballs and each other around the the park: some in trainers, some in football boots, all with huge grins plastered across their faces.

Around half of the girls have never played football before, other than chasing their footballer brothers around the garden before going off to netball on Saturdays, says Marlborough Football football development officer and Ford Football Fern #98 Nicky Smith-Scott.

“We really pushed the idea of bringing your little sister along who’s never tried before, or bring a friend with you next week. We’d have girls turn up with their friend because she stayed the night at her house the night before, so we’d say ‘come on, join in!’”

“At first they’re like, ‘oh, we don’t play football,’ but then they join in and end up carrying on with the programme,” adds Andrea Smith-Scott, Marlborough Football CEO.

Nicky Smith-Scott (left) and Andrea Smith Scott (middle) get the Blenheim Fantails together to start their session.

Fantails, launched this year through Aotearoa United: Legacy Starts Now as one of New Zealand Football’s cornerstone World Cup legacy particpation programmes for girls up to the age of 12, has given the region another momentum boost. The fact that Fantails is targetted to girls with no prior experience or skill level, and the focus being on having fun and learning life skills in a safe and secure environment has worked a treat, says Andrea. 

“Its purpose of getting new players into the game has worked really well - having that clear vision for the programme has helped to get new people in,” she notes.

It’s a far cry from the days when the pair first tried to start a girls’ team in the area, and had to draw on about four different age groups to get enough to field a single team. Fantails gives Marlborough girls another option to get involved in football, which has been a central focus of Andrea and Nicky’s work.

“About eight years ago we started girls only skills sessions here. When we ran our first one, there’d never been anything girls only here in Marlborough,” Andrea remembers.

“It just grew from there, and we went from a one-off session to maybe three a year. Then we’d run five weeks at the beginning of the season to get all the girls interested for the start of the winter season.”

Taking place in the close-knit Marlborough town, Blenheim Fantails illustrates how the programme can be adapted to the needs of the communities it’s run in and eliminate barriers to entry. Instead of holding single weekly sessions, during the regular football season the programme takes place every fortnight on Thursdays on the grass and Sundays indoors, to enable the girls to continue other activities without being overcommitted by yet another, and to make it easier for parents to coordinate their children’s activities.

“For example, we tried to time it in with our boys’ skill centre,” Nicky explains.

“The sister goes to Fantails on a Thursday night, and then we've got the boys in the other group on the other side of the park.

“We’re a small town, so we change the programme term by term to suit the area as many of our kids play multiple sports,” says Andrea.

“In term four for example a lot of them have swimming or athletics, so we suggested running Fantails as a festival day on one-off Sundays where they come down and, and then we'll get the girls still keen in term four.

“You want the kids to want to come, not for it to be a chore every week. And we've been having more join so it must be working!”

Opportunities for girls to get into football have grown in the Marlborough region in recent years.

Parents around the community have also testified to Fantails’ impact on their daughters, says Andrea.

“They all make new friends, they feel their confidence and their comfort grow, and they grow in their own environment at their own pace.

“There’s so much feedback saying about how their daughters’ confidence has grown. They tell us how this programme’s been so good for them and they can see a growth in them socially, or how before Fantails we didn’t even see her with a football and now she’s always talking about football and wants to come back.”

One of the principles of Fantails is creating female role models for the participants to look up and aspire to – and guiding the Blenheim Fantails are local teenagers Sophie Campbell, Jemimah O’Donnell and Katie Pugh – currently in Tahiti at the OFC U-16 Women’s Championship, and scored on her 15th birthday in the Young Football Ferns’ match against Cook Islands.

Pugh’s rise in particular is a testament to how dedicated girls-only spaces provides those opportunities for girls to find their potential, such as through playing or coaching.

“Katie was in our first girls only skills group, she was about eight or nine when we ran that,” remembers Andrea.

“We’re so proud seeing her at the New Zealand level!”

“I also think having females that know how to play in those positions [such as coaching Fantails] really helps the young girls,” reflects Andrea.

“Especially with some of the little four, five and six-year-olds, it’s just gorgeous watching them. We see them looking at the teenage girls helping with the sessions, and you can just see that idolization coming through.”

To find a Fantails hub near you, check out the interactive hub map here

Article added: Monday 18 September 2023. Images courtesy of Lisa Duncan Photography