Bald Hills footballer Matilda “Tilly” Leeman flew to Perth last month to meet the Matildas as part of an Allianz resilience campaign — then registered to play again for Moreton City Excelsior on the same night Australia opened the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup with a win over the Philippines.
Australia defeated the Philippines 1-0 on 1 March at Perth Stadium, with Sam Kerr heading home her 70th international goal in front of 44,379 fans in her hometown. For Tilly, sitting in the crowd that night, the win carried a meaning far beyond the result.
Two Comebacks and the Sport That Connected Them
Tilly’s relationship with football is not a straightforward one. At 16, she held a sports scholarship and was tracking toward representative football when she found out she was pregnant. Three months after giving birth, she joined a Brisbane club and won a grand final at the end of that season — a comeback by any measure. Then a second child, postnatal depression and the compounding isolation of the COVID pandemic pulled her away from the game entirely.
She stayed away for a decade. In her 30s, she came back through MCE’s Rebels side and found in the sport something more than fitness. She found structure, connection and community — the same things football had given her as a teenager, now more deliberately sought.
Her story sat unpublished until she answered a Facebook call-out asking for accounts of resilience through sport. She wrote it down without much expectation. A month later, Allianz contacted her and invited her to join a national resilience campaign alongside the Matildas.
What the Perth Trip Involved
Tilly was one of three fans selected by Allianz to travel to Perth and meet the Matildas during their pre-tournament camp. The group met Holly McNamara, Amy Sayer, Michelle Heyman and Katrina Gorry, and presented the squad with a giant inflatable football printed with messages from 16 Allianz-selected superfans. Tilly also brought along personalised friendship bracelets for the squad.
The Allianz campaign centres on Matildas midfielder Amy Sayer, who spent 457 days on the sidelines recovering from an ACL injury before returning to international football. Sayer has since started for Australia at the Asian Cup and scored her first senior tournament goal in Australia’s 4-0 win over Iran. The Matildas have since advanced to the semi-finals of the tournament, defeating North Korea 2-1 in the quarter-finals and booking a place at the 2027 Women’s World Cup in the process.
The campaign draws on Allianz research finding that two thirds of Australians experienced adversity in the past year, with financial pressure, physical health challenges and a lack of confidence cited as the most common factors. The research also found that 44 per cent of Australians named the Matildas as a source of personal resilience and motivation.
Back at Wolter Park
Immediately after the final whistle on 1 March, Tilly opened her phone and registered to play for Moreton City Excelsior again. She has since been at futsal training at Brendale Indoor Sports Centre and is preparing for the Rebels’ first pre-season match.
For the Albany Creek and Bald Hills communities, Tilly’s story is grounded in a local club — MCE has its home at Wolter Park in Albany Creek — and in a very familiar form of resilience: the kind built not through elite sport, but through showing up to training on a weeknight after the kids are in bed and the week has been hard.
More information about Moreton City Excelsior is available at moretonexcelsior.com.au. The 2026 Women’s Asian Cup continues through to the final at Stadium Australia on 21 March.
Published 13-March-2026.
CLICK ANY LOGO TO SEE PUBLICATION
