‘What they achieved was extraordinary’: First Asian Cup Matildas reunite, 50 years on

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The week before Kim Coates was due to fly to Hong Kong for the first women’s Asian Cup, her friends took her for dinner and a movie to celebrate her inclusion in the national team squad.

It was 1975 and Australia had been invited to play at the inaugural tournament, run by the Asian Ladies Football Confederation – whose president, Veronica Chan, would later be dubbed the “mother of Asian women’s football”.

NSW Minister for Sport Steve Kamper hosted a lunch for the 1975 Asian Cup squad at Parliament House this month.

The competition would replicate the men’s Asian Cup, which by that point had been running for 19 years, and would feature Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.

“It is my sincere hope that by means of competing in this tournament, the friendship and understanding among us can further be strengthened and promoted,” Chan wrote in the inaugural program.

Coates, aged just 18, and 14 other players were selected to travel to Hong Kong along with a coach, trainer and manager.

“I got told that I was selected, and I thought, ‘That’s not going to happen You’ve made a mistake, it’s not me’,” Coates recalled. “It took a little while for it to sink in that I actually had been selected to represent Australia.”

The Australian team before leaving for the 1975 Women’s Asian Cup. Kim Coates is in the middle row, far left, while coach Joe O’Connor is in the centre.

Coates and her teammates spent weeks raising funds to cover their travel expenses. They did a walkathon from Kings Cross to Cronulla beach, a “soccer-athon”, which saw them play continuously from Friday to Sunday, and endless car washes.

Finally, the time came to set off for the tournament. To say farewell, Coates’s friends took her to the cinema – a sweet gesture, Coates thought, until the film started to play. The movie was Airport 1975 – the disaster drama in which a flight attendant is forced to land a Boeing 747 after a midair collision kills the pilots.

Coates was terrified. Like most of the team, she’d never been on a plane before.

“I wasn’t scared beforehand,” she said. “That’s what you call real good friends.”

Matildas Trixie Tagg, Sue Binns and Lynn McKenzie return from the Asian Cup after finishing in third.

Coates’ nerves settled after arriving in Hong Kong, where the team was put up in the Lee Gardens Hotel. The Australians were drawn in Group A alongside Singapore and Thailand, and Coates still remembers the feeling of playing in front of a large crowd for the first time.

“It was an amazing feeling,” Coates said. “You really cannot explain the first time we walked onto the field behind the flag and were presented to the crowd. It was the biggest crowd we ever played against. Before then, it was about 200, and most of that was family and friends. So we hadn’t experienced anything like that before.”

The Australians made it through the group stage but were knocked out by eventual winners New Zealand in the semi-final. Australia defeated Malaysia 5-0 in the third-place play-off.

“You were so proud to be there, but you were in awe of the women that were there with you,” Coates said. “But I’m not proud of just us, I’m really proud of every player that has followed behind us, that just kept the momentum going.”

Coates and her teammates from that pioneering team were reunited at the NSW Parliament House this month, just weeks before the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup kicks off in Australia. The team shared stories of the 1975 tournament and had with them the jerseys they wore and original programs, signed by players at the tournament.

NSW minister for sport Steve Kamper hosted the lunch and was joined by members of the Matildas squad which won the tournament in 2010. Representing the 2010 side were Heather Garriock, now interim Football Australia chief executive, Sarah Walsh, now chief operating officer of the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup, coach Tom Sermanni and midfielder Kylie Ledbrook.

“I first met the original Matildas from the 1975 Asian Cup team at the [2026] Women’s Asian Cup launch in Martin Place late last year, and I was truly inspired by their story,” Kamper said. “What they achieved for women’s football at a time when the game did not have the recognition or support it deserved was extraordinary.”

Trixie Tagg, the vice-captain of the 1975 squad, said she would attend every 2026 Women’s Asian Cup game played in NSW. Because unlike Coates, who eventually grew comfortable travelling by plane, Tagg never got over her fear of flying. Even after all these years.

“I just hope all the stadiums are sold out because that’s what this cup deserves,” she said. “It’s just amazing to get reunited with our original teammates and to hear stories… My heart is full, my stomach is full.”