Perth Hammers were delighted to welcome West Ham United women’s team to their beautiful home city at Monday’s training session at Macedonia Park.
Rehanne Skinner and her squad are in Western Australia for a ten-day tour, during which they will take part in the Perth International Football Cup alongside Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and Leicester City, and engage in a number of on-field and off-field engagements.
At their first session on the grass at their training base in the city’s northern suburb of Stirling, the Irons caught up with a host of supporters, posing for selfies, signing autographs and chatting about the season ahead.
Among those lucky fans in attendance were members of the Perth Hammers supporters’ club, who have been backing West Ham United from Down Under since they were formed by Brian Riddell and Robert Clements in 1990, and are staunch followers of both the men’s and women’s set-ups.
Having welcomed the men’s side to Western Australia as part of the Club’s four-match Centenary Tour in 1995, and again in summer 2023, the group were delighted to show their support to Skinner and her charges towards the start of their first ever pre-season tour abroad.
“It was great to be at the training session to meet the team and give them our support,” said Mel Nosworthy, who runs Perth Hammers alongside her husband, Max.
“The group has grown to having over 2,500 members on Facebook, and we are really passionate about the women’s team, and meet up for the games as we do for the men’s side.
“The English WSL matches are shown on Optus Sport over here which is great, and most of the time the kick-off times are in the evenings for us, so we’re always there following them and cheering along.
“We loved welcoming the men to Perth last year, so for the women to be here this year is amazing. We were all really looking forward to the team being over here, and it was great fun to have that time with them at training.”
West Ham have a particularly strong association with the Australian women’s football scene, with the likes of Mackenzie Arnold, Emily van Egmond and current Hammers midfielder Katrina Gorry having turned out for the Matildas national side.
Being able to watch some of their own thrive at the highest level in the English top tier serves as an inspiration to Perth Hammers young and old, who are looking forward to attending further fan events later this week, as well as the two matchdays at HBF Park.
As part of the Perth International Football Cup, West Ham will first play PSG at 6.15pm AWST on Thursday 29 August. The winners of that game will take on either Manchester City or Leicester City in the final on Sunday 1 September, with the two losers meeting in a third-place play-off. Tickets for both games are available HERE.
Mel added: “There is a real connection between Australian football and the West Ham women’s team, and it’s so inspiring for so many people around this area to be able to see that their dreams really are possible, especially after the World Cup that was joint-hosted in Australia last year.
“We contacted a few local youth clubs in the community, such as Aubin Grove United, and it was great to see so many young girls in attendance at the training session, full of smiles and engagement.
“We’re all really excited about the rest of the tour now. We’ll be at the games for sure, giving the girls as much support as we can!”
For more information about Perth Hammers, click HERE.
