A crowd of more than fifty locals gathered at the Jamberoo Pub on Saturday night to watch the historic clash between France’s Les Bleues and Australia’s Matildas. 

The quarter final was played in Brisbane on Saturday night 12 August 2023 in front of a packed and enthusiastic crowd. It was a stressful nailbiter both on and off the field as the match went into extra time, then extra extra time, and finally into one of the longest ever penalty shootouts in World Cup history with the final result 7-6 in Australia’s favour for the win. 

Jamberoo Pub hosted a supporters' night to watch the big Matildas versus France game inside its historic Johnny  Warren Foundation museum site. Johnny Warren lived in Jamberoo for the last ten years of his life and his nephew Jamie Warren and family own and operate the Jamberoo Pub as a family business. 

The award for the best player in the A League is named the Johnny Warren medal. Johnny played 42 international games for Australia, including Australia’s first World Cup appearance in 1974 and was captain of the team in 24 of those internationals.

Many locals celebrated their immense relief on local social media such as on the Kiama Community Page on Facebook.

Matilda’s star Caitlin Foord started her football career in Shellharbour playing with the Illawarra Stingrays as a junior and attending Illawarra Sports High School at Berkeley. As part of the FIFA Women’s World Cup preparations, Sydney FC hosted a Female Football Festival 7-a-side in Kiama on 13-14  April during the school holidays with over 300 junior female players aged between 8 and 15, and 700 attendees. Matildas’ Star (and final penalty goal kicker!) and Sydney FC player Cortnee Vine attended.

France was rated number five in the FIFA Women’s World Cup with Australia only rated at tenth place. The next match will be the Australian Matildas versus the English Lionesses this wednesday at 8 pm at Accor Stadium in Sydney.

Member for Kiama Gareth Ward announced on social media that in conjunction with Kiama Council that a big viewing screen will be set up in Hindmarsh Park so locals can gather and support the Matildas’ historic quarter final against England on Wednesday night 16 August 2023 at 8pm in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Exact arrangements are still being worked out.