FEMALE FOOTBALL WEEK | ALISON DINH

A Dinh (WEB)

As part of our Female Football Week, today we would like to acknowledge FSC Reporter, Alison Dinh, who has been bringing you these stories all week!

Alison Dinh turned her love for football on the pitch to a career off the pitch, diving into the football media industry after an injury set-back.

Following an anterior cruciate ligament injury in 2020, Alison’s footballing career pivoted to being involved in the game off the pitch.

Joining the Illawarra Stingrays at a young age, Alison played for the NPL club for 10 years, before becoming the media and communications officer at the club in 2020 where she organised advertising, newsletters and social media.

Alison completed her bachelor degree at the University of Wollongong where she studied media and communications.

Now, she is quickly becoming the face of women’s football in the Illawarra and has one person she looks up to when aiming towards a future in the sports media industry.

“I’ve always wanted to be the next Tara Rushton,” Alison said.

“She’s always been a role model, someone who I’ve wanted to be like.

“I am pretty young at the moment so it is hard to judge what path you want to go down but I want to be in a media-based role.

“I just want to get my name out there. I want people to know who Alison Dinh is and who knows, I might even take Tara’s job one day.” – she said with a grin.

It wasn’t until an interview with Fox Sports that Alison knew she wanted to pursue a career in the industry.

“It was for a graduate program. There were 300 applicants and I got down to the final 10,” she said.

“It was a good experience and it made me think to myself that this is where I want to be – I wanted to be in sports media.”

In 2021, Alison stepped into a match reporting role with Football South Coast where she’s challenged herself to improve her media skills.

She has covered games from both men’s and women’s competitions, as well as writing season previews, round reviews and articles to promote women’s football in the region.

“At first I was nervous,” Alison admitted.

“I was given the Bonnie Lassie Cup just four days after I started. I knew a few girls from each team but I wasn’t really familiar with everything else.

“Since then, I’ve got to know so many players and the coaches. I’ve been in contact with them during my time here and I love just talking to people.

“Hopefully, for women’s football, there’s a lot more people focussing on it. I feel like there wasn’t really a lot before.”

With a passion for female empowerment, Alison appreciates the work women put into the football community and believes that Female Football Week can promote them even further.

“I want more and more women to be joining football both on and off the pitch,” she explained.

“I think it’s so important, especially with the World Cup coming in 2023.

“I’ve learned so much about the people that I write about. So much about themselves and so much about their club. It’s amazing about how much they do for football.

“I’ve never realised that before until I got to know these people over a 10-minute phone call.”

Story by Nathan Turner

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