Megan Roussel’s started out her football journey as a supportive parent for her daughter, but she never envisioned she would end up on stage at Crown receiving the honour of 2025 Volunteer of the Year.
Megan's warmth at events are matched by her tireless behind-the-scenes work, managing logistics, coordinating programs, and supporting participants to ensure each initiative thrives. Balancing these efforts with her role as vice president, she exemplifies community leadership, giving her time and heart not for recognition, but to use sport to bring people together and empower others.
“The journey started with my daughter Evie who is 10 now. When she started school, she got really interested in playing football in the playgrounds there,” Megan said.
“We went looking for a community club to get her involved in playing sports. We then found the Maribyrnong Swifts,” she said.
“I had a friend of mine who was a part of the committee at the time encourage me to come along, saying the club is great, you can get involved more broadly. I said there was zero chance I am getting involved in any level of football, I couldn’t think of anything worse! It was a hard 'no' in getting involved myself, but obviously super supportive of my daughter playing and being involved.”
Growing up in the country, football wasn’t always an option for young girls like Megan, but she was pulling on the boots in no time.
“I’ve always been pretty active and into those sorts of things, but just coming from the country originally, football was never anything available for girls. I never thought football would be a sport I’d get more involved in,” she explained.
“I did a year as Facility Manager and that started to broaden out a little bit, and I started to get involved in playing. I played in some of the GO Soccer Mums tournaments, which I absolutely loved. I’m super involved on the playing side now.”
Her initial committee role sparked a growing connection with the club, and before long, she was leading a range of programs to benefit the community.
“I then stepped into a Vice President role, and then it grew from there.
There’s lots of programs available to women, especially because the club is an all-female, diverse-type club, just making the game available for people to come and play is the most important thing,” Roussel’s reiterated.
“Having a better understanding of the programs like GO Soccer Mums, I got heavily involved in that and was the advocate and the Lead in building out those programs for the club.
“GO Family also came along which was super exciting to help lead that with Maribyrnong Council and FV, because it meant we were able to bring communities and families together to play football. We had really good success, which was really exciting.
“Just knowing parents spend so much time bringing their kids to different sporting events, but they never really get that chance to spend time together and actually see them play collectively.”
Megan also played a key role in expanding the club’s MiniTillies program, which exploded in popularity after the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup™.
“I have a younger daughter as well, and after the Matildas went through the World Cup and the Matilda effect came through, the club just had this massive influx of girls wanting to get into football, especially the younger cohort,” she said.
“That opened up a huge opportunity for us to go through and look at our MiniTillies program. I ran those sessions for the first two years we started getting really involved in the program. The capacity and volume of kids started to get a bit overwhelming.”
“Because of the relationship with FV, we actually have a group of coaches come and coach those sessions, and for the current school term we have hit record numbers of nearly 50 girls involved in this season’s program. In the early days, we started at around 20 players,” she said.
“The good thing about our community area is it is a really tight-knit community, so word of mouth tends to spread pretty quickly. We found the success of where we started — a lot of it has come from just community involvement and positive word of mouth.”
Under Megan's guidance, the club’s programs have continued to thrive, particularly among women returning to the game.
“We’ve had an average of 20–30 women take part in the GO Soccer Mums programs this year,” she said.
“We’ve seen this huge interest in women wanting to get back in, and the work we're doing to help open up those avenues has given women that chance to play.”
“We added an additional timeslot for WF7s. The club itself has fielded six teams as part of the 14-strong group, and we have teams from all around the west, which has been fantastic. It has been really, really exciting to see women having fun, it has been great.”
Reflecting on her recognition, the mother of two admits the award came as a complete surprise.
“I was lost for words… it was nothing I ever expected. Those who are really involved in community sports similar to myself, you don’t do it for the recognition,” she said.
“It makes me so happy to be able to see at the end of sessions kids doing cartwheels and just being happy and thriving. Football can change people for the better.
“When you have a real impact on people, it makes me thrive and want to continue to be involved.”
With the 2026 season on the horizon, she urged the football community to keep giving to help secure the future of our game.
“When the volunteering stops, the football stops and I think it’s something a lot of community clubs thrive on,” she concluded.
“I think people need to be more aware that if our volunteering does stop, then all of this community output stops too. I think it’s a matter of understanding the environments your kids are involved in and what makes them thrive.
“It is our community, so if you do have time to turn a snag or referee a game, all it does is make our community better. Anything people can do will make a big difference. If you can make the time - get involved.”