She might not be the one stepping onto the field wearing green and gold when the Matildas kick off their first FIFA Women’s World Cup match on July 20, but Mel McLaughlin admits she’s probably equal parts as excited and nervous as the players are.
“It’s just such a massive thing and it makes you just want to do the best job that you can, I’m obviously nervous,” the sports presenter, who will play a leading role in Seven’s coverage of the tournament, tells WHO. “But it’s also just unbelievably exciting.”
Despite her nerves, this definitely isn’t the 43-year-old’s first rodeo. McLaughlin has been an integral part of Australian sporting news since making her television debut on Sky News. A regular on Fox Sports in the late noughties, McLaughlin joined Network 10 in 2013 before finally finding herself a home at Seven – where she was appointed weeknight sport presenter on Seven News Sydney. As part of the Seven team, she’s hosted numerous major sporting events, including the Olympics, Test Cricket and previous Men’s and Women’s World Cups.
But does the presenter feel any added pressure with this tournament being on home soil? “I think I’ve always felt, with anything that I’ve done, that responsibility because I care about it so much,” McLaughlin explains. “I’m a sports fan and that’s sort of the number one thing. That’s why I got into this.”
Although it’s the Matildas that McLaughlin knows will put on “the main show”, the presenter hopes to add that “extra bit” to the coverage of the tournament for Aussie fans. “It’s always the biggest privilege and I’ve never taken it for granted,” she continues. “Every single time, I feel very lucky. [And this time], I feel that responsibility to tell the Matildas story and follow their journey in the best possible way and make sure people get to see and feel it … [so I] just try to ask the right things and capture the right moments.”
With 32 teams, 64 matches and a whopping 736 players making up the numbers for this World Cup, McLaughlin admits there’s “so much to get your head across” that she jokingly hopes to get some of it “via osmosis”. “It’s not just the biggest women’s sporting event on the planet, it’s number three of all time – you’ve got the Men’s World Cup, the Olympics, and then the women’s side. And that’s in our freaking backyard,” she excitedly explains. “Absolute rock stars from around the world [are coming here to play]. I’m getting goosebumps just talking about it!”
It’s clear that McLaughlin’s passion for the game – and sport in general – runs deep. “I found myself from a young age just sitting, watching, in particular football … watching whatever I could, listening to the Premier League [on the radio] – that is a childhood sound to me,” she shares. But despite being part of the first female team to join her local football club when she was a kid, McLaughlin, like many other women, couldn’t necessarily see herself ending up in green and gold. That, she says, has definitely changed. “You can now follow a series of pathways, professional leagues from Australia to Europe and America, and then you can end up in the green and gold – you can see that now,” McLaughlin says of how far women’s sport has come. “It’s a really big deal in that regard. It’s very important and it’s been a long time coming, obviously.”
The same could be said for McLaughlin’s career, with the presenter admitting she received some rather interesting comments when starting out. “There would be, I would say men in particular that [commented], maybe it was about making them uncomfortable … but I think that’s long gone,” she shares. “It’s how it should be [now]. And it has come a long way in my life and that makes me feel 85.”
In fact, McLaughlin will be joined by a number of fantastic female presenters like Elise Kellond-Knight, Grace Gill and Emma Freedman – alongside Bruce McAvaney, Adam Peacock and David Basheer – while hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup. And she hopes that they’re able to show all young girls that “they can be a Matilda”.
“I honestly think we’ve got a really great team,” McLaughlin adds. “They all really love the game, really know what they’re doing and hopefully we can put on a great sideshow to the big show.”
While women’s sports have come a long way, McLaughlin admits “we’re not there yet” in getting the support they deserve. “But we’re getting there,” she adds.
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