Rae Dower
#About
Rae’s 44 year love affair with the beautiful game started as a 6 year old in the northern suburbs of Brisbane. With no junior girl’s league, and not allowed to play with the boys, she had to wait until the following year before playing in the inaugural Brisbane U14 Girl’s Competition. Retiring from playing in 2004, Rae travelled Australia and the world representing Queensland and Australia at Schoolgirls, Youth and Senior team level.
A former teacher and Detective in the Queensland Police Service, Rae balanced her full-time work Coaching, leading Football Queensland Youth teams for over a decade at the FFA National Youth Championships.
In 2013, Rae moved to Canberra to be Assistant Coach of Canberra United in the Westfield W-League leading to a fulltime role with the ACT Academy of Sport in Winter and Canberra United in Summer. In 2015, she was appointed Head Coach of Canberra United and retired from her 21.5-year Policing career. In 2017 after 4 years in the Nation’s Capital and 4 consecutive finals appearances, yielding 2 Premierships and 1 Championship, Rae returned home to her family in Brisbane.
She was appointed Head Coach of the Australian Under 17 Women’s Team, the Junior Matilda’s in 2017, and led them to 4th place at the 2019 AFC U16 Championships, their best finish in competition history.
Rae was the equal 1st Australian woman to attain the AFC / FFA Pro Diploma in Coaching in 2013. She’s a FIFA Instructor, Football Australia Coach Educator and in 2019 completed the inaugural FIFA Coach Mentor Program. She’s also worked as a Commentator with Fox Sports, is an ‘expert’ panellist on FIFA’s ‘The Best’ (2019) and, The Guardian’s ‘Female Footballer of the Year’ (2020).
Rae also works with Football Queensland as a Coach Mentor with their QAS Girls Program.