Shunned former Hockeyroo Rosie Malone will play NPLW football with the Gold Coast Knights in 2025
Shunned Hockeyroo Rosie Malone has revealed the next step in her sporting journey and her new coach believes she could have played for Australia in this chosen sport.
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Shunned former Hockeyroo Rosie Malone is set to continue playing football with the Gold Coast Knights in 2025 as she embarks on the next chapter of her sporting career.
The 27-year-old announced on her social media last month that her international hockey career was over, accusing the sport of “an abuse of power and a broken system”.
It came after she was left out of both the Hockeyroos squad and the national development squad in 2025. The news was a further blow following Malone’s shock omission from the Paris Olympics, which came just months after she was judged as one of the top five players in the world by the International Hockey Federation in 2023.
As she looked to rediscover her love for sport in general last year, Malone turned out for her junior hockey club Burleigh and won a premiership, and also finished the women’s football season with the Gold Coast Knights in FQPL1, under the mentorship of her long-time junior coach Gary French.
“It’s very very sad because she’s a pretty great hockey player,” said French, who is the Knights’ head of women’s football and first coached Malone when she was 11.
“Looking at her now, she looks as though she’s moved on so that’s great to see.”
The Knights achieved one of the most successful seasons in Queensland football history last season, winning all five trophies available to them across all competitions.
The proud Gold Coast club will make its NPL Women debut this year in just the third season of the female program’s existence.
“She did really well, she made a huge contribution to the team and you could see she was getting back into her football again after being out of the game for a few years,” French said of Malone’s performances at left-back at the back-end of last season.
“I believe she would’ve played for the Matildas or had a good chance of playing at the top level had it not been for her choice of going to hockey.
“I’m looking forward to having her back, not just her ability but her personality, it will be exciting to have her back.”
French’s belief Malone could have played for the Matildas isn’t far fetched, nor clouded by bias.
Malone boasts an impressive football resume and first represented Australia internationally in the sport in 2010, travelling to Vietnam with the under-13s for the AFC Festival of Football. As an under-14 in 2012, she earnt selection into Australia’s under-17 Junior World Cup Squad.
In a Q&A with the Gold Coast Bulletin in 2019, Malone said she “definitely” thought about what might have happened if she picked football over hockey.
“Even now I watch the Matildas play and I know some of the girls in the team and grew up playing alongside them,” she said at the time.
“I follow all the girls on social media and still chat to some of them. I do sit there sometimes and think back to when I was 15 and the soccer people wanted me to commit to soccer.”
In August last year, Malone expressed her gratitude toward her return to the Knights in a Facebook post.
“As I ran around with the girls laughing and chasing the ball, it brought me back to why I fell in love with team sports as a little girl,” part of the post read.
“From the very first session I saw the positive impact it had on my wellbeing, and I felt the love and joy I have for sport creeping back. I remembered what it was like to feel valued again, and I realised soccer would be key to rebuilding myself.
“It was a very real example of something I’ve always believed; that elite athletes should have multiple interests and passions to give their lives balance and perspective.
“They can be a lifeline when times are tough.”
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Originally published as Shunned former Hockeyroo Rosie Malone will play NPLW football with the Gold Coast Knights in 2025
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