The Madden Shield is the name of our 2nd Division All-Age Females competition. It was named in 2008 in honour of Jenny Madden, an active Administrator in her Club, the Wagga Association, Riverina Branch and State Soccer organizations for more than ten years, and a life member of Football Wagga Wagga .

Jenny became actively involved in soccer administration in 1996, when she was elected secretary of Wagga United Sporting Club Inc., the oldest soccer club in Wagga Wagga. She held this position until the end of 2000. In the meantime she updated the club’s registration with the Department of Fair Trading and became its public officer, a position she held until early this year when the club changed its name to Wagga United FC Inc..

Jenny continued to serve on the committee of Wagga United as publicity officer until the end of 2004. She also represented the club as a delegate to the Wagga and District Amateur Soccer Association. In the meantime Jenny, a consulting pharmacist, was having to be away from home more frequently as her practice grew, so she relinquished her role as delegate handing it over to her husband, Ged, who was subsequently appointed Treasurer of the Association.

While she was a delegate to Association, Jenny was appointed to Riverina Branch in 1998. She served branch as Competition Secretary from 1999 to 2000, relinquishing her membership at the end of 2001.

Not satisfied with one or two jobs at a time, Jenny also represented Soccer on the local council’s sporting body Sports Wagga Wagga from 1999 until it was dissolved at the end of 2005. Jenny was secretary/treasurer of this body from 2001 to 2005.

Jenny was made a life member of Football Wagga Wagga in 2006.

While managing a few teams at club level over the years was introduced to representative team management in 1998, when she was Assistant Manager of the Riverina Girls’ U16 team at State Titles. She then moved to next level of management, while following her daughter Bernie, who represented Country NSW from 1999 to 2004. Jenny managed the Country NSW Women’s Under 14 teams from 2000 to 2002 and delights in recounting the pride she felt while standing with the team at Coffs Harbour stadium in 2001, while they sang the national anthem for the grand final, which they subsequently won.

Despite her increasing work load as a pharmacist, Jenny still found time to manage Country NSW Women’s teams. In 2003 it was the Under 15’s, in 2004 the Under 16’s and in 2005 the Under 18’s. Unfortunately in 2006 she had a number of weddings to cope with, and could not make the time to manage a team that year. One of the weddings was of her youngest daughter Bernie to Jeff Blake, of good reputation in coaching circles both at local and state level and previous recipient of a state award.

Although her professional commitments have made it impossible for her to continue with active responsibilities in soccer administration as before, Jenny has continued to support the running of the game through the encouragement and support she has given to her husband Ged, as treasurer of Football Wagga Wagga, and Bernie and Jeff as coaches and managers of both club and representative teams.