Girls leap in as footy fires up
AFL BARWON clubs that fielded just one junior girls’ football team this year are looking to bridge the gap between juniors and seniors.
AFL Barwon football development manager Katie Geerings said a strong turnout at Saturday’s come-and-try day showcased the amount of interest in girls’ footy for 2018.
Geerings said clubs that failed to field under-12, under-15 and under-18 teams in 2017 would be hopeful of fielding all three next season, such is the growth and interest of the sport.
“I think all the clubs that had girls’ teams this season, in whatever age brackets they didn’t have, they’re looking to fill,” Geerings said.
“If they only had an under-15 team, then next season they’re looking at under-12, under-15 and under-18 teams. It will be that every club with a girls’ team will have the full pathway.”
Expectations for Saturday’s registration day were blown out of the water, as AFL Barwon prepares to welcome as many as 12 teams for its inaugural senior women’s competition.
“We had a lot of people turn up and quite a lot more registrations than I initially thought, so it was really good,” Geerings said.
“We had just over 240 register and also some more turn up and register on the day.
“Honestly, at the start I would have been happy with anywhere between 50 and 100 (registrations), but we obviously had a lot.
“There were a lot of people that had played as juniors, but had stopped playing because they had nowhere to go. There were also people that had come from other sports that hadn’t played before.
“It’s definitely grown faster than I thought it would, so it’s exciting.”
Geerings was confident at least 10 clubs would be able to field teams in the new senior women’s comp, which would take girls’ and women’s team numbers beyond 50 in 2018.