Women flock to Seagals

Barwon Heads coach praises club’s recruiting campaign

BARWON Heads has enjoyed an excellent response to its push for women footballers, compiling a list of 23 in time for Sunday’s season opener against Ocean Grove.

Inaugural coach Angus Christian said things looked desperate only a month ago as the beachside town battled to get enough players to compete in the women’s 16-a-side competition.

But while a strong recruiting campaign has proved fruitful, the Seagals are open to a few more players joining the club.

“We’ve got 23 which is pret- ty comfortable, but when you get injuries and things like that (it’s not),” Christian said.

“We did a really big push in the last month and we’ve had an excellent response.

“We were wondering where they came from, but Facebook posts and we’ve put posters up in community noticeboards and things like that, so we’ve been rewarded from quite a bit of hard effort from everyone in the club.”

Christian, who coached juniors at the club last year and has history getting a startup football club off the ground in New South Wales, said his recruiting team had to overcome the stigma attached to women’s footy.

“Every girl who I speak to (says), ‘I don’t want to play footy, I don’t want to get hit in the ribs or belted’,” he said.

“I think it’s just the general stigma against women’s footy, which is completely false.

“It’s just a game. Once they get out there, they’re just having fun. There’s a little bit of contact, but there’s contact in netball. But we’ve already been able to overcome that to attract the numbers.”

Christian said while his club’s mantra was around “fun, fitness, football”, his players would be aspiring to win games of footy.

Anyone interested in joining the Seagals can call Angus Christian on 0439 064 402.