Girls power growth hike
FOOTBALL Gold Coast (FGC) is bucking a national trend in declining participation numbers, with the growth of the female game paving the way for a new era of prosperity.
Figures released by Australian research company Roy Morgan last week showed a 10.5 per cent drop (from 1.52 million to 1.36 million) in nationwide football participation between 2013 and 2017, despite female numbers only decreasing by 1 per cent (from 406,000 to 402,000).
FGC has no such problems, however, with its total numbers increasing by 1423 (19 per cent), from 7539 to 8962, over the same period.
Key to the overall jump has been a 23 per cent increase in female participation, from 1253 to 1538.
“Encouragingly, the biggest percentage increase was seen in the 5-11 years age bracket, where we have had an increase of 51 per cent,” FGC general manager Damien Bresic said.
“On the flip side, it is disappointing that our competitive juniors (12-18 years) has only seen an increase of 9 per cent while the senior area has had an increase of 21 per cent.
“The other thing that needs to be taken into consideration is the fact that we have two Women’s NPL clubs on the Coast this year, which would have taken two under-13, two under-15, two under-17 and two seniors teams (out of the
FGC figures), which could be another 100-120 female players.”
The Roy Morgan figures also showed a drop in participation across the four football codes – football, rugby league, Australian rules and rugby union – from 2.2 million to 1.9 million between 2013 and 2017, despite the growth of female numbers from 525,000 to 548,000 (4.4 per cent).
“All four codes have traditionally been heavily slanted towards male participation, however there has been a clear recent push to increase female participation in football (codes),” Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine said.
“The push to increase female participation is in fact vital to the continued health of all four sports as long-term trends show a declining rate of male participation.
“Analysing female participation in the four leading football codes shows mixed fortunes over the last four years with female participation rising strongly in Australian rules and rugby league, virtually unchanged in soccer and down in rugby union.
“However, narrowing the timescale to the last year shows strong growth across all four codes.”