Chargers pushing for women’s game
THE chance to tear it up on the gridiron field has been a long time coming for Emily Pople.
Four years of waiting, hoping that the opportunity would present itself in North Queensland has finally come in the form of the Townsville Chargers.
Now she “just wants to hit someone – but in a nice way”.
The Chargers are set to become the first all-women’s gridiron side in the North, fresh off their successful accreditation into the North Queensland Gridiron Championships.
Pople and teammate Karina Collins were invited to take part in a training camp with the Queensland Sun Devils – despite never having played a game – prior to the coronavirus pandemic ripping the season apart.
But the passion is still there, the drive is still there, and Pople said more women needed to cast aside the stereotypes of female contact sport.
“I played hockey for about 14 years so I have a lot aggression. I’m just really determined to get out there and … I’m not afraid of hitting people,” she said.
“Unless you want to play netball there’s not a lot of women’s options … I just hope we can be successful and I hope we can help other girls realise their passion for the game and show everyone what we’ve got.
“It seems pretty promising at the moment. I get a lot of the commitment issues, a lot of the girls have kids, but hopefully we can change the perspective of women’s football and sport in general and show the blokes up a bit.
“Then hopefully from there all the smaller places near us are able to get a team so we can really start our football in North Queensland for women.”
Being the first to get a women’s team together will have some complications, one being to determine who they play against.
However, from the success of the Townsville Cyclones since the North Queensland Championships began, Chargers coach Adrian Ede is hopeful a second women’s team in the region will join them for the 2020-21 campaign. He hopes the more the Townsville women showcase their capabilities the more open teams from Mackay,
Cairns and Rockhampton may become to jumping on the wagon.
“We’ll work with the Cyclones if they’ve got interested women and we’ll have a Townsville comp,” Ede said.
“The worst case would be having a nine-a-side comp within the Chargers girls – keep them separate and go head to head. But if we get Chargers A and B playing that’s something for another team to join into.
“Then it will build, I think once we get something established it will be something for other teams to look to.
“That’s why it’s important for ourselves and Cyclones to work together.”