GIRL POWER
COAST TO GET AFL WOMEN’S TEAM
GOLD Coast boss Mark Evans says word the Suns will join an expanded AFLW competition in 2020 is the most exciting news for the club since it gained an AFL licence.
The AFL yesterday announced clubs successful in gaining licences for its women’s competition which will begin expansion in 2019.
Only two clubs – North Melbourne and Geelong – will join the league’s next intake and while Evans admitted the Suns’preference was to be among those, he said yesterday’s announcement at least gave the club certainty certainty for 2020.
“We could not be more delighted to get an AFL Women’s licence for 2020,” Suns chief executive Evans said.
“This is the most significant day since the Suns arrived on the Gold Coast and I couldn’t be more proud or happy for the girls.
“It gives them an opportunity to showcase themselves on the elite stage in front of friends and family and the community of the Gold Coast and North Queensland.
“We’ve got a couple of years now to make sure that we prepare these girls as best we can so that they get their chance to go to that elite stage.
“All I can say is bring on 2020 so we can let these girls shine on the elite stage.”
Evans said Queensland had the greatest array of talent in the women’s game outside of Victoria and the announcement there would be a second team in the state was great for the development of the sport.
“In the recent under-18 All Australian squad of 40 girls, 10 of them were from Queensland, seven of them from Gold Coast Suns’ regions. That is incredibly exciting,” Evans said.
The news came as a welcome surprise to Academy player Georgia Eller, 15, who will be eligible for the draft immediately before the Suns women’s inaugural season.
“I heard about it and I was over the moon knowing that my (draft) year will be the year that the team will come out,” she said.
“Before the Suns (were officially in the competition), I was aiming for Brisbane because that’s closest to home but now I’m hoping for the Suns.”
Evans said the “genuine commitment and buy-in” the AFL wanted to see from its women’s clubs was just a natural extension of the work the Gold Coast was already doing.
“I can’t wait for the day when we take two teams, men’s and women’s teams, representing this community and having success on the national stage, that will be the proudest moment in my career,” he said.