Youth girls prepare for stellar season

Sydney Harbour’s Youth Girls were out to impress over the weekend with an exciting exhibition match held between the Maroubra Saints and new rivals the Mossman Swans.

The event, which received tremendous support from the local clubs, was the first of its kind in Sydney, with the intention of creating awareness of the Youth Girls Competition set to commence in May.

A talented Maroubra Saints side set the benchmark for the season ahead, stealing the win over their new Mosman opponents 48- 35.

Mosman Swans President Garry Forster said he was happy with his team’s first hit out against the already established side.

“We’re like a team with training wheels, although we’re learning to ride pretty quickly and will discard them soon. Maroubra are already a bike with gears,” he said.

Since its establishment mid last year, the Youth Girls Competition has seen great leaps in numbers in a relatively short period of time. With Sydney Harbour and Illawarra as the initial female hubs, a junior competition in Sydney’s South is also set to commence in the upcoming season.

Also happy with the interest being shown by other clubs is Maroubra Saints President Patrick Keogh.

“The reason the Maroubra Saints has been pushing the development of girls football stems from the number of girls we had in younger age group that would stop playing once they finished U12s. The U13 competition moves from Saturday to Sunday, and this also coincides with when the boys start growing bigger and the girls lose the edge in height,” he said.

“Our biggest recruitment device is word of mouth as the girls talk to their friends about how much they enjoy playing. My daughter (who had never played before) decided to join the team and promptly became one of our main recruiters.”

“We have about 15 players in our squad at the moment and are still getting enquiries.” Keogh said.

And while many of the girls making their way into the competitions are still very new to the game, the opportunity to perform at a representative level is now at arms length with NSW sending an U16 State Girls Teams to compete at the National Championships for the first time last year.

The weekend’s practice game was a great introduction to what can be expected in the girl’s competition this year, but Forster admits there is still work needed to be done to get everyone up to a competitive level.

“Teams like Maroubra are well drilled and want to play a game that is as close to a real game of footy as possible. We’re still working up to that level, but you’ll find new teams and players need to be eased into it. In turn that flows through to trying to find a happy medium in terms of the rules.”

Female participation continues to remain a key focus area for AFL NSW/ACT. In 2011 Sydney Women’s AFL introduced two new teams into the league and female Auskick numbers remain the highest in the country at 8,131.

“Female participation is only in its infancy in Sydney and the sky is the limit as the AFL aims to develop a national women’s competition by 2020,” 　said Female/ AFL 9s Football Manager Libby Sadler.

“Youth Girls football is the best platform for today’s young female AFL players to develop their football skills whilst enjoying time with their friends and getting fit. It truly is a game anyone can play.”