Female footy is on the rise
Female football in NSW/ACT is on the rise with a number of participants playing the game for the very first time this year while current players are excelling on the national stage.
In 2011, there were 3151 dedicated women and youth players which doesn’t include the myriad female Auskickers (and female-only Auskick centres), school footballers and AFL 9s players.
The Youth Girls NSW/ACT (under-18) team recently returned home from the Gold Coast where they took on the best talent from all over Australia.
For the first time, players were selected from all over the state and territory with girls coming from Albury, Wagga Wagga, Illawarra, Canberra and Sydney.
Two players in particular shone including Heather Anderson and Stephanie Power who were named in the All-Star team – the All-Australian equivalent.
For Anderson, who also represented the ACT at this year’s Women’s National Championships (over 18s), it was the second time she’s been recognised as an All-Star.
The state footballers carried their form into their local clubs with 11 of the 16 ACT players taking part in their respective competition’s grand final this year.
NSW/ACT females have also been well represented on the national stage.
A combined Indigenous and Multicultural team, which included local NSW/ACT players, also participated in the first ever women’s competition at the AFL International Cup. Twenty countries participated in this year’s event making it the biggest on record.
Earlier in the year, NSW and the ACT both entered teams into the Women’s National Championships which NSW ended up winning to progress through to Division One.
The standard of the competition improved significantly with all matches competitively fought.
At the school level, the girls’ team from The Assumption School in Bathurst became the first Central West side to win the Paul Kelly Cup ever. A remarkable achievement and a true reflection of the growth of the game in recent years.
Sydney Women’s AFL also expanded this year with the tenth team, the Auburn Tigers, becoming the first predominantly multicultural side in the competition.