Sydney women to start historic season

The AFL Sydney Women’s competition commences this weekend with five matches to be played at Mahoney Park.

In a milestone moment for women’s football, the competition will operate under the AFL Sydney banner for the first time.

Balmain coach, Tracey Kick believes the competition will benefit from the change.

“There is a lot of excitement across the clubs that we are now part of the bigger AFL community,” Kick said.

“The move to a more professional competition has been well supported- generally everyone is very positive.”

That is not the only change with the Penrith Ramettes joining the competition. They will play their inaugural match next weekend after being scheduled with a first-round bye.

Kick, also the NSW State Coach, will again be in charge of the Balmain side that won the premiership in the Sydney Womens AFL (SWAFL) competition last season.

According to Kick, this season presents new challenges to her side.

“It is a new season, with new teams and with no practice games for our side, we enter the season as an unknown quantity,” she said.

“We held our jumper presentation on Tuesday night and the girls are very much looking forward to the notion of defending our premiership.”

The first match of the day is a Grand Final replay against Sydney University.

“We are excited to play a strong team in Sydney University in our first match,” Kick said.

“The competition appears to be very healthy in general.”

The action at kicks off at 9am, with the last match of the day being the Grand Final replay at 5pm.

WHEN: Saturday 14 April

WHERE: Mahoney Park, Illawarra Rd, Marrickville

UTS	V	Auburn		9:00am
Macquarie University	V	Wollongong		11:00am
Southern Power	V	UNSW		1:00pm
Newtown	V	Western Wolves		3:00pm
Balmain	V	Sydney University		5:00pm

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