Brave New World – Youth Girls Comp starts

The future of AFL on the North Coast is here … and it’s female!

AFL North Coast’s Youth Girls Competition kicked off yesterday with 40 girls from the Grafton Tigers, Coffs Breakers, Macleay Valley Eagles, and Port Macquarie Magpies coming together at South Kempsey Oval in a real carnival atmosphere to get things started.

And just like the recent first round of the AFLW competition, the girls were met by a huge crowd who were amazed by the strength of the tackling, the attack on the ball, and by the quality of the teamwork on display. Considering that more than half the girls were playing their first ever game of AFL, the standard shown by all players was incredible and marks this as a competition to watch not only this season, but also in coming years.

Paul Taylor, AFL North Coast Operations Co-ordinator, said everyone present was duly impressed by the first outing. “Youth Girls footy has been a priority for AFL North Coast for the last 12 months and we’ve been slowly building. It’s just exploded with this first round of competition and took all of us by surprise at how well the girls played, how much they enjoyed themselves, and how supportive the crowd was.”

“Although the standard was high, none of the new players were left behind. The tackling was hard, but everyone bounced straight back to their feet, and laughter was constantly ringing out across the oval which shows how much the girls were enjoying themselves. Any girls interested in joining in the action haven’t left it too late, there’s still plenty of time to join a club and learn the skills from their experienced coaches.”

AFL North Coast will be fielding a Youth Girls representative team at the Northern NSW Challenge in July with selections for that team coming from the girls playing club footy. This can lead to chances to enter the AFLW draft in future years and it won’t be long before more North Coast girls follow former local Nikki Wallace (Brisbane Lions) into the big time.

Meanwhile, an overwhelming response from local women wanting to play AFL has led to several opportunities being organised to come and try the sport. Sessions have been planned to coincide with Youth Girls matches at Coffs Coast Sport & Leisure Park on Sunday 7 May (1:45pm) and at Wayne Richards Oval, Port Macquarie on Sunday 21 May (1:45pm). No experience is necessary, just a passion to have fun and learn new skills from our local Female Footy Champions and AFL staff.

Later in the season several matches will be organised against other areas, with the ultimate aim being to introduce a local Women’s competition.

Don’t let the girls have all the fun, come on down to one of these sessions and bring your friends!

For more information on either girls or women’s footy, please call the AFL Northern NSW office on 6659 6000.