First Women’s Match is a Huge Winner!
Wow! What else can you say about the first ever Women’s game of AFL on the North Coast?!
The match between the North Coast team and Ballina Bombers was a raging success, with a big crowd in attendance and a fantastic brand of footy on display.
The wet conditions proved no barrier and the 35 Women ripped in to provide a physically hard yet skillful display. North Coast started a little tentatively, which was completely understandable considering that three quarters of the team had never played a match before. By the second quarter the Women had found their confidence and their skills were growing with every touch of the footy.
Ballina Bombers are an established team and this showed early, but by the second quarter the North Coast Women were more than holding their own. In fact, from half time the scores were tied, and North Coast won the last quarter by 7 points.
Final score in the match was Ballina Bombers 5.7.37 beat North Coast 2.6.18.
Alana Hanson, North Coast captain, was ecstatic with the team’s performance. “I was really happy with how everybody went. We lacked a bit of match fitness and the finer strategic points but more than made up for it with enthusiasm.”
It was more than just the onfield efforts that impressed Hanson. “The response has been amazing, the comments from the crowd were so positive, the boys loved watching us out there and the Ballina team were shocked that we hadn’t been training or playing regularly.”
The trailblazing North Coast Women’s team comprised Alana Hanson, Laura Connell, Lilly Doyle, Lauren French, Katrina Gleave, Renee Markham, Maggie Mills, Cassidy Ronalds, Jess Ronalds, Taylor Schellenberger, Jordan Speechley, Laura Young, Naomi Morrison.
Next up for the North Coast Women’s team is a match against the AFL North West team at Inverell on Saturday 8 July, whilst planning for matches in both Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour are well underway. This means that there are plenty of opportunities for Women on the North Coast to play AFL, to register an interest please contact the AFL Northern NSW office on 6659 6000.
