Women Claim Maiden Win
At just the fourth attempt the composite North Coast Women’s team has claimed it’s first win against an established team that plays in a regular competition.
With 10 of the 20 players in the North Coast team playing their first ever match it shows just how popular Women’s AFL is rapidly becoming. The fact that the team won with such an inexperienced side also shows just how transferable the skills from other sports are and how quickly women are able to adjust to AFL.
The match was against the Tamworth Kangaroos who made the trip across to Port Macquarie to help to get the game flourishing in the local area. The Kangaroos understand exactly what it takes to get a team started as they only formed prior to the 2017 season and have been overwhelmed with the positive response and registrations received.
Paul Taylor, AFL Football Operations Co-ordinator, said that Women’s AFL is growing exponentially on the North Coast. “This is just the fourth Women’s match we’ve staged and we’ve already had over 40 women who have played at least one game so there is a huge demand out there. Whilst claiming a win is always nice, the biggest positive is the overwhelming response we get every time we schedule another match. Not just from women wanting to play, but also from our local footy clubs and male players who can see just how much women are offering the sport.”
On the field, the North Coast Women jumped out to a big lead and were four goals up by quarter time. Mixing the team around after this time saw the two teams more evenly balanced and the remaining three quarters were extremely close and hard fought. At the final siren the North Coast Women claimed a thoroughly deserved 5 goal win to break the drought for Women’s footy in the region.
Tania Slack-Smith made an incredible debut to the sport when she was voted by her team mates as best on ground. Kerryn McAuley in her second match went from strength to strength whilst Lauren French, Alana Hanson, Sarah Cherry, and Anisha Burnes all performed strongly.
North Coast Women 6.8.44 defeated Tamworth Kangaroos 2.3.15
Click here to watch the NBN News story on the match.
Based on the successes of the matches staged to date, AFL North Coast plans to introduce a Women’s competition in 2018 with teams based at Port Macquarie, Sawtell, Coffs Harbour, and Grafton.
Mr Taylor said that development work will continue this season to grow the numbers. “Further matches are planned for Saturday 12 August in Lismore and Saturday 23 September in Coffs Harbour and are open to anyone aged 16 or older who’s interested in getting involved. Our Youth Girls competition is going fantastically well and older players from this competition will move into the Women’s ranks next year, further boosting the numbers beyond those who have already played in 2017.”
For information on any aspect of female footy please contact the AFL Northern NSW office on 6659 6000.
