Momentum keeps Building for Women’s AFL
The popularity of Women’s AFL on the North Coast keeps growing at an incredible rate, with 50 women braving the heat on Saturday in Coffs for a high quality round robin series.
Just over 30 North Coast locals were joined by the Inverell Saints Women’s team who were on their end of season trip to Coffs Harbour, taking time out from the premiership celebrations to help promote and grow the code. The North Coast ladies were split into two teams, with the southern contingent representing the Port Macquarie Magpies on the day, whilst the northerners wore the colours of the Sawtell Toormina Saints who provided outstanding support for the day.
Three shortened matches were played in the round robin format, giving each team the chance to play both of the other two. Despite the heat, the ladies ripped in from the outset and gave another fantastic display of fast, skilful, and physical footy that keeps drawing more players to the code. Amongst the North Coast contingent were another 9 newcomers who were experiencing the sport for the first time and they all fitted in seamlessly, with the skills learnt in other sports providing an excellent base to build their AFL experience upon.
Paul Taylor, AFL North Coast Operations Co-ordinator, said that Women’s footy is growing rapidly with each match played. “We’ve now run six matches for Women, there have been 65 individuals who have all played at least one match, and they players are loving it. Our initial goal was to have 40 women play during the year so we’ve well and truly smashed that target which puts us in an incredible position for the start of a four team Women’s competition in 2018.”
Based on the interest across the region AFL NSW/ACT has developed a calendar of skill acquisition and game based sessions that will run from October to December in Taree, Port Macquarie, Kempsey, Coffs Harbour, and Grafton to provide women who haven’t yet had a chance to join in with the opportunity to learn the skills of the game and play low contact matches. These sessions will be led by experienced female staff and for anyone aged 16 to 60 who is interested in trying AFL in a supportive environment.
For further details on the sessions go to the North Coast Women’s AFL Facebook page or call one of our Female Footy Champions – Cambridge McCormick (Port and surrounds) on 0439 798 575, Alana Hanson (Coffs and surrounds) on 0413 963 860, or Laura Connell (Grafton and surrounds) on 0452 605 293.