Women’s footy is taking off in Grafton

Women’s AFL is rapidly building momentum in the Clarence ahead of the planned introduction of a Grafton Tigers team into the AFL North Coast Women’s Competition in 2019.

Three ‘demonstration’ matches are planned in the coming weeks and, with strong interest among local ladies, a training session was staged last night to help keen newcomers learn the skills. The turnout at the session was impressive with 12 women from various sporting backgrounds giving footy a go for the first time and finding that the transition was easy.

The session was conducted by female AFL development staff, all of whom have taken the sport up in the last two years. Vienna Schoeffel, North Coast Female Footy Champion, said the response at the session was incredible. “None of the local ladies had any AFL experience but they picked it up so quickly that we finished the session with a small game. It was great to see the smiles throughout and the excitement for the first match.”

Demonstration matches will be played at Ellem Oval as part of the Grafton Tigers match day. The first of these is on Saturday 26 May against Coffs Breakers and will double as the club’s Ladies Day. Further matches are planned for Saturday 2 June and Saturday 14 July.

Schoeffel said that there are plenty of chances for Women to get involved. “There’s been so much interest that we’ve organised another skills session for next Wednesday evening (23 May, 5:30pm to 6:30pm) at Ellem Oval to make sure that all the ladies that want to train have at least one chance to do that before the first game. There’s no requirement to come to a skills session, so anyone that wants to play in the match can join in whether they’ve trained or not.”

Women’s AFL is for ladies aged 16 years or older. There’s no fee to play in the demonstration matches and no obligation to commit to all three matches – anyone that can only make it to one match can just play that one.

For further information on Women’s footy please contact the AFL Northern NSW office on 6659 6000 or email aflwnorthcoast@gmail.com.