WIMMERA women will get the chance to play football this season in a new competition set to be aligned with the second season of the girl’s youth football league.
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Difficult weather conditions have hampered plans for further sessions but the numbers were again strong on the track last week.
AFL Wimmera-Mallee football development manager Jason Muldoon said he has talked to the Horsham Demons and Horsham Saints about the clubs fielding teams.
“If we only get 12-a-side then that’s okay and we’ll still play,” he said.
“There are no rules set in stone that we need 18 in each side. It’s just a matter of moving the rock – once we do that it will start to roll quite easily.”
He said he expected the clubs would be part of a league with six or seven teams.
“We think we’ll have two teams out of Warrnambool, we’re hoping for one out of Portland and one from Hamilton and then there will be a combined team out of Cobden and Timboon,” he said.
“Ideally we’d like to run it in conjunction with the youth girls league.
“We want to piggyback on its success.”
He said he would love to start a tradition where teams play one after the other.
Imagine the Saints playing Horsham under lights at City Oval on Friday night with a women’s game and a youth girl’s game.
- Jason Muldoon
“Imagine the Saints playing Horsham under lights at City Oval on Friday night with a women’s game and a youth girl’s game,” he said.
“We saw the crowd that turned up last year to the youth girls – if we can add that extra game and start to build a tradition we are going to be well placed.”
Horsham Demons youth girls coach Terry Arnel said building on the success of the inaugural season of the youth girls league was a positive move.
“It’s really the next step,” he said.
“It can be difficult to attract the girls to come in at 13 and 14 if there is nowhere for them to go once they turn 18. We’ve really got to maintain that pathway.”
Horsham Saints president Mick Morris said the club would likely lose six player from the team that won a premiership in the youth girls league in 2017.
“We need to be able to cater to any of those overage girls that want to play footy in the region,” he said.
“It’s all well and good to have the underage competitions in place but if they get to be too old they wonder why they were playing.
“It is always great for the club to cater for both genders.”
Prospective players and interested parties will meet with Muldoon on Monday evening to receive further information.
“We want everyone to be as informed as possible before making a commitment,” Muldoon said.
The meeting will be at the AFL Wimmera-Mallee offices from 6.30pm.
