By: Tash Gunawardana
FEMALE FOOTBALL has grown since the AFLW began and the Deakin University Eastern Region Women’s competition is no exception.
Eastern Region Female Talent and Competitions Coordinator Jessie Mulholland spoke of the rapid growth.
“The competition has grown from 18 teams in 2018 to 34 teams in 2019,” Mulholland said.
“We now have five divisions with again a Premier Division and Division 1.
“We also have a North, South and Outer East geographical based division which consists of all the new teams.”
The expansion and the start of the 2019 season has been positive overall, with the recent Lightning Premiership highlighting the growth of women’s football in the eastern region as 26 clubs attended the event at Templestowe Reserve.
“We held a Women’s Lightning Premiership late March which allowed the new teams to have a hit-out pre-season and also gave us an idea of how the teams were looking,” Mulholland said.
“Each division is competitive with the new sides getting stronger each week.”
Mulholland said the new clubs are not only loving the revamped competition but the integration of the women’s teams into their clubs.
“They’ve spoken to me about how much positivity the women bring to their clubs (and) how they are attending all of the club’s events and how many more family members and kids are around the club now,” she said.
“On the field, the new teams are building week to week and their skills are improving rapidly.”
“We expect another growth next year with some clubs already planning for 2020 which is great to see,” Mulholland said.
“Soon enough every club will have a women’s team which we are very excited for.”
With the AFLW growing, local female football competitions such as the Deakin University Eastern Women’s competition are set to continue to grow from strength to strength.
