LEAGUE MAY SANCTION TWO WOMENS MATCHES NEXT YEAR Sam Lane | August 1, 2014 - 7:54PM theage.au/afl/afl-news/league-may-sanction-two-womens-matches-next-year-20140801-zzg33.html The AFL could sanction two female matches next year – and envisages two additional clubs following the lead of Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs by participating – as part of a long-term strategy to build an 18-club national women’s competition. Female participation numbers in the game are skyrocketing. According to AFL data, 169,000 females participated in the game nationally in 2013 – a huge jump from 57,000 in 2011. The gap between the number of girls and boys playing the game at club level nationally, however, remains vast. There were 12,000 girls, compared to 300,000 boys, who fitted that category last year, according to AFL data. With new AFL executive Dorothy Hisgrove now driving the women’s football movement at headquarters, plans for building a sustainable national female competition are being reviewed and reset. Hisgrove made a presentation to the AFL Commission this week and provided an update on the league’s gender strategy, which included a progress report for building a national female competition. They were very supportive and hugely endorsed the plan to get there, she told Fairfax Media. On the eve of one of Australia’s most decorated female footballers – Debbie Lee – playing her 300th game in the Victorian Women’s Football League, Hisgrove said establishing a strong under-18 state competition for women was vital. The competition would be similar to the men’s TAC Cup. The ultimate vision, Hisgrove said, was having senior women’s teams aligned with the AFL’s 18 clubs. That vision has been tangible – even if fleetingly – when Melbourne and the Bulldogs have embraced women’s teams for exhibition games like the curtain-raiser staged in round 15. Hisgrove said it was still realistic to aim for a national women’s competition in 2020 that is televised – an aim outlined before she joined the AFL. But I’m less obsessed with the date, and far more obsessed with ensuring that we have the right approach. So the plans, the milestones and the metrics, she said. Until we have a measured strategy to achieve that I think we’ll just be relying on an ad hock, pretty fragmented, approach and hoping for the growth. I want to ensure that we have a concerted, and much more focused, plan to ensure that we’re able to grow the numbers required to actually have a sustainable competition. Hisgrove has suggested that the AFL use grants to co-fund nationally the establishment of female teams at local club level. Let’s say we support 100 clubs starting a women’s football team every year over the next five years. Then we’ll get about 25,000 women and girls playing the game in five years time, she said. We’re fairly confident that will be about the number we need to be able to support a state competition at the under-18 age group. A TAC Cup equivalent is what I have in mind. We have no shortage of talent in Victoria, but we have to grow our pipeline of talent in the other states so we can have a decent competition. Without the relevant talent in each state it’s almost impossible to have a decent national competition. Comment by Womens Footy Fans An interesting article by Sam lane interviewing new AFL executive Dorothy Hisgrove. Womens footy sits in Dorothys portfolio. It seems that while were still a way off any kind of national competition, hopefully the AFL are now getting more fair dinkum about ensuring that the planning and strategy are right to grow and develop the game for women and girls. This quote from Hisgrove below gives some idea of what she thinks the strategy needs to be and perhaps what she thinks the strategy has been. She talks about needing a measured strategy and she talks about an ad hock, pretty fragmented, approach and hoping for the growth. Until we have a measured strategy to achieve that I think we’ll just be relying on an ad hock, pretty fragmented, approach and hoping for the growth. I want to ensure that we have a concerted, and much more focused, plan to ensure that we’re able to grow the numbers required to actually have a sustainable competition. Lets not forget that it was the initial work of the MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB and that woman DEBBIE LEE to get the inaugural womens game up and running. Where would we actually be if it wasnt for them? Sam Lanes article sounds positive, heres hoping.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 01:07:35 +0000
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