Following on from the huge success of the Eastern Region Girls Competition and with the interest in female football soaring with the impending introduction of the AFL Women’s competition in 2017, a new senior women’s competition in Melbourne’s East and Yarra Ranges is starting.
The Eastern Region Women’s Football Competition will form part of the new South Eastern Women’s Football Collective, a joint initiative of the Eastern Football League, AFL Yarra Ranges, AFL South East and the Southern Football Netball League, established to manage and govern a large proportion of the VWFL divisional structure and apply new regional divisions. This will be focused on aligning clubs and teams based on relative strength, longevity and structure.
Eastern Football League CEO Phil Murton has been pleased with the growth in female football over the past few seasons;
“The Eastern Region Girls Competition grew from 12 teams in 2015 to 37 in 2016 and we are on target to get up to 70 in 2017″
“With the growth, we need an expanded senior pathway for these girls to follow and the establishment of a senior women’s competition was the natural progression”.
“With the management of senior women’s footy being regionalised, we believe the approach we are taking with AFL YR, AFL SE and the SFNL has the potential to create a wonderful structure for the growth of senior women’s footy”.
To date 10 EFL and AFL Yarra Ranges clubs have expressed an interest in forming a new senior women’s team for 2017, to go along with existing female teams from Chirnside Park, Bayswater, Whitehorse, Knox and the Eastern Devils.
The exact structure of the competitions is still evolving. Some clubs are more advanced in their planning than others and it is difficult to apply a definitive structure when team numbers are still uncertain.
South Eastern Women’s will see higher level regional divisions, to ensure teams are playing at an appropriate level of competition (with teams from all leagues involved), being underpinned by more locally based development competitions, targeted mainly at new and developing teams.
With the AFL Women’s League starting in February, there will be extensive media and club focus on the development of these teams (marquee players, draft and support appointments). This provides a great opportunity for local clubs to capitalise on the expected heightened level of interest and inform the community of your intentions.
For more information or to register your clubs interest contact Aaron Bailey at the EFL Office on 9762 5766.
