Girls football will be bolstered with the announcement of a new round robin competition to be played across the Western District Wimmera region this year.
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AFL Wimmera Football Development Manager Jason Muldoon said women’s football was booming with the launch of AFLW.
With the first national women’s league taking shape he said the timing was right to get the new league going in the Wimmera region.
The competition will include teams from Stawell, Ararat, Horsham, Portland, Hamilton and Warrnambool who will compete in a six-week season.
The inaugural season with start in May.
Matches will be played on Friday night and Sunday to minimise the impact on other sports and leagues.
Teams are open for girls aged between 13 and 18.
Ararat Storm’s success in the Ballarat Football League youth girls competition was a catalyst for implementing the competition.
“We were probably at the point where we physically needed to do something and set some dates,” Muldoon said.
“Ararat Storm have been the leaders in the competition and certainly prompted this expansion, but we need to ensure we don’t undermine the Storm and what they have done in the Ballarat league.”
Teams will have a minimum of 15 girls to be eligible to play, while they will need to field at least nine players per game.
The Storm squad should assist the Wimmera based teams to field the required numbers.
“Ideally we would love to have five or six teams scattered across the Wimmera in the next three years and have our own competition, but we have to start somewhere,” Muldoon said.
“We will look back and say this was an important period of time that we established a girls football competition.”
