Boom in female sport in Adelaide not just benefiting women and girls, but their clubs too
THE boom in female sport hasn’t just opened up opportunities for women and girls, it’s also changing local sporting clubs for the better.
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THE closest Jess von Einem came to a cricket field as a teenager was cooking schnitzels each Thursday night at senior selection at Payneham Cricket Club.
But after countless seasons of watching her dad, Don, take to the field, the 27-year-old is now donning the whites with the club’s inaugural women’s team.
“There weren’t any opportunities previously so you just left it by the wayside and picked up other sports like basketball and netball that were easily accessible to females,” von Einem says.
“You just move along through your life thinking that you are not going to get that opportunity, but now that I have it means everything to me.”
After 150 years of men’s cricket, Payneham has joined a long list of community sports clubs to field stand-alone women’s sides.
Club coach Ashley Evans always believed women’s cricket would make its way to Payneham Oval, but he admits to some initial reservations when the idea was floated last year.
“I thought it may have been frowned upon and you would have some cynical old-school people who would shrugged their shoulders at the girls,” Evans says.
But as the dream became a reality, he was pleasantly surprised.
“It was the complete opposite,” he says.
“We had all the life members coming out to help with trainings and senior players watching the games every Sunday.
“The whole club is behind it and really invested as the girls have brought their own love for the game.”
Partners, sisters, mothers, daughters and friends of the men’s team were quick to sign up to be a part of the new women’s side – nicknamed the Royals.
Coming together for their first training last year, Evans quickly found that there was one quality consistent to all the players.
“They all just brought this enthusiasm to listen and learn, even though they were all so raw,” he says.
“It was just infectious and just made me want to be a better coach because they all wanted to improve.
“It didn’t matter if there was only four or six of the girls at training, they wanted to work as hard as our A grade players to get better.”
Recent South Australian Cricket Association figures show almost 2500 females played club, school and community cricket in the 2016/17 season.
That is in contrast to the 1730 women who took to the field in 2011/12, and just 1120 in 2006/07.
SACA senior operations manager Vanessa Walker says the introduction of the Twenty20 national competition encouraged more women to get involved.
“We have worked very actively to introduce (women) to a game that may not be traditional cricket,” Mrs Walker says.
“We have modified formats like the Big Bash and Women’s Big Bash which has shown to people on the highest level that cricket is adapting and becoming more inclusive.
“People have seen through the visibility of the AFL Women’s competition that we don’t need to be bound by what we see as traditional sporting opportunities.”
The rapid rise in female participation is not limited to the cricket pitch.
More and more women are lacing up their boots to join in the action of Australian rules football.
After fielding four junior female teams last year, Glenunga Football Club has been inundated with calls from girls wanting to have a kick and a catch.
Junior president Richard Pickett is not surprised at the recent uptake, with 120 players set to take to the field this season.
“You always see the younger sisters of the boys who play out at the club having a run around at trainings and games,” Mr Pickett says.
“Once the girls had the option to play, they just grabbed it with both hands.
“We want the girls to have their own special part of the club so that they are just not an extra kid running around.
“We want them to have their own meaning and belief.
“It is just not about males running around bashing into each other, but it is about getting the girls out there and having a great time.”
Despite coming from a soccer background, Mr Pickett was thrilled to have the opportunity to coach his daughter Scarlett, 14, last season.
“The joy and the happiness that was on the girls’ faces as they played was just amazing,” he says.
“A lot of the girls come from basketball and netball backgrounds so they just loved to go and tackle somebody.
“Football is now Scarlett’s sport and she can see herself playing it for a long time.”
After playing a long list of sports, Scarlett is certain she will be playing football for a long time.
“I never realised that I would be so into footy, but then I started playing it and really enjoyed it,” she says.
“It has been really different being able to tackle because in other sports you can’t touch the player, but in footy you can go your hardest at someone.”
Following the success of the inaugural AFLW season, where the Adelaide Crows took out the premiership, more than 350 female players took to the fields across the east last year.
Goodwood Saints Football Club is another club whose female junior stocks are set to grow this year with the addition of an under-18 team.
Despite its recent success, club officials have been quick to learn from previous mistakes to make sure women’s football is a continued presence at Goodwood Oval.
“We actually had an adult women’s side going back in the 1990s, but back in those days I don’t think it was embraced by the club as it should have been,” club president Craig Scott says.
“They played under our banner for a while, but I don’t think we supported them like we should have.
“We are really working hard now to make sure that every women’s side is just as important as our A grade to our under-7s.
“If the girls have a bit of talent and are enjoying it they can now see a pathway into the SANFL and even AFLW.”
Norwood Oval will play host to three Adelaide Crows women’s games in February and March.
James Gratton is a member of Payneham Cricket Club.
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