Port Adelaide joins surge in women’s footy with bid to join SANFLW with Eagles and Central District

PORT Adelaide has joined the women’s football movement with a proposal to field a senior team in the SANFL next year.

PORT Adelaide has joined the women’s football movement with plans to field a senior team in the SANFL next year.

The SA Football Commission will meet on Tuesday night to discuss proposed expansion of the women’s competition in its third season as well as considering moving it from summer to winter in 2019.

This year’s SANFLW competition included six clubs and was won by South Adelaide.

Port Adelaide, Central District and Woodville-West Torrens have all lodged applications to be part of the next intake and will know by June 30 whether they are successful.

The Bulldogs were turned down last year, while this is the Eagles’ first application for a team to train and play its games at Ottoway.

Port Adelaide’s bid is not associated with the Port Adelaide Women’s Football Club which is an independent team in the amateur league.

Port has launched an Aboriginal women’s academy and runs junior female development pathways through its ‘next generation’ academies, but is one of the last clubs in the AFL not to have a dedicated women’s team.

South Adelaide’s SANFLW team celebrating its inaugural premiership. Port Adelaide also plans to field a team for next year. Picture: Deb Curtis

Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, GWS, Melbourne, Western Bulldogs are currently in the AFLW, while the VFLW includes Collingwood, Carlton, Geelong, Western Bulldogs, Essendon, Richmond, Hawthorn and St Kilda (via the Southern Sharks).

North Melbourne is coming into the AFLW next year, along with Gold Coast and West Coast, which has appointed Drew Petrie as its academy coach, while Sydney has started an academy with a view of joining the national competition in coming years.

“Our female junior programs, through the AFL’s next-generation academies have expanded in 2018 and we’re pleased with the outcomes we’re helping the SANFL achieve from a participation and talent perspective,” Port Adelaide’s football manager Chris Davies said.

“We have expressed our interest in being a part of the SANFLW competition previously, and remain committed to working in conjunction with the SANFL and AFL to find the best possible mutual outcome for Port Adelaide to have a team competing at a senior women’s state league level in 2019.”

One of the complexities of Port Adelaide fielding a women’s team in the SANFL without an AFLW side is the issue of recruiting players, given the Magpies surrendered their zones under the SANFL-AFL alignment in 2014.

AFLW boss Nicole Livingstone met with the SANFL in May to discuss growing the game and proposed changes for next year.

SANFL chief executive Jake Parkinson welcomed the growing participation in women’s football but would not comment on the proposal.