Amanda Farrugia hopes to join inaugural AFL women’s league

FOR the first time a nationwide women’s AFL league is on, with first games slated to play in February, and with Seven Hills’ player Amanda Farrugia hoping to score a key role.

Amanda Farrugia, 31, hopes to play in the inaugural AFL women's league in 2017.

• Isaiah Lazaro’s a martial arts maestro
• Logan Owen excels in gymnastics
• Tristan Hodder’s kicking it in karate

For the first time a nationwide women’s AFL league is on, with first games slated to play in February, and with Seven Hills’ player Amanda Farrugia hoping to score a key role.

Farrugia plays for Macquarie Park Warriors and last season she won the award for Best and Fairest.

She has been an avid AFL fan and player since 2011 and is going to nominate herself to play in the new league. Ideally she would like to play for GWS Giants but the eventual roster will be decided by the clubs through a draft system similar to the men’s AFL.

Farrugia has always been sporty and she came to AFL after regularly playing several different ball games.

“Truth is, I was getting a bit bored with basketball and touch football and so I was looking for a sport that had a better range of skills, and I found it in AFL,” she said.

Amanda Farrugia plays for the Macquarie Park Warriors and hopes to advance in the AFL inaugural women’s competition.

“After the first game I was a bit shattered — the pace of AFL is full on — but once I got used to it I just loved AFL and it uses so many skills.”

Clubs taking part in the first nationwide games in February and running through an eight-week ­program, are Fremantle, ­Collingwood, Carlton, Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, GWS Giants, Brisbane and Adelaide.

“There has been a lot of support from within the AFL and there really is a great will to make this a success. It’s been a while in the making but it’s kind of happened now really quickly,” Farrugia said.

“It’s kind of exploded, and it’s very exciting and gives young girls who are looking to play AFL a chance to play professionally.”

The 31-year-old teaches PE full time at Our Lady of Mercy College at Parramatta and thanks to her passion for AFL, and her contacts in the sport, she has managed to enthuse many of the students at the girls’ school.

“We like to expose them to different sports and so we have an AFL program for the Year 10 girls and we have also had Giants players come out and talk to the girls,” she said.

“With the professional women’s league there’s ­another reason for girls to want to play AFL.”

Farrugia pointed out that AFL players — currently all men — become key role models for youngsters and with the women’s league in play it will mean girls could have their own gender role models too.

“It’s also good for girls to look to AFL and to understand what it means to be part of a team.”