NSW election: NSW Government invests $25m in women’s community sport facilities

After early years spent changing in her car – or in urine-soaked men’s bathrooms – Sydney AFLW star Alana Woodward says funding for better women’s facilities will empower girls playing community sport.

Swans AFLW player Alana Woodward (left) at Trumper Oval, Paddington.

Sydney AFL Women’s star Alana Woodward was forced to leave the game she’s loved since she was a little girl for several years due to lack of opportunities and poor facilities.

“One of the reasons I stopped for a period before coming back to the AFL was there were no clubs offering female opportunities to play,” Ms Woodward said at Paddington’s Trumper Oval, where the state government announced a significant financial investment to improve facilities available for women playing community sport.

Woodward said in her early years she and her teammates would be forced to change before and after games in their cars, in unwelcoming men’s facilities or in bathrooms.

“Sometimes you’d walk into local clubs, and there’s just urinals or the open showers,” she said.

Woodward played AFL from a young age growing up in Deniliquin in regional NSW.

Sydney AFLW player Alana Woodward (left) with Club President of East Sydney Bulldogs AFL, Lisa Goold (right).

The 32-year-old previously played for Richmond and St Kilda in the AFL Women’s before moving to Sydney where she is now based.

The new funding – part of the NSW Liberal government’s $1b investment in community sporting facilities since 2017 – will deliver gender appropriate showers and toilet areas along with other improvements to make community sporting facilities more equitable.

Woodward says improved facilities will contribute to the improving professionalism of women’s sport. Photo: Phil Hillyard

This includes a $309,720 grant for East Sydney Junior AFL Club based at Trumper Oval in Paddington.

Woodward said she was “so excited” to see investment in women’s sport at a grassroots level.

Not just because it will make playing community sports more convenient, but thanks to the sense of empowerment it gives young girls to see a future for themselves in professional sport.

Opportunities for girls and young women to participate in AFL have grown at an impressive rate.

The AFLW player said the growth and professionalisation of women’s sport in Australia had come from “not just financial investment, which is a huge part,” but from “people actually caring and people having the awareness that something needs to be done”.

Sydney’s Lisa Steane and Alana Woodward and Giant’s Nicola Barr and Jessica Doyle at an AFLW breakfast in Sydney. Photo: Phil Hillyard

“I think for so long, we just accepted it was the norm that there weren’t enough facilities at local sporting grounds,” she said.

“So it’s taken a lot of time and effort from a lot of people in government and [at] a local club level to keep … really lobbying for this change.”

AFL NSW & ACT CEO Tiffany Robertson said about two thirds of NSW’s sporting facilities currently do not meet the AFL’s standards for female-friendly amenities.

But Ms Robertson said she was hopeful this would change, with the AFL’s funding plan aiming to close the gap in coming years.

Liberal candidate for Vaucluse Kellie Sloane celebrated the NSW government’s $300,000 grant for East Sydney Junior AFL Club as part of a $25m investment in upgrades to community sporting facilities.

“We want [girls and women] to be able to come to every [sporting ground] in NSW,” she said.

Ms Robertson said while the AFL had lobbied hard for government funding, she was hopeful more would come.

“I think it’s not a negative, but a real positive for us to be able to highlight the growth of women’s sport,” she said. “And what that ultimately means is that we all need to lean into this challenge and we’re up for it.”

Vaucluse Liberal MP Gabrielle Upton said the upgrades would help boost female participation in community sport in the eastern suburbs.

“We will ensure any young girl or woman who wants to shoot a hoop, score a try or kick a goal, can do so in a supportive and safe environment,” Ms Upton said.