Detail of AFL’s Female Football Charter revealed as clubs struggle to field teams

AFL Victoria’s new Female Football Charter will fight to keep women’s football alive as clubs in northeast Victoria struggle to field teams.

As northeast Victorian women’s football clubs struggle to field teams, details of AFL Victoria’s new Female Football Charter have been revealed.

The charter, announced on April 13, promises to provide more female friendly facilities including sanitary bins, private showers and toilets, and external pavilion and car park lighting to ensure additional safety for night training and games.

It hopes to ensure community football environments are “equal for all”, including educating women coaches and creating more equal representation of females and males in leadership positions and more women in operations roles.

It comes after a former championship women’s football team in northeast Victoria had to borrow opposition players to keep their season alive.

According to an AFL Victoria report, players in women’s football community competition is down 2 per cent from 2019 — before the pandemic — but up 5.4 per cent since 2021 when restrictions eased.

The number of girls playing Auskick is also down 1.4 per cent since 2021.

In the first two rounds of the North East Border Female Football League, 2018 champions the Thurgoona Bulldogs borrowed more than five players from opposition teams the Wodonga Raiders and Lavington Panthers to avoid forfeiting.

Bulldogs coach Adam Browne said the pandemic had played a big role in players abandoning the game.

He said more of his players were choosing to put family first.

“They’re playing on a Sunday, and Sunday for most people is family time,” Browne said.

“It’s not the easiest to put family and friends aside on a Sunday and then rock up to work the next day without a recovery day.”

Despite low numbers, Browne is confident he’ll see more women at the club soon, with two new players training last week.

The Bulldogs were part of a three-team merger in 2021 called United Football Club, which combined players from the Yarrawonga Pigeons and Alpine Lions, who lacked enough players for their own team.

Just four years ago, the Thurgoona Bulldogs won the AFL NEB open women's competition. Photo: Facebook.

The Wodonga Raiders have managed to field over 40 players this season, while other are struggling to get the 18 required to take the field. Photo: Game Play Imaging.

While Yarrawonga and Alpine folded after 2021 due to a lack of numbers, the Bulldogs managed to sign just enough to field a team in 2022.

Wodonga Raiders club president and player Skye Burgess said there was an obligation for clubs to support those who can’t find numbers.

“Thurgoona contacted us and said they were short on numbers so our coaches pretty much offered straight away because we didn’t want them forfeiting the game,” Burgess said.

“We knew going into the season they were going to be short on numbers, but it was agreed on at a league committee meeting that we would help them out to keep as many teams in the competition as possible.”

Burgess said the league could not afford to take a step backwards by letting clubs fold.

The Alpine Lions were unable to field a side this season, leaving players to disband to nearby clubs. Photo: Facebook.

“We’ve put in so much effort to get where we are and to provide young females with the opportunity that we never had growing up,” he said.

“Sometimes you have to put your own pride aside for the benefit of the league, because without people to play, there’s no game.”