EFNL 2023: Under-8 girls trial to begin in Eastern league

The EFNL will begin a trial of a new comp on Friday night in an initiative to support the growth and development of female football in the east. Here’s all the details.

The Eastern league will launch its under-8 girls trial comp on Friday night. Picture: Field of View Photography

The Eastern Football Netball League will break new ground on Friday night as it launches its inaugural under-8 girls competition.

The free-to-participate initiative is subsidised in conjunction with AFL Victoria and will be staged over four weeks this month in a trial aiming to bridge the gap between Auskick and the league’s under-10 girls competition.

EFNL junior football manager Paul Giannopoulos said the initiative also aimed to support the continued growth and development of female football in Melbourne’s east, with a view to creating a full season in the coming years.

“All the feedback from AFL studies is that girls want to play with girls so we were trying to work out how we could get an offering in between Auskick to our under-10s because obviously there is a bit of a gap,” Giannopoulos said.

“A lot of girls just drop out after Auskick because they don’t want to play under-8s or ‘9s mixed.

“We came up with an idea for the next few years where we run a little competition ourselves … and hopefully it’s a bit of a transitional competition which potentially next year we expand.”

The EFNL’s under-8 girls’ comp will run for four weeks in July. Picture: Supplied

Participants will be divided into four teams with matches played at Upper Ferntree Gully’s Kings Park.

The competition will run by the league’s under-8 mixed rules to include no scoring, no tackling, no kicking off the ground, no barging, stealing or stripping of the ball and no bouncing.

Teams will feature nine players each on the field, and quarters will consist of 10 minutes apiece.

Giannopoulos said the rules ensured each child would be a given a fair go, which would help future retention of participants in the sport.

“That’s how the under-8s work and so everyone gets a touch and a time to have a kick, because if you let it go too much, the bigger kids grab the ball and just dominate,” he said.

“It’s purely to make sure everyone gets touches and is involved.”

Girls born between January 1, 2015 and April 30, 2016 are eligible to participate.

The first matches will be held on Friday, July 7 at 5.15pm, with subsequent fixtures held on July 14 (5pm-7pm), Sunday, July 23 from 9am-11am and Friday, July 28 (5pm-7pm).

Eastern league umpires will officiate matches and coaches will be provided by AFL Victoria with the support of Auskick co-ordinators.

Giannopoulos said the program’s numbers were strong leading into its opening week with registration expected to grow.

“Hopefully we’ll have 40 girls just about by Friday night which is a good start – it’s very exciting and it’s a new concept to keep boosting the girls’ numbers which have obviously been a pretty big growth area for the league over the last five to 10 years.”

For more information, please contact EFNL junior manager Paul Giannopoulos via [e-mail], or to register, CLICK HERE.