Penny Cula-Reid picked up in AFL Women’s draft, 13 years after helping get girls league set up

SHE wasn’t a top pick or marquee name in yesterday’s AFL women’s draft, but Penny Cula-Reid was probably one of the most important.

Penny Cula-Reid after playing her 150th game for St Kilda Sharks last year.

OF THE many names called in the AFL women’s draft yesterday, one in particular resonated with deep-rooted followers of the female game.

Penny Cula-Reid.

It seems appropriate that the St Kilda Shark, taken by Collingwood with pick No.102, will help get the ball rolling in a national competition next year.

She’ll be a trailblazer in 2017 just as she was almost 15 years ago when, as a schoolgirl, she went to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and effectively forced AFL Victoria to create a youth girls competition.

Cula-Reid had started playing football with the Murrumbeena juniors at the age of six.

But at 14 she was told the game was up, that she could no longer play against the boys.

“You’re not allowed to play any more because you’re a girl,’’ her mother, Amanda Cula, told her.

“Mum asked me what I’d like to do and I said I just wanted to keep playing football,’’ Cula-Reid recalled last year. “And Mum, hard as nails, said, ‘Well, we’ll take this further — let’s go get ’em’.’’

Penny Cula-Reid (right) with Helen Taylor (left) and Emily Stanyer outside VCAT in 2003 during their case against AFL Victoria.

With two other girls, Emily Stayner and Helen Taylor, she went to VCAT in a case that attracted great publicity.

“There was no ability to properly transition from one to the other, from junior footy to women’s,’’ Cula-Reid said. “That wasn’t right.’’

The judge lifted the age that girls could play against boys from 12 to 14, and Football Victoria (now AFL Victoria) appointed a female development officer with the brief to establish a youth girls competition. It kicked off in 2004.

“When I look back and see what we were able to achieve just by sticking up for myself, it does make me happy,’’ she said. “It’s an honour, quite humbling, when people say I’ve been some sort of pioneer or role model.’’

Cula-Reid has been a presence in women’s football since. She went to the St Kilda Sharks (she now captains the club), was picked in state teams and now she’ll figure in the kick-off season of a national league, playing for the club she supports, the Magpies.

She said on ABC Radio last night that draft day was “pretty exciting and pretty surreal’’ for the women’s game.

Penny Cula-Reid was part of the inaugural AFL Women's High Performance Academy in 2010.

Cula-Reid said she was “waiting, and waiting, and waiting’’ for her name to be called.

“It didn’t matter what pick, it was just exciting … and it was even more exciting to be picked up by Collingwood,’’ she said.

Reminded of the VCAT case, she said: “I was a 14-year-old girl, didn’t understand why I wasn’t allowed to play football, going through my Year 10 exams, people not knowing what was happening, seeing myself on the TV screen, doing all these newspapers articles, it was a little bit surreal. But looking back at it now, it’s such a pivotal event … such a turning of the tables for women’s football.’’

St Kilda Sharks stalwart Leesa Catto said the actions of Cula-Reid and the other girls were significant in the growth of female football.

At the time there was no great appetite in football administration to set up a junior girls competition, she said.

Penny Cula-Reid has long been a footy trailblazer. Picture: Steven Crabtree

Catto noted there were six teams when it started in 2004. Now there are hundreds.

“If it wasn’t for her and the others two girls and their families, would Football Victoria have created a junior comp for girls?’’ she said.

“In my eyes, probably not. The VCAT case forced them into it. And now there are teams everywhere.’’

Catto said Cula-Reid had developed into a fine player and leader and deserved her call-up.

“She’s beautiful to watch, fantastic skills and decision-making and communication. She’s like a general in our backline, and she’s a solid person too.’’

■ The Sharks will have 11 players in the national competition next year, with Cula-Reid, Brittany Bonnici, Mia-Rae Clifford, Jasmine Garner, Jess Gardner, Laura Bailey, Tilly Lucas-Rodd and Ali Brown joining Mo Hope, Breanna Davey and Phoebe McWilliams on AFL lists.

Catto thought Garner was a “steal’’ for Collingwood with selection 82.

“She’s one of the best centre half-forwards in the country,’’ she said.

“She kicked 41 goals this year on the back of Mo Hope’s 104. She’s a great footballer. She’ll do really well.’’