Riddell District league excited to offer women’s football pathway for region

The Riddell District Football Netball League’s new women’s football competition will offer a unique initiative for its clubs and players.

Riddell District will launch a women’s competition in 2023. Picture: George Sal

The Riddell District Football Netball League’s inaugural women’s competition launches this season with a unique feature.

The league has partnered with statistics specialists Premier Data for 2023 and will provide game-by-game stats for both its senior men’s and women’s seasons.

It’s a first for a local women’s competition, especially given it's the first season.

Five clubs have been confirmed for the RDFNL Women’s with hopes a sixth will be added before the season begins.

Existing men’s clubs Romsey and Woodend-Hesket will field teams while Kyneton, Mt Alexander and Melton have joined from neighbouring leagues.

Georgie and Maddie Prespakis face off against each other.

The likes of Maddie and Georgie Prespakis started out in the RDFNL juniors with Sunbury.

Riddell District CEO Jordan Doyle said it was an exciting opportunity to expand the competition and offer a pathway to girls in the region.

“It’s been on the radar for a while, we thought initially 2024 was a realistic target, but a few things unfolded in 2022 that gave us the opportunity to push forward in 2023,” he said.

“We’re pushing ahead with five teams but we’re in discussions with another couple of clubs trying hard to get a sixth but it will be a five-team comp if we can’t.

“Our junior girls competitions have been growing in the last few years and it looks like we’ll getting some more teams involved again in 2023 and that’s where the growth has come from.

“Woodend junior girls have been one of our stronger clubs and Lancefield has some junior teams and Macedon as well, so there’s a pathway for girls now and hopefully it can continue to grow.”

How the women’s season will run is still to be decided as the league attempts to lock in a sixth club.

“Aaron McLean, our operations manager is working through all that at the moment,” Doyle said.

“The clubs are going to be intrinsically involved in the how the comp will run, it’s their competition – how many rounds, how many times they play each other, what days they play.

“We’re hoping to have that sorted in the next couple of week and we can get a fixture out.”

Last year, the RDFNL’s Youth Girls competition had four teams – Woodend, Macedon, Melton and Melton Central – while the Junior Girls age group had five with Lancefield included.

Melton Central defeated Meltin in the Junior Girls grand final and Woodend edged Macedon in the Youth Girls.

The addition of Premier Data will add significant depth to the exposure and coverage of the competition.

Doyle said it was important that both the men’s and women’s enjoyed the same benefits.

“It’s really exciting for us, some other leagues have had (women’s) competitions for a couple of years, and we’ve got a real opportunity with new initiatives that other leagues haven’t been able to do,” he said.

“We’re adding Premier Data for our senior men’s and women’s, so we’re the first senior women’s comp to have that available.

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“We’re excited by that, we want the senior women’s comp to have everything that the men have.”

The RDFNL senior men’s season will kick off on Saturday, April 1 with a standalone clash between Western Rams and Melton Centrals before the rest of the competition starts on April 15.

Likewise, for the senior netball competition, Western Rams and Melton Centrals will begin on April 1 with the other three games on April 15.

Lancefield has the bye.