Victorian Amateur Football Association: Lightning Premiership to continue the women’s footy boom

The VAFA women’s competition will launch itself into a second season when more than 20 new clubs take part in a lightning premiership in Braeside later this month.

Marcellin celebrates its VAFA Lightning Premiership win last season

The VAFA women’s competition will launch itself into a second season when more than 20 new clubs take part in a lightning premiership in Braeside later this month.

A field of 24 teams, some new to the competition and some newly-created seconds sides from existing clubs, will contest the two-day event at Braeside’s Keysborough Playing Fields on Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25.

Shona MacInnes, the VAFA women’s football development manager, said the association was setting itself for another massive year and the lightning premiership would provide the perfect springboard.

“Last year we hit the ground running with 40 teams, this year we’ll have at least 20 more,” she said. “We’re closing the books at the end of the month. We’re just waiting to see if a few clubs will field seconds sides.

“The lightning premiership is for new teams coming into the competition. We’ll have 12 new clubs, the rest are seconds sides from existing clubs. So we’ll have a reserves competition as well.”

The weekend of abridged matches will provide new clubs and players with the perfect opportunity to gain an understanding of where they are sitting prior to the first games of the regular season a fortnight later.

“It also gives us a chance to see where they’re at. Have they got all the things in place like goal umpires, officials and coaches?” MacInnes said.

“It’s almost like a dress rehearsal.”

The season proper will then kick off on April 7 with teams already graded and in the appropriate division. The first three weeks of the season, however, will be provisional rounds with the option to tinker with the final make up of the competition.

“At the end of that, with the knowledge we get from the lightning premiership, we may move some up and down,” MacInnes said.

After winning the lightning premiership, Marcellin went on to claim the Premier flag

Depending on the final number of teams, the competition will feature Premier, Premier Reserve, Premier B and Divisions 1, 2, 3 and 4.

McInnes, like most in women’s footy circles, has been stunned by the rapid explosion in involvement.

“For me, my background I was a president of a junior club back when women weren’t presidents of clubs,” she said.

“It’s just so amazing to see women grab this opportunity.

“When I first took over (VAFA role) back in 2016, we thought we’d get maybe 15-20 teams. When we hit the ground running with 40, it was amazing.”

While the competition has been an unqualified success on-field, MacInnes said the anecdotal evidence is that the addition of a women’s team has been a revelation for VAFA clubs as a whole with men’s and women’s programs now joining forces for training and pre-season camps while social functions are doubling, even tripling in size.

“All the clubs are saying to me, ‘it’s the best thing we’ve done in 30 years’,” she said. “Stuff like that just warms my heart.”

What: VAFA Women’s Lightning Premiership

When: Saturday/Sunday, March 24-25

Where: Keysborough Playing Fields, 738 Springvale Rd, Braeside

What time: 9am to 4pm

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