Kirby Bentley one to watch for Melbourne in annual women’s AFL match against Western Bulldogs

A STAR junior netballer, it took a family tragedy for Kirby Bentley to find football.

Four of the women's footballers who will be playing the curtain-raiser at the MCG this week before the Western Bulldogs v Melbourne game. Kirby Bentleigh (Swan Districts) leads from the front with her Melbourne footy jumper and ball.Picture:Ian Currie

A STAR junior netballer, it took a family tragedy for Kirby Bentley to find football.

Bentley was on an AIS netball scholarship in 2005 and played for the Perth Orioles, now rebranded as West Coast Fever, in the former national netball league.

Because of her commitment to the sport, the now 29-year-old said she had no real relationship with her younger sisters Ashleigh and Jade.

But Bentley’s goals changed when her aunt Andrea was fatally stabbed by her estranged husband in a brutal case of domestic violence in Western Australia in 2009.

“She’s got 13 kids, the seven youngest, mum (Kelly) then took care of,” Bentley said.

“My mum and aunty Andrea were best friends.

“I didn’t have that with my two younger sisters. The whole reason why I started playing footy is because my middle sister (Ashleigh) was playing. That’s what she loved doing and I didn’t know who she was really. I wanted to do something she loved.

Kirby Jaegers in action for the Hunter Jaegers in 2007. Picture: Theo Fakos

“It changed my perspective on life. It’s not all about trying to live that dream. It was a realisation ... now it was time to build a relationship with my younger sisters.

“We’re pretty much best friends now.

“For me, I needed to step up to the plate and be that big sister to all of them.”

Bentley will run out on to the MCG for the second time today for Melbourne, who take on a Western Bulldog’s women’s side in the third AFL women’s match.

Originally from Mt Barker, Bentley now lives in Perth and plays for Swan Districts, but she also spends time in Melbourne playing in the Victorian Women’s Football League for Melbourne University “trying to learn the Victoria style”.

The midfielder is honoured to play for the Demons alongside and against the best female players in the country, but she has bigger dreams.

She had the Kirby Bentley Cup — an annual youth carnival in WA — named after her and she hopes the tournament will empower young indigenous girls.

Kirby Bentely in action for Melbourne University. Picture: Mark Wilson

“Not only playing the game, but there are pathways in their life that they can choose that are different to what they may be used to,” Bentley said.

“Domestic violence, we’re an advocate as a family, it’s an important message to get across that you don’t need to live in that environment.

“Just educating them so they’re making different decisions.

“The Kirby Bentley Cup is bigger than just footy.”

Bentley is a fly-in, fly-out mine worker at Newman in the Pilbara. She’s a shot firer, which means she blasts the ground.

“I work with explosives, 14 days straight in about 47 degree heat,” she explained.

It’s in her week off she plays footy and trains.

She can see the advancement of the women’s game, which the AFL has also noted, with a women’s national league planned for 2017.

“The class of the players that are going around, it has just lifted the standard,” she said.

“The more girls are exposed to the higher levels or playing against the best players, it’s just going to grow.”

Originally published as Kirby Bentley one to watch for Melbourne in annual women’s AFL match against Western Bulldogs