Power of one: teenager recruits all-girl team for Vowles Cup

Gatton’s Ashley Nolan was determined to play in the Adrian Vowles Cup at Charleville, so she recruited her own all-girls team.

ONE Gatton girl's determination to play rugby league has inspired a collective of young women to form their own team for the 2020 Adrian Vowles Cup.

At only 16, Ashley Nolan took the initiative to recruit fellow girls from Toowoomba and surrounds, and the result is the Gatton/Valleys under 17 girls side.

Nolan has pulled the team together almost single-handedly, and her mum and team manager Sandy Nolan told the Western Times her daughter's passion for the game was the big motivator to form her own team for the cup.

"Ashley is in the under-16 age group, and she has been going around, finding a group of girls who just want to come out and play footy," she said.

"She has been very busy organising and getting everyone on board since starting this in October."

While the group is playing under the banner of Gatton and Toowoomba Valleys, their players come from a far more diverse range of clubs.

"Ashley is actually the only one on the team from Gatton," Nolan said.

"We have one or two players from Toowoomba Valleys, a couple from Toowoomba Brothers, some girls from Highfields, some from Oakey, and I think we may even have a Roma girl coming in to join us, after she heard about our team trying to come out and play in the cup."

The entire Nolan clan is big into their rugby league; Ashley's brothers play for Toowoomba Valleys, and older sister Courtney was named as a Gatton Rugby League ambassador in her own junior days.

Ms Nolan said Ashley had fallen in love with the family's game after joining her district's newly-minted girls league in 2019. "She has only been playing footy since last year, as that was the first year of the Toowoomba girls' league," she said.

"She did quite well, made a few rep teams and has really enjoyed her girls' rugby league."

Like any league parent, Nolan is immensely proud of her daughter, both for her sporting efforts and the initiative she has shown to bring a whole new team into the Adrian Vowles Cup.

She said she can't wait to see the group hit the field on Friday, and show their formidable strength.

"Our girls' rugby league has definitely taken off, and its so good to watch the girls," she said.

"I wouldn't be game to play against them - they are pretty tough, are getting in there and having a good go."

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