AFL North West: League to introduce youth girls competition in 2022

To meet the ever-growing interest in the game, the league is introducing a youth girls competition to be played on Sundays along with the other junior competitions which are shifting from their original Saturday game days.

The launch of a youth girls competition comes five years after the league established a women's competition and is representative of the explosion of AFL participation in NSW and the ACT by women and girls.

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Around one quarter of registered teams are now female sides and for every female football team there was in 2011, there are now 11.2.

Northern NSW competition co-ordinator Brad Greenshields said it was "incredibly exciting" to have enough depth and interest in the region to start a girls-only competition.

"Historically, it's been impossible for older girls to play footy - there just hasn't been a competition available," he said.

"I look forward to watching this age group grow and develop and can't wait to see the trailblazing players of 2022 make their mark in the inaugural season."

The competition will be for girls turning 15, 16 and 17 and will form an important pathway from junior to senior football.

All seven North West clubs are committed to running a youth girls team and AFL NSW/ACT will support them to host free come and try girls only sessions across February and March.

Already plans are in place to hold sessions in Gunnedah on February 12 and Tamworth on March 13.

The season will commence in April with multiple matches being played as double headers on a Sunday in the same location so teams can share players in case any clubs facing off encounter uneven numbers.

The juniors have been shifted to Sundays with growing numbers making it harder to accommodate all age groups and grades across all clubs on Saturdays.

It also means the juniors - mixed U14s, boys U17s and girls U17s - are the sole focus on their match day and allow them to play at more favourable times.

Community football manager Paul Taylor said it was incredible to have seen so much growth within the sport in recent times.

"It was only six, seven years ago that it was a men's only competition," Taylor said of the AFL North West.

"And that [men's competition] has seen fantastic growth in that period of time but it's really set up to be a game for boys, girls, men, women. All ages and both genders."

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