The Darling Downs, Northern Rivers and Gold Coast AFL regions have combined forces for the upcoming Under 16 Youth Girls State Championships. All three regions had well over a shared total of one hundred enthusiastic 16 years and under girls wanting a piece of making the DDNRGC first ever Under 16 Youth Girls team.
In the past girls from the Gold Coast, Northern Rivers and Darling Downs regions have had to try out for the South East Queensland Flames, which also included girls from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. With the birth of the Gold Coast, Northern Rivers and Darling Downs representative side, this gives more girls from South East Queensland to experience representative football and more importantly giving more girls the opportunity of playing Australian Rules football.
The Darling Downs will be represented strongly, with four of the region’s best 16 years and under girls making the final 22. All four girls come from a non-AFL background and show real interest in wanting to pursue further with their Aussie Rules careers.
The four girls that have made the squad are Marnie McGorm (soccer), Kailah Rogers (touch football), Madie Moloney (touch football) and Tiah Barham (Athletics). All four girls have picked up on the skills and knowledge of Australian Rules football very quickly and have impressed Development staff from all of the three regions.
The girls will take off to Cairns for the Under 16 Youth Girls State Championships this Friday (29/10) and will return Sunday. Stay tuned for results and how the girls went at the championships.
With the four girls going away to the championships, this is a major step as Development Officer Jeff Neumann looks to build the regions first ever Youth Girls side in 2011. This comes after an impressive year of where female participations numbers have been up on the Darling Downs; the Darling Downs region had the most female participants across the state in 2010. The NAB AFL Auskick program recorded a record 28% of participants were female, St Ursula’s College (all girls private school) made it to the State Final of the Brisbane Lions Youth Girls Cup but were unfortunate and lost, 35 girls registered their name and participated in an Under 18 Development program, where they participated in a rotational playing system with the Gold Coast Warriors Youth Girls side throughout the Under 18 Quest Newspaper Cup competition, who took out the 2010 Grand Final by a mear 5 points.
If you would like further information on Girls AFL, you can give either Jeff Neumann (Development Officer AFL Queensland – Darling Downs region) a call on (07) 46322994 or AFL Queensland Female Participation and Coaching Coordinator Julia Price a call on (07) 30335400.
Last Modified on 15/11/2010 16:39