THIS month’s inaugural Geelong Girls Gala Football Event will be an innovative new pre-season event aimed at attracting both new and former female players to the rapidly growing sport in the Geelong region.

The exciting 7-a-side half pitch format will be the ideal vehicle for all current Geelong region clubs to attract new players and ‘top up’ their existing squads ahead of the upcoming 2017 GRFC League season. The inaugural event will be hosted by Lara United FC at its Lara Recreation Reserve complex on Saturday 18^th of February 2017.

The fun based tournament will feature Girls’ Under 12s, Under 15s and Open Women’s age categories and will encourage clubs, schools and other organisations to get involved, with the main focus being on participation and not winning at all costs.

This event is being run as a recruitment initiative. Club teams are - wherever possible – to be made up of existing players and topped up with friends that have either never played or are coming back to have another go at playing Football.

Example: If you have 10 players in your current team, split them into two groups of five players and and invite friends to make two squads of 10 players. That way your club may attract 10 new players to your club for the 2017 GRFC season.

Acting on behalf of the Geelong Region Football Committee (GRFC), the new ground breaking female’s only event is being managed and administered by the recently formed Geelong Women’s Football Taskforce and has selected the phrase “It’s Football, it’s Fun, it’s Fabulous, Bring a Friend and get Free Stuff” as its event motto.

The Woman’s Task Force recommended a preseason GRFC Girls only Tournament to run annually to help build the female profile in the Geelong Region.

Its aims include:

-   -Increasing female participation (recruitment of non active players)

-      - Targeting females 12-28 years of age (Victorian State Government has identified this demographic as an Australia wide priority)

-       -  Aimed at addressing rising inactivity levels in the younger population, particularly females.

The cost of registering teams has been kept to a minimum with discounts applying to those teams which field new (unregistered) players. The cost for a team of existing players only is $200, $180 for a team with one new player or $160 for a team with two or more new players to the sport.

For further information about the Geelong Girls Gala Football Event or to REGISTER a team, contact the event organisers via email at geelonggirlsgala@gmail.com