THE profile of the inaugural Geelong Girls' Gala event has received a major boost with the confirmation this week that two very high profile individuals will attend the event at the Lara Recreation Reserve on Saturday 18^th of February.

PHOTO: Ex-Matilda superstar and two time W-League Goalkeeper of the Year, Melissa Barbieri, will be a special guest at the inaugural Geelong Girls Gala event on Saturday 18th of February

Event organisers this week received confirmation from Victorian State Sports Minister John Eren's office that he will be available to come along to the pre-season event, the same time as ex-Matilda's captain, Melissa Barbieri.

Barbieri played in four World Cups, made 86 international appearances for Australia and led the Matildas to Asian Cup glory in 2010. She signed for Melbourne Victory for the inaugural season of the Westfield W-League in 2008 and won the Goalkeeper of the Year award that year. She also took out the W-League Goalkeeper of the year award again in 2013/14, this time playing for Adelaide United.

“We will have a whole group photo taken with both Melissa and John, followed by a short presentation and welcome to our special guests,” explained a spokesperson for the GRFC Women’s Taskforce, Rebecca Horrocks.

“This is a great thing for the exposure of our inaugural event and will go a long way to further boosting the profile of female football in this city,” she added. 

Organised by the Women's Participation Taskforce at the Geelong Region Football Committee (GRFC), the innovative new event will feature a 7-a-side half pitch format that will include Girls’ Under 12s, Under 15s and Open Women’s age categories.

The focus of the event is to aid existing GRFC clubs to boost their participation numbers with the recruitment of new female players, either at Junior or Senior level. There is still room for more teams to join but registrations will close at the end of this week.