Over twenty girls attended North Melbourne Football Club's first Female Academy session at Arden St yesterday.
The girls, who hail from all over Melbourne, Ballarat, Daylesford and Bendigo, experienced the first day of an on and off field development program
the will run across the year. After receiving their very own North Melbourne jumper to train in, a positive education session was conducted by resident NMFC Learning & Life Centre teacher Mairead Hannan, and encouraged the girls to identify character strengths that are useful not only on the football ground but off as well. A practical skills session was conducted by AFL Victoria's Female Football Development Manager, Chyloe Kurdas, focussed on ball control in kicking and hand passing, as well as contact work. A final session focussing on nutrition and football conditioning saw the girls eat up a presentation by NMFC Fitness and Conditioning Coach Paul Turk. He also took the girls on a tour of the impressive new facility at NMFC, during which they got to enjoy a Q&A session with Irish recruit, Conor Meredith.
Assisting throughout the day were three senior players from NMFC's partner women's club, Melbourne University. Kylie Byrne, Ash Bye and Emma Phillips were on hand to assist in one on skill training, share their experiences as footballers and provide female role models for the girls. Victorian U16 School Girls Captain, Georgia Punton, assisted AFL Victoria in the delivery of the program.
Both AFL
Victoria and the NMFC hope to see these girls make the transition from junior
football to Youth Girls and beyond, and provide them with many more opportunities to develop their football skills.
Last Modified on 09/04/2010 15:07