Female participation in AFL rapidly growing in Northern Territory

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Northern Territory is leading the charge in female participation in the AFL, attracting first-time and professional players from across the country. And with the end of the professional season, the Territory's women premier league has been cashing in on talent.

Transcript

00:00Anna Bowie has never played Aussie Rules footy before.

00:05In my hometown there's no girls footy team so yeah it was never really something that

00:10ever crossed my mind.

00:11But that changed when Anna moved to Darwin last year.

00:15I think you always hear that everyone plays girls footy up here and I thought yeah why

00:19not let's give it a go.

00:21Anna grew up playing netball and tennis and has always been passionate about AFL.

00:26After supporting her brother who plays for local clubs in Delaney Quinn, for a player

00:32new to the game she says the support she's been given since joining the sport has been

00:37immense.

00:38I think everyone's been so welcoming and so lovely and I think it's really exciting playing

00:43a new sport and seeing yourself get better each week when you've not played before.

00:49But she's not the only one.

00:51Some using it as a spanky during the professional off-season while others are trying to score

00:56their first goal.

00:57Everyone's in the same boat, everyone's learning, everyone makes mistakes, has a laugh about it.

01:02In the last four years 41 female teams and 291 participants have joined the football

01:08league in the top end.

01:10The last two to three years we've seen such a massive growth at the footy club both in

01:14the women's and men's space.

01:16The timing of the Tetris competition from October to March and our humid weather is

01:21helping attract interstate talent from down south.

01:25But that's nothing new.

01:26It's a play that has long fuelled the men's league and it's having the same effect on

01:31the women's game.

01:32We've seen a huge boost in the numbers of the juniors coming through.

01:36We're working on having an under 18s team hopefully next year or the year after which

01:40is really exciting because that's something we haven't had previously.

01:43There's a really good kind of word of mouth and community around women's footy in the

01:48territory now and a lot of women join because of that social interaction.

01:53The growth of the women's game, making it clear regional communities are becoming a

01:58key player in the national sporting scene.

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