Female footy takeover as SDFJA announces introduction of youth girls competition before GSFLW games

In a big step for regional women’s football, the Southern Districts Junior Football Association will feature a youth girls summer competition for the first time next year. The exciting new competition will run from February through to April in conjunction with the 2023 Great Southern Football League Women’s competition and is open to players in Year 7-10. Player registrations officially opened last week with the first week of training set down for January 30 next year. The competition is an expansion on last year’s winter youth girls football program which focused solely on skills and training with the summer program set to include full matches across the 10 rounds of GSFLW action. Teams and fixtures will be released closer to the start of the season. Newly appointed SDJFA president Cindy Sedgwick is hopeful the new timeslot for the comp will encourage more participation. “We’re hoping that it will, it obviously won’t clash with all the winter sports like netball and hockey so hopefully it will spark some interest,” she said. “There hasn’t been huge interest for the summer comp yet but we’ve only just started advertising it. “We’re hoping that as momentum builds up, we’ll push it a bit more prior to the season and I suppose there will be a lot of last-minute people getting on board too. “I think it just shows that there is actually a pathway for these girls, you don’t just have to get to a certain age and then stop — you can keep going and pushing on to the next step.” Games will be played in Albany, Denmark and Mt Barker prior to their respective GSFLW fixtures at Retravision Stadium, Collingwood Park, Tigerland, Sounness Park and McLean Oval. Aspiring junior footballer Tacha Lowry said was looking forward to the opportunities the new competition would bring. “I’m looking forward to getting back into footy after not playing for a few months,” she said. “It’s exciting that some of the women playing after us will get to see us before their games so we might be able to get some feedback from them, too.” The upcoming season will be Sedgwick’s first year in the role and she is looking forward to fostering an inclusive and safe environment for juniors to flourish. “I just want to continue to grow and provide a nice stable environment for our juniors,” Sedgwick said. “We are looking at a lot of different things but mainly we just want to grow the junior competition and keep it steady,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to the season and how it’s going to run, hopefully we have success with joining the girls up with the women to create that pathway.” “The inclusion of Denmark and Mt Barker is great, that’s really growing, too. “I’m really looking forward to the season and how it’s going to run, hopefully we have success with joining the girls up with the women to create that pathway.”