A TRIAL to start an under 14 girls AFL competition in 2026 kicks off on Wednesday at 4pm, with plans to run for the next four weeks before the Primary Schools PSSA Girls AFL Gala Day on July 2.
AFL Broken Hill development officer David Bearman said the numbers of girls playing AFL decrease after Auskick age (up to 10yrs), due to the lack of access to girls only competition football; most are not keen to play in the mixed grades with the boys, and understandably so.
“The numbers really start to drop away, and what we’ve had is a lot of the girls requesting to play in the youth girls (under 16s), but the step up is just a bit too big to start off with, particularly with the girls who have had limited experience,” he said.
“So we’ve decided to a minimum of four-week trial, which is free, so they can come along and try it out.”
Mr Bearman said the plan is to see how many girls are keen to play, and if it’s enough to form teams.
“What we’re doing initially, which is how the women started, is telling everyone to turn up, whatever number of players we have, we’ll divide you into teams evenly and play games,” he said.
“So initially they’re not going to be club based.”
Mr Bearman said that previous AFL PSSA Gala days for girls have proven the girls playing footy are highly skilled and they shine when not playing with the boys.
“The amount of the girls that come out and play, and the level of skill, has been outstanding,” he said.
“But a large majority of them don’t play in regular competition games.”
Any girls aged between 11 and 13 that want to play can attend the Jubilee Oval on Wednesday (June 4) at 4pm.
