Female footballers on the rise

This article first appeared on afl.com.au

By Ben Guthrie

As participation numbers in NSW/ACT reached a record high, figures released by the AFL on Monday also showed a staggering 43 per cent jump in females participating in football from 2011 to 2012.

And the number of females becoming involved in football at club level, Auskick, school and AFL 9s level has risen from 12.01 per cent in 2011 to 16.11 per cent in 2012.

Peta Searle, who made history this year as the first female to become an assistant coach at VFL level, is thrilled to see the number of women playing Australian football soar to record levels.

Searle, who is an assistant coach with powerhouse VFL club Port Melbourne, said the latest figures were extremely encouraging.

“It’s very exciting to have so many girls running around and enjoying the game,” Searle said.

She said there were almost 4000 girls involved in the Auskick program in Victoria alone, as well as 9000 players in youth girls teams participating in football in the state.

“[Football] is certainly becoming more and more viable and more and more available and desirable for girls,” she said.

Searle said she had noticed a big improvement in the standard of women’s football leagues over the past few years.

“Now you’ve got girls coming through who are proficient on both sides of the body because they’re kicking the ball from an earlier age,” she said.

The national participation rate, including at Auskick, club, school and AFL 9s, level represented a 6.81 per cent increase from 2011 to 2012.

Participation in the newest form of the game, AFL 9s, increased a whopping 167 per cent, while international participation was up 10 per cent on last year’s figures.