Riverland Womens Football Launch

[slazenger]

Riverland JSA has created its own piece of Football history, with the introduction and implementation of an “Open” Womens Competition. Catering for aspiring girls aged 14 and above, the league officially kicked off on Sunday 3rd May, with Renmark Oval playing host to the first games.

Present at the launch were Football Federation Australia - Regional Participation Manager Vito Basile and Adelaide rising star, Ashlee Faul, who at only 16, already has developed a healthy player profile. Ashlee won her club’s Best and Fairest Award at 14 when she was playing in the local Senior Womens Premier League, has represented South Australia at the National Championships, is a current SASI player and has also been part of the U17 Womens Australian National Team.

With the introduction of Australian National Teams now catering for girls as young as 14, Womens Football is becoming one of the most popular sports in the country and has seen rapid growth in recent times. Ashlee’s presence at the launch provided the young players with a female mentor, as Ashlee provides the perfect example of what all young girls should be striving to achieve in the Womens code.

Interest in the Womens game stems back to the beginning of the year, when Basile and Riverland JSA President – Steve Poutakidis conducted a Womens Football Gala Day to help promote, develop and create an awareness of Womens involvement in Football.

Healthy numbers participated in the February Gala Day, which has now resulted in the creation of the new competition. It is a remarkable achievement for the region to be able to include a league purely for Women. Hopefully this concept can now develop further to become a force in the region and perhaps one day produces future Matildas to compete in Womens World Cups.



From the FFSA Website, http://womens.ffsa.com.au/displaynews.a ... =90&cid=92

Good publicity I say.

[adelaidepie]

Good luck to all teams and players concerned out there.

I know the womens game is going well down in the south east as well. This should be clearly seen and encouraged from all clubs and the FFSA and this advantage used to assist in getting sponsorship and better run competitions across South Australia. The number of female teams had, (not sure about this season) grown over the last couple of years and with the introdcution of the Riverland league and also competitions down in the south east then the growth is something that can only be a benifit.

The SASI, State and school girl teams hopefully will see the fruits of these increased numbers over the next year or to.

Adelaidepie Julian

[F.O.F.A.]

On behalf of all at Full On Football, a big Congratulations to all in this exciting time for the Riverland and Women's Football in general.

It is always pleasing to hear new opportunities being made available for our youth to play the world game, especially our young female athletes.

We would love to offer the opportunity for a representative to be able to appear on our show in our Spotlight Segment. Well done to all who have been involved in this new initiative for the sport!

Nat Adamopoulos
Full On Football
0421 507 948