Juliet backs women’s footy

GIRLS across South Gippsland and Bass Coast are getting fired up for the upcoming footy season.
Among them is Inverloch’s Juliette Townsend, who is keen to see how women’s sport will continue to grow in 2018.
Women’s sport had come leaps and bounds in the past 12 months, and Juliette hopes 2018 will bring more women’s teams in the Australian league and more media coverage.
Juliette has been playing football for the past three years.
The 16 year old began her career playing alongside the boys in Inverloch Football Netball Club’s junior team. She also played with Dalyston’s junior boys’ team before the development of the Dalyston Youth Girls.
She has also made the Victorian U15s Indigenous team, played for Bunurong in a state wide carnival, and played for Gippsland Power in the TAC Cup.
This year will be her second year playing for Power Youth Girls.
“I love the intensity of the sport. I play in the middle, so I like being able to be anywhere on the ground,” Juliette said.
“Women’s football is getting bigger, and I think soon it will be as big as the boy’s competition. It’s really good, because there used to be a point where girls couldn’t go any further with their footy, and now they can keep going through to AFL.”
During training, Juliette has found the focus is centred on running and coordination, as well as the ball skills. She plays netball and trains with Vertical Addiction, which has improved her fitness and coordination.
Juliette said more girls are starting to get involved in football locally now that more clubs are offering a youth girls team.
“When I first started playing youth girls, we had to travel so far for a game. It’s good having the local teams because we all know each other so there’s a social side, and there are still rivalries in the competition.”
Juliette said she hoped to see age groups introduced in youth girls as the popularity continues to grow.
“At the moment, youth girls is 13 to 18 year olds, so there’s a big age gap. It can be a little bit confronting. In Melbourne, they have U15s, U16s and U18s, so hopefully we see something like that soon,” she said.
On top of this, Juliette would like to see women’s leagues enjoying extended seasons.
“It’s (women’s footy) starting to have a bigger following but at the moment there are fewer rounds than a men’s league. I’d like to see every AFL football club have a women’s team and for there to be more televised games,” she said.
In the AFL Women’s league, Juliette is a Bulldogs supporter.
For Juliette, training and trials with the Power youth girls kicks off on February 1 and 8 at 4.30pm at the Wonthaggi Recreation Reserve.

Pumped: Inverloch’s Juliette Townsend is ready to get back into footy, with trials for Power youth girls beginning in early February.

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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Jan 30 2018. Filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry