Select A Role - Select which role applies best to you - it will help us deliver the most relevant content for you in the future. Select one if you are an administrator, coach or official, player or parent.
Administrator
Administrators play a vital role in sport, particularly to reduce the potential for things to go wrong. Here, you can access resources to help you manage risks in your sport.
Coach or Official
Coaches and officials are what make sport tick. They play a crucial role in helping keep sport safe, fair and inclusive. Here are a number of tools and resources to help you do just that.
Player
If you are a player then you can make a huge contribution to making sport safe, fair and inclusive. Your behaviour influences others, not only your team mates, but everyone involved in sport.
Parents
As a parent you should be aware of your clubs responsibilities. At the same time you also have responsibilities and you can play a huge role in creating a safe environment for your child.
We are currently a Level 2 FFA Accredited Club and soon to be Level 3 and potentially the first Club in Australia to achieve this. Being able to promote our Club’s ‘culture’ and encouragement of Female Football via social media channels and on our website has proven to be beneficial in building your reputation as a passionate supporter and promoter of Female Football.
We ran a girls-only Summer 6s competition for girls aged between 6 and 9 in 2016, along with a women-only ‘Kicks and Giggles’ option for mums. This allowed girls to try the sport in a supported manner without giving up other winter sports, such as netball, to take on football in the season-proper and potentially find that they don’t enjoy playing in mixed teams.
We have used much of the materials from the Department of Health’s ‘Girls Make Your Move’ campaign to help in attracting new players.
The summer competition was so successful, that in the full 2017 season, we were able to enter our first girls-only under-8 and under-11 teams in a girls-only competition in Newcastle.
For the girls who did enjoy playing in mixed teams, we allowed them to play both in the mixed teams, and girls-only teams pending the draw.
As we head into our second year of Summer 6s, we have enough interest to offer girls-only games for girls aged between 5 and 12. Our women’s competition has also expanded and includes teenage girls.
As a club of only 200 players, this has been a significant outcome.
Why we did it
We had identified that although girls between the ages of six and seven were joining up to play football, they were dropping out of the sport as they got older.
Although we had previously had a girls-only team that played in a mixed competition, it was unsuccessful and many of the girls did not return to football.
After seeking advice from Hunter Valley Football, Northern NSW Football and Play by the Rules, we believed that girls were being deterred from continuing with the sport because there was no girls-only option.
How we know it worked
Our overall female registrations have increased by 400% in under two years.
We have gone from having only two girls in the under-11 age group playing in a mixed team, to fielding a full girls-only under-11 side plus a mixed side with some girls remaining. 2017 saw our first 2 girls teams playing in girls only games and 2018 we already have 4 girls teams and a ladies team consisting of mums.
