CHRIS Hammond is the man that will lead Creswick’s newest football team.
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Hammond, the father of Melbourne player Lynden Dunn, takes on the coaching role following news that AFL Goldfields has ticked off a submission for the club to field a team in the Ballarat youth girls competition during 2016.
Although carrying the Creswick banner, club president Mick Alsop said spots in the squad were open to girls across the Central Highlands Football League, which has supported the introduction of a female football side.
A try-out night at Creswick’s Doug Lindsay Reserve has been set down for Wednesday, February 24 with pre-season training to commence the following Monday.
“Chris was highly recommended from a number of sources as someone that would be a great asset to coach and help with getting the team up and running based on his long history in football,” Alsop said.
Alsop said because girls were only permitted to play within the Central Highlands boys teams until the age of 14, it was important that they could continue to enjoy the game they love and not be forced to leave the league.
“Until now, they have had to move away from the region to join a youth girls’ team if they wanted to continue playing football,” he said.
“The creation of the (Creswick) team not only alleviates this, but also provides an avenue for girls within the region that would like to play football - but not as part of a predominately boys team - to now do so.”
Alsop said the new football team wouldn’t interfere with clubs’ current netball participation numbers because matches were played on different days of the week.
“Netball is played on a Saturday, whilst the youth girls football is played on Sundays,” he said.
A lightning premiership is set to kick-off the 2016 youth girls season on Saturday, April 9 before round one matches are likely to start on Sunday, May 8.