The club which received registration for the 13-side league in January currently boasts a list with 13 players, with one player only able to play every second week.

Creswick president Mick Alsop said while he was confident the club would build on its slow start to recruitment in coming years, the response since the club’s announcement earlier this year had been smaller than expected.

“We expected we would get to 15, and around 18 is what we were aiming to achieve,” Alsop said.  “With the time frame we’ve had it’s not easy to get it up and running.”

Alsop said when Creswick lodged the application in late 2015 around 10 girls had pledged their commitment to the new side.

While the team falls under the banner of the Creswick Football Club, Alsop was keen to highlight that the role of the team was to service the entire Central Highlands region, and not just the Creswick community.

The league which is now in its sixth year of competition allows for flexible match structure, with clubs fielding sides of between 15 and 18 players depending on the depth of the two teams.  Alsop said while the club would have been unable to field a side if it was required to field 18 players a round, the leniency of the league meant it would be able to feature in every match this season.

While the competition has lost the Ballarat Swans for the 2016 season, it has picked up three new clubs, with North Ballarat and Melton Central joining Creswick in making their youth girls debuts. 

AFL Goldfields commercial and regional operations manager Aaron Nunn most clubs had expressed confidence in their depth ahead of the season opener.

The Wickers will kick off their 2016 youth girls campaign against 2015 grand finalists Redan at Marty Busch Reserve on Sunday morning.