The field and boundary umpires will officiate in the Central Highlands league encounter between Gordon and Daylesford at Gordon on Saturday.

BFUA operations manager Scott Carey said the appointments fell in line with the AFL Goldfields’ “Women in Football” round.

He said an all-female panel had also been named for the Ballarat league under-18.5 match between Lake Wendouree and Darley at Wendouree’s CE Brown Reserve on Saturday.

Carey said attracting and developing female umpires had been a key focus for the association over the past few years.

He said this weekend’s BFUA milestone helped recognise the significant contribution women made to the association and football across the region.

“As an association, we are proud of the commitment made by our coaches and members in attracting and developing female umpires,” he said.

“The association certainly is (pleased), it’s something over the past 5-8 years that the association has worked really hard on – the recruitment and development of female umpires.

“Our numbers have continued to grow over that time, the association’s focus on the development of those girls has really grown and it’s culminated into the fact that we’ve got an all-female umpire panel doing a senior football match.”

Carey added that respect towards umpires over the last decade had seen a massive improvement and that was something the association was extremely proud of.

“The attitude from clubs towards umpires over the last 5-10 years has improved dramatically. Umpires feel that they are respected, the women’s side of it adds another element to that.”

Carey said there was a chance we would see more all-female umpiring panels this season, but most definitely we would the female numbers continue to increase in the future.

BFUA chairman Richard Carroll said the appointments were a wonderful achievement for the

girls and association.

“All of them have worked extremely hard in their development to reach senior level.