Ballarat can continue to play a significant role in the rapid growth of women's football, the sport's leaders say.
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The AFL's Women's Football Vision report - based on the league's goals for the next decade - stated that nationwide participation rates have risen, the amount of leagues and teams has grown and the pathway to a professional career is a lot clearer.
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The Ballarat Football Netball League introduced the Youth Girls competition in 2011, with four teams fielding sides; Ballarat, Redan, Sebastopol and Golden Point.
Ten years on, the league runs a senior women's competition, as well as under-18, under-16 and under-14 youth girls grades.
The talent pathway for girls was improved when the Greater Western Victoria Rebels entered the inaugural NAB League girls' competition in 2017.
Since then, 11 players have graduated directly from the Rebels to the AFLW; names such as Amy McDonald, Sophie Molan and most recently Ella Friend spring to mind.
Such a pathway wasn't available to former AFLW player Sally Riley, one of Ballarat's finest sporting export's.
Her journey involved a move to the Northern Territory in 2013 to begin a full-time teaching career. While there, she represented the NTFL and was selected by Adelaide with pick 39 in the 2016 national draft.
Now an assistant coach with the Rebels and Victoria Country, Riley admits she is envious of the new-age opportunities in women's football.
"I say (it) quite often: 'god I'm jealous of what you girls have in front of you'. There's no question I would've been a much better player if these programs and resources were in place when I was that age," she said.
"You look at my career, I was just, I guess, blessed that I could kick a footy and I just loved it and I would watch the boys' games and try and mimic them. I just purely loved the sport.
"Whereas now, I just think ... I'm extremely envious and I wish I was a 15-year-old girl again."
Rebels head coach David Loader said the girls' program has grown again ahead of 2022.
"We've got an under-16 futures program that's been added to the girls football this year. Last year we were all under-19s and we had a squad of 37 or 38," he said.
"Right at this point in time I think we've had 79 girls train this year."
The AFL's report highlighted the big steps that the sport has taken nation-wide, however conceded there was still a long way left to go.
In the talent pathways, added resources is an aspect that needs addressing.
For the Rebels, the same coaching staff looks after the boys and girls squads, which consists of players from all over western Victoria - one of the biggest regions in the NAB League.
"There's been a slight shift where we've got some female (squad) staff and some male (squad) staff, but most of the key staff are over both programs," Loader said.
"(Sally's) concentrating on the girls, but we've got Cahiry (Rhys Cahir) that was an ex-coach of the girls that works in both programs, Gilly (Eamonn Gill) does both programs.
"I'd like to see it get to a point in time where we're resourced well enough where programs could be run separately."
Loader admitted concessions had to be made to oversee both programs.
"What you have to do is compromise the length of time spent in each program if you're running both. I'd like to see both programs (run) longer, there was more time spent with the athletes, the seasons were longer," he said.
"Rather than try and make everything fit in one calendar year, have one overlap with the other one but just have a different coaching structure running one to the other."
At a local level, BFNL female football director Robert Simmonds said a focus on building strong foundations was important.
"Girls (football) is very much in its developmental stage and I think we need to just not get too excited and go too hard early," he said.
"We just need to step back a bit and just really develop the foundations, focus on our under-14s and under-16s, give them as many opportunities to be kicking a football as possible and build from there.
"I really encourage clubs to work out when school footy is and not train on that night. They (girls) need to be exposed to as many games and kick as much as possible."
Simmonds said that long-term goal is what people needed to have in the back of their mind when it came to girls football. It was a reason he wanted to join the BFNL board as female football director.
"I think at the moment, looking at what's around, we're starting to get some good people administering girls football and having that long-term vision," he said.
"It's not 'oh, I want my girls to win the premiership'. I think there's not many of (those people) around at the moment. It's all about how can we make girls football stronger.
"Instead of saying, 'hey I've got 20 girls, let's start a senior women's club', that's not sustainable - what's underneath you?"
Like the Rebels, extra resources is something that the BFNL is hoping to add to its growing female football staff.
"The Ballarat Football Netball League is taking (female) footy very, very seriously," Simmonds said.
"I'm obviously the director of female footy and there's another director who is focusing on female football, and we are looking at potentially bringing on a third (person) to support (them).
"In a perfect world, (with a) long-term plan and if we can find some financial backing, we want to have a female football development officer based here in Ballarat, who will not just be doing the admin, but actually getting into schools, going to clubs, all that sort of stuff."
Coaching was another area of focus in the report. Based on 2019 figures, just 6.8 per cent of coaches across all levels are women.
Currently in the AFLW there are no female senior coaches, but over 20 assistant coaches.
Riley said she'd received a lot of support.
"I find that it's not 'oh, just because you're female, we need to get it for the stats'. I think that clubs are genuinely going 'well you've been there, you've experienced it, you've got the knowledge'," she said.
"Especially us retirees, we've got a lot of things that other coaches don't have, having been there and done it for the girls. So they're really seeing the benefit of that."
Loader echoed Riley's comments.
"It's wonderful to have a female to talk to females that's lived it," he said.
"(Riley) came through at a time when female football was nothing like it is now. It's a lot easier for girls now, because there's clear talent pathways.
"She's going to have a really clear message on what it takes to come through. It's certainly a massive plus for us to be able to sell that to the young, aspiring athletes.
"We can coach the specifics and we've got a wealth of knowledge in that area, but to be able to add someone who's actually lived it and breathed it and worked out how you find a pathway through, then that's just a massive plus for us."
GWV Rebels talent operations lead Brooke Brown, who joined from the Bendigo Pioneers earlier this year, added that having current Richmond AFLW development coach Emma Grant involved with the Pioneers last season did wonders for the program.
"The girls just were able to feed off her in regards to understanding the game, not just the coaching side of things, but the development of being able to be an AFLW player," she said.
"I can't speak highly enough of having someone from an AFLW program in our talent pathways program."
Despite growing up in Ballarat, Riley has not experienced much of the growth in women's football here as she has been living in the Northern Territory, Adelaide and Gold Coast.
She has helped women's football grow in these states and has experienced a lot of successful strategies that Ballarat can adopt to help it to continue to go from strength-so-strength here.
"I'm probably, I don't know, the first Ballarat retiree, but the more that get drafted and the more that end up back in the region, the more visible it is for the local girls to see 'oh, it is possible that you can grow up here and do that'," she said.
"I know sometimes people might miss out because they haven't been seen or what not but I just want to encourage all the girls to keep going and give it a go. Every time we get on the footy field, it's a new game of footy to have fun and if you want to make it then you've still got that opportunity."
One of the aspirational targets in the report was for there to be a strong and visible pathway for administrators to ensure women are well positioned for senior football roles.
Brooke Brown has been a pioneer in this area in the Ballarat region, taking up roles with the AFL, the Bendigo Pioneers and now leading the Rebels program.
She said the path is a lot clearer now than when she first started out as a volunteer with the Rebels.
"I probably had to do the hard yards of volunteering and working here for 10 years while teaching," she said.
"There is a clear pathway and with the opportunities of new AFLW clubs arising in the next couple of years, the pathway will become stronger and stronger.
"There's two words I'll always go back to: opportunity and possibility. You only just need one opportunity for it to start your journey within an AFLW or an AFL system.
"It's certainly come a very long way since I first started for sure."
Looking to the future, Brown said support is what is needed to help more women enter senior football roles.
"(It's probably just) enabling the likes of myself or Sally as a coach, or any female, to go and do some experience at AFL clubs," she said.
"I know that the AFL have also got a couple of mentoring programs with women in leadership, so women in the AFL can apply for them each and every year.
"There's a number of opportunities that the AFL provide for women in administration."
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