For the first time in Wadeye history, a women’s team was crowned the champions of a Senior Women’s Competition last weekend.
Due to the growing interest of women’s footy across the Territory and in Wadeye, a Senior Women’s competition came to life with three teams vying for a pre-season Premiership. These teams were Wadeye Reds, Manthathpe Roo’s and Palumpa Power.
AFLNT Youth Football Development Manager for Wadeye, Birrigan Young said it has been incredible to witness the growing interest in women’s footy in such a remote area of the Northern Territory.
“The concept of women’s footy is still very new to the Wadeye community. The only other senior women’s game that has been played in this region was a stand-alone exhibition match back in 2018,”
“Since starting my role with AFLNT in mid-March, we ran a few junior female scratch-match games which gained heaps of interest from senior women and from there we realised the potential of running a competition.”
AFLNT Participation, Programs and Remote Projects Manager, Cassidy Fitzclarence said women’s footy is the main growth area in the remote footy space which is also represented across the Territory.
“The growth of women’s footy in town is mirrored in remote communities which is awesome to see,”
“Some communities have been quicker than others to take women’s competitions up like Gove and Galiwinku who have been pioneering regions.
“Galiwinku has high player engagement with seven regular women’s teams supported by senior members of the community and it’s fantastic to see Wadeye and Palumpa following suit.”
Due to this growing appetite for a Wadeye Senior Women’s competition, earlier in the year AFLNT held a committee meeting and invited key community figures to discuss logistics.
“All committee members agreed on running a pre-season competition to show the community women can not only play footy but also drive interest for others to play,” Young explained.
“Due to the popularity of women’s footy this year, we believe we will be able to expand the competition to four or five regular full Wadeye and Palumpa teams for next season which would be amazing.”
The Women’s Pre-Season Competition ran over five weeks in order to line up the Women’s Grand Final with the Men’s Wet Season Grand Final. During the season, each team played each other once with the Reds finishing on top of the table. Reds played the winner of the Qualifying Final in the Grand Final, Power.
“Grand Final Day was a huge success and was the first time Wadeye has ever had two Grand Final games on in the one day and really made it feel like a community event,” Young described.
“The women’s game was tightly contested with Power leaving as Premiers in the end after defeating Reds by 11 points.”
“The women are extremely eager for the next competition which we are hoping to commence around mid-August.”
Wadeye Senior Women’s Grand Final Result
Wadeye Reds 2.3.15
Palumpa Power 3.8.26