Women’s football to kick goals in 2021

Jane Howlett,Minister for Sport and Recreation

I welcome today’s announcement from AFL Tasmania of a new competition model for women’s football across the State.

This model will provide for more teams, and importantly more opportunities for women to play football in Tasmania.

Despite the challenges of 2020, female football is continuing to grow in Tasmania across all age groups.

Girls are increasingly choosing football as their sport of choice and it’s great that they get to see 12 Tasmanian females now playing at the highest level in the AFLW.

Our Government is a strong supporter of women’s participation in sport and recreation, delivering a range of programs and initiatives in recent years including the $10 million Levelling the Playing Field Grants program.

The program provided funding across a range of sports including AFL to improve facilities to maintain and build female participation.

Since the program begun in 2019, 34 facilities received funding to improve the change rooms and associated amenities for female participants with 26 of those facilities relating to grounds or facilities used for Australian Rules football.

In addition, our Government is developing a strategy to provide clear and effective strategic leadership for females to support our commitment to increase opportunities for women and girls to participate in all levels of sport.

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