On the back of a mass exodus from Spotswood’s women’s football program things are looking precarious ahead of the Western Region Football League season.
Last year’s division 1 premiership coaches Ian Allan and Chris Grant departed the club for Victorian Amateur Football Association club Westbourne late last year and with them, took a suite of Spotswood players.
Last season Spotswood had two women’s teams, the division 1 team was premiers and their second side made it into a preliminary final in division 2. The club was just one of two with two senior women’s teams in 2023.
New coach Glen Smith said the early signs for getting a women’s team up for 2024 aren’t great but he and the club are working tirelessly to make it happen.
“At the moment, it’s a little rough,” he said. “We’re keen and looking forward to it, it’s just about what it’s going to look like at the moment, in terms of the numbers of girls, that’s a bit of a problem at the moment, but we’re still two months away from the regular season so we’re hopeful and we’re trying.
“It’s just a bit skinny at the moment, we’ve got training tonight [Monday], we’ll get a bit of a better idea there.
“There are still girls on holiday and stuff like that. We’re hopeful, not from a lack of trying that people are speaking to people, but there are other clubs that have the same sort of problem so we’re not alone.”
“We’re not giving up until sort of the last minute.
“At the moment the numbers aren’t there but we have training tonight and we’ll see what’s going on. We’re persevering.”
Smith has been at the club for more than five decades and said he is adamant on creating a fun and welcoming environment for women’s players at the club.
“If they wanted to come to Spotswood they’d be coming to a club where we make the girls welcome, to be part of a club,” he said.
“I believe that any strong club in the future has to have a place for female athletes and the other part of it is that we’ll do our best to help them do their best.
“We want Spotty to be a place where they feel as happy to walk through the door as confident to walk through the door, as comfortable to walk through the door as I have in my last 55 years at the club.”
