Magpies celebrate growth spurt in junior girls participation

BYRON Bay Magpies has celebrated a milestone with its junior girls more than doubling in registration numbers in the local Aussie Rules competition this year.

Members of the junior and senior girls teams joined together to mark the achievement with a gathering at Cavanbah Centre. The club now has about 65 junior players, with teams in under-11, under-13s and under-15s after only fielding one team last year.

The senior women have provided a solid base in recent years, with 20 players in the 2025 team.

Magpies football program manager Damien Bray said the club has worked hard to increase female participation numbers.

“We hadn’t seen much growth until this year, it takes time, but the junior side of our program has really exploded now,” he said. “It is a big increase in numbers, especially when we only had one team last year.

“Recruiting girls is based on social connections – I think they want to be involved in something new and exciting that they can do together.

“Our senior women have played competition for a few years now, which really helps give them something to aspire to.”

Bray said junior players at the club can be picked up by the Gold Coast Suns junior academy teams.

It has three juniors involved currently with the Suns targeting players in the key age groups at under-13 and under-15 level.

The Magpies intend to add more teams next year while catering to current juniors.

“We have a platform for us to continue to grow and hopefully girls living locally will consider us as an option,” Bray said.

“They use a broad range of gross motor skills and the athletic types are usually drawn to the game. We’re not necessarily winning every week; our focus is having them learning the game and having fun.”