‘Smell a lot nicer’: new rooms provide safety, privacy

Preparing to play will be significantly easier for Torquay women this year following the completion of new women’s change rooms at Spring Creek Reserve.

The Tigers opened the new rooms on Wednesday, marking the end of changing in cars, climbing over men’s gear and struggling with privacy.

Grace O’Kane first started playing with the Tigers as the only girl in her junior football team. Now she co-captains the senior side.

She said the new rooms address problems many clubs have experienced from the boom in women’s football.

“Sometimes the women can be accidentally forgotten about, so to have that space where we can feel comfortable and feel safe and have our own room, our own privacy, it’s pretty special to have,” O’Kane said.

“They’re very nice; they smell a lot nicer too.”

The new rooms will make playing after the senior men an easier task, with neither team in the way of the other.

“The last couple years we’ve come in and the boy’s stuff is everywhere, the girl’s stuff is everywhere, there’s men and boys, walking through the rooms as we’re trying to get ready for our game, so the new rooms can really help that and help us have our own space,” O’Kane said.

Vice-captain Vanessa Rischitelli first played for Torquay women in their first season.

She has watched as the program has made huge steps both on and off the field.

Rischitelli said the private space is not just beneficial for female footballers but their children and female cricketers too. A key feature is the addition of lockable toilet and shower cubicles.

“It’s not just for the footy girls either, it’s the cricket girls. For all the team sports where females will be using the change rooms, we’re all going to feel a bit more safe and included in the club now,” Rischitelli said.

“It will just make life a lot easier and especially for the women in our team who have children, it’s nice for them to be able to take them to the bathroom without having to run through the urinals.”

Funding for the change rooms was secured by former president Jenny Wood through federal member for Corangamite, Libby Coker, including a $700,000 grant from the Australian government.

The AFL contributed $75,000 via its football facilities fund, with the Surf Coast Shire adding $82,000.

“When we started our youth girls team in 2014 with only a handful of interested players, we knew very quickly that our change rooms were not going to be adequate for a shared space between our men and women players,” Wood said.

“Over the past 14 years this has become even more evident with the number of girls and women who have joined our club.”

The funding also allowed for a canteen upgrade, which is now completed.

Coker said the result was made possible through collaboration across different levels of government and stakeholders.

“This is a significant investment in a much-loved community facility. The new change rooms will help boost women’s participation in footy and cricket, which is so important for the future of local sport,” she said.