Lady Tigers leading the way

THE state government announced a program last week to promote more senior roles for women in sport, but a group of lady Tigers is already leading the way.

The Torquay football club has four women in committee roles – Jenny Wood (football club president), Bernadette Purton (secretary), Nicole Nelson (treasurer) and Paris Nigro (administration officer) – and Megan Mifsud is president of the closely-associated netball club.

Ms Wood said she and Ms Nelson had been on the football committee for five years, but welcomed more women stepping up.

“I think a lot of women are intimidated by being on an all-male committee, and we’ve also brought netball into the football committee this year to get a really good relationship going but you also feel more comfortable to have more females around.

“I just think it’s really shifting out here – I’ve been part of the juniors for seven years, trying to get more and more women involved and comfortable.

“The more (women) we get, the more we’ll attract, and I think that’s what’s more important than anything else; to make it a nice environment for anyone, whether they’re on a committee or otherwise.”

Ms Mifsud said four years ago “it might have been a little bit intimidating” to come to the clubrooms on a Thursday night, “but not now”.

“To be on a committee, you don’t need to know the ins and outs of sport. We always get people for the netball club saying “oh, I wouldn’t know what to do, I don’t know anything about netball’ – you don’t need to know anything if you can use Excel and do a spreadsheet, so I think it’s breaking those barriers about making people feel comfortable.”

Ms Nelson said the Tigers still needed more volunteers to help out, particularly over the Easter weekend.

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