Leopold’s big move for women’s football

THE tight-knit community of FC Leopold has put the challenge forth for female footballers across the region to don the green in season 2023.

FC Leopold women’s head coach Liam Tench said his side is a few bodies short of where he would like them to, ahead of the Geelong League’s April 22 start date.

To facilitate access for female players, the club has discounted its women’s team fees for 2023, so that the club gets no portion of registration fees. Women’s players will only have to pay the Football Victoria portion valued at $195.

“At the moment, we have 11 committed for the season with a few more new faces only recently joined us at training to see how they go before making a decision,” Tench said.

“Obviously we only need 11 to play a game but at the beginning of round 1 ideally I would like a minimum of 15 players in the squad.

“A perfect squad amount would be 17, which would allow for any injuries, holidays, during the season.”

Tench hopes the senior ranks can continue to grow in the next couple of seasons providing a complete pathway for junior footballers and provide a development-first program for female footballers.

“Although numbers are low at the start of this season, it’s my goal over the next two to three years to build a squad big enough to field two teams and become one of the best environments for women to play football in the region,” he added.

“At the moment I don’t see success in the form of grand final wins. That will all come if we build the foundations for women to want to come to Leopold to play soccer which a lot of people around the club are already doing.”

FC Leopold has observed a major boon in its size in the past year, expanding by six teams since the conclusion of last season.

De Vries said the committee has noticed that there are a few barriers to getting females playing sport such as women getting their families participating in sport first, and then getting involved last.

“If we can help ease financial barriers then we feel it’s something we need to do as this not only helps the club as a whole, but also the community,” de Vries said.

“The club has grown so much with a big jump in numbers this year, we’ve gone from 15 teams last year to a massive 21 teams this year.

“We need to maintain a women’s team as we have worked too hard on our female numbers for it to go backwards in our biggest growth year.

“We are hoping with perseverance, the right promotion and breaking down the barriers we can once again increase our numbers.”