September. It is an thrilling time within the Aussie guidelines calendar and in Melbourne, town comes alive with footy fever — at its beating coronary heart, the AFL grand last on the MCG and the start of the AFLW season.
For native footy, competitions throughout Victoria additionally come to their much-anticipated and exhilarating conclusions. It is grand last season.
At a leafy inexperienced suburban oval, one such premiership match, a conflict between two powerhouse golf equipment — Port Melbourne Colts and the Darebin Falcons.
However the gamers who took to the sphere for this match weren’t your atypical footy stars. They have been extraordinary older ladies relishing the prospect to play a sport that, for a lot of, appeared a pipedream a mere 5 years in the past.
The arrival of AFLW in 2017 has seen feminine participation numbers in Australian guidelines skyrocket, and that development hasn’t been restricted to simply younger ladies and ladies now going by growth pathways.
The AFL Victoria Masters league launched its inaugural ladies’s competitors in 2018, a modified model of the sport that inspired over-35s to proceed or reconnect with the sport they love.
Ladies who have been beforehand sidelined from footy — and plenty of who had resigned themselves to supporting others to play the game — now have a possibility to play themselves.
Millie Brown, Michelle Lewis and Rebecca Fisher are simply three of those outstanding ladies taking on the problem of Masters footy.
Millie Brown grew up round soccer, because of her dad, Donald Brown, who performed for Footscray within the Victorian Soccer League (VFL). As youngsters, she and her brother lived for the sport, mimicking the footy heroics of their idols within the yard each likelihood they may.
“I dreamed of being the primary feminine AFL participant. However there was by no means an avenue for me to play soccer as a feminine, so I took up tennis, golf, and hockey,” Brown mentioned.
“Then, after 35 years of desirous to play the sport I cherished, the chance arose, and I couldn’t be happier.”
Brown performs her footy for Port Colts, one of many two sides who challenged for the premiership on this yr’s grand last. Whereas she thrives on the physicality and ability required in footy, it is the Colt’s tradition and group that she values most.
“I clearly love the sport, [but] the group and social connection are what I really like probably the most and what I profit probably the most from,” she mentioned.
“I’ve by no means been a part of such a supportive, caring, {and professional} group of individuals in sport earlier than.
“The inclusiveness, camaraderie, and real love now we have for each other on the membership is like nothing I’ve ever skilled earlier than. We’re household.”
Brown’s precise household are an vital a part of her footy expertise too. Her youngsters have been welcomed into the membership group and assistance on sport day to get their mum’s aspect onto the bottom.
“I’ve three younger youngsters and I really feel it is vital for me to role-model constructive and wholesome methods of residing … it is vital for them to look at sturdy ladies play sport and to additionally see different households and complete communities supporting ladies in sport,” Brown mentioned.
Like Brown, teammate Michelle Lewis loves the setting that Masters footy gives.
“I really like coaching — and enjoying each second week is ideal — with a bunch of fantastic individuals who play footy, have fun, and revel in one another’s firm,” she mentioned.
Lewis and Brown have a shared footy historical past, with each enjoying a season collectively at West Footscray Soccer Membership earlier than becoming a member of the Masters competitors.
Lewis has been a mad Carlton supporter since childhood and all the time questioned what it might be wish to play the game. When her native membership began a senior ladies’s aspect, it was a possibility too good to go up.
“Though feeling anxious and possibly too outdated for footy, I gave it a go, and cherished it,” Lewis mentioned.
Rebecca Fisher, one other Port Colts teammate and vice-captain of the aspect, additionally started her footy profession in a senior league earlier than shifting to Masters.
Fisher grew up on a farm in nation Victoria and, regardless of loving soccer since she was a younger lady (her much-loved and well-worn Hawks jumper is testomony to this) she needed to wait till 39 years of age to make her footy debut.
“I began in an area Ballarat seniors league, then in the identical yr, performed Masters alongside my greatest good friend from highschool,” she mentioned.
Fisher is a fan of the fortnightly fixture of the competitors, because it offers her physique time to recuperate, and values working out onto the sphere together with her like-minded teammates. And 5 seasons in, she nonetheless will get a thrill from enjoying footy.
“I virtually really feel like a child once more. I’ve cherished this sport for such a very long time and at last having the ability to play makes me blissful,” Fisher mentioned.
On the last siren on Saturday, September 9, the Colts have been pipped of their grand last efforts by simply 9 factors, with the Falcons claiming the premiership title for the season.
However that particular camaraderie that every one three ladies acknowledged in their very own aspect extends throughout the competitors — and noticed each groups collectively within the clubrooms post-game, for a collective celebration over a well-earned drink.
Upset however not deterred, Lewis says she’ll be again for one more season.
“I loved enjoying in my first ever footy grand last, we fought exhausting to go down by such a small margin. I shall be again for extra in 2024.”
ABC Sport has partnered with Siren Sport to raise the protection of ladies and non-binary individuals in sport.
Kel Rowe is a artistic storyteller whose abilities are based in each publishing and not-for-profit areas. She has mixed this expertise together with her love of footy and presently freelances as a photographer and journalist in sports activities media.
