Women join football’s North and South rep challenge

Mikayla Haupt

While Brothers and Waves went head to head in the Anzac Day match, this weekend they will be playing alongside one another.

The regular AFL Wide Bay men’s and women’s fixtures are on a break for a North and South representative match on 13 May.

The North team has been compiled from Across the Waves Eagles and Brothers Bulldogs players while the South squad includes players from Hervey Bay Bombers and Bay Power.

Coach of the women’s North squad Michael Blair said it had been several years since this event had taken place and this year was the first time the women had an opportunity to compete.

He said the women’s team was selected with the input of the Brothers’ coach and was shaping up to be a solid squad with a good mix of experienced and inexperienced players.

With strong players from both teams representing the North side, Blair said there would be two fun and light training sessions in the lead up to Saturday’s match in Hervey Bay.

Blair said the women’s game was growing and with talented players in Wide Bay, it was good they had opportunities to play in bigger and better leagues and improve their skills.

Blair said Scout Strong, who has also played higher rep footy and is playing for the women’s North team, was the assistant coach for the match.

Happy with the growth of women’s footy, Blair said with Emma Zielke hailing from the region, it would be good to see another player from the region play in the top competition of the sport.

Blair will be playing as part of the men’s North team, coached by Geoff Ebert with Shaun Stone as the assistant coach.

He said it was good to play with the Brothers’ boys and exciting to try to build representative footy in the region.

Blair hoped they could “put on a good show” this year to have the North and South representative match continue in the future.

He said they would need buy-in from every club and player in order for the match to continue.

This year’s North and South match will be played at Bay Power’s home grounds, Keith Dunne Oval.

The first bounce for the women’s game is at 1.30pm and the men’s match at 3.30pm.

Last week’s AFL Wide Bay Takalvans senior womens competition saw the Bombers defeat the Bulldogs 4.6.30 – 2.0.12, and the Waves best Bay Power 11.6.72 – 2.4.16.

In the senior men’s competition, the Bombers continued their winning streak with a 11.18.84 – 2.1.13 win over the Bulldogs.

While the Waves men brought home a win against Bay Power with the final scoreboard reading 11.6.72 – 8.9. 57.

Local fixtures will continue next weekend, 20 May.