The Sherwood Football Club Board of Directors wish to announce that the club has been successful in being granted a provisional license for a 2020 women’s football in the QFAW competition.  

The return of women’s football to McCarthy Homes Oval stems from a proud legacy of women’s football dating back to the 1990’s. “This team in a crucial part of our holistic strategy to reflect a truly diverse offering for all members of the local community,” said Mitchell Merritt, Director.

“Being able to provide a genuine participation pathway for female football is something that the club has been eager to do for a number of years. When I commenced playing at Sherwood in the mid 2000’s, Womens football was thriving at the club and we were pioneers in the female footy space. However, over time the infrastructure requirements to field 400 junior players, 4 x senior mens teams and continue to support womens football became a bridge too far and a large collection of our female players left to the greener pastures of Yeronga where there were 3 sets of home & away dressings rooms while our own rooms were substandard at best. As a result, we have been unable to field a senior womens team since 2014” said Andrew Thomson, Club President.

“The 2011 floods had a devastating impact on many clubs, not least the Magpies and its been a long journey to re-store our facilities to not only be ready to sustain male and female footy from u6s through to Seniors, but also for those players to thrive. We have updated our rooms, re-surfaced the playing field, negotiated access to additional training surfaces and following extensive consultation and a groundswell of support for this team we now feel the time is right to get back into the Senior Women’s competition” Thomson said.

Following a Come & Try Session in October which was run by the QAFL Senior leadership group with the support of Tribal Sport and the AFLQ an expression of interest list of over 50 players was developed, with many of them waiting several years for their chance to return to the Magpies after the hiatus.

“It’s been a frustrating 5 years at the club for us, as I’ve encountered so much support and positivity about getting Senior Women’s footy back up and running at the club, but we had to watch on as the game exploded in popularity as we wanted to be sure we were ready and would do it properly to ensure our many junior girls again have a pathway to Senior football. As leaders in this space for so long, it was frustrating to watch on for 5 years now, but also incredibly proud and rewarding to see so many young women who started their football journey at the Magpies to be playing QAFLW and even AFLW and getting so many opportunities that weren’t there only 5 years ago” Thomson said.

Additional to the standard approval process, there are restrictions placed around the Sherwood Magpies playing list composition, to ensure the integrity of the game and the growth in female footy is organic.

These parameters will include;

Sherwood Magpies 2020 QFAW Team Recruitment Restrictions for the 2020 season

• No more than 35% of the Club’s registered players were primary registered with a QFAW or QAFLW club in 2019

• The Club can only sign up to a maximum of 3 players who were registered with the same QFAW Club in 2019

• The Club can only sign up to a maximum of 2 players who were registered with the same QAFLW Club in 2019

While a search for a Senior Women’s Coach is completed, the club has appointed an interim coaching & support panel to run the pre-Christmas sessions which consists of AFL, AFLW, QAFL and NEAFL experienced players and coaches. 

Training will commence next Wednesday the 27th of November at 6:15PM to 745PM and will be held each Wednesday evening up until Christmas in addition to another more skills-based session on Saturday morning from 7AM with the senior men’s team which is historically followed by a coffee.

If you would like to get involved as a player, volunteer or official sponsor the female football programme please get in contact with Mitchell Merritt via sponsorship@westernmagpies.com.au or 0427 715 619.