THIS Sunday will be a historic day with the inaugural EDFL Women’s Grand Final as a stand-alone competition.
We eagerly await to see which club takes home the first EDFL Women’s premiership cup and flag.
Whilst there was some uncertainly leading into the 2018 season, everyone was very excited when the Keilor Football Club hosted Strathmore on Good Friday, and the remaining EDFL Women’s teams commenced the following weekend.
A 13-team competition was always going to provide diversity in results, however it was pleasing to see every team recorded at least one win during the year.
It is somewhat ironic that the first EDFL Women’s Grand Final will be played between the Pascoe Vale Football Club, who are celebrating their 100th year in 2018, and the Burnside Heights Football Club, being the most recent addition to the EDFL senior football competition.
Pascoe Vale defeated Burnside Heights by 13 points when they met in late May, however that was the only defeat either team has had during the home-and-away and finals series.
Clearly both teams are very strong and in great form leading into the grand final.
As with all of our senior men’s competitions, it was important that the EDFL Women’s Grand Final be played at Windy Hill.
Windy Hill is the site of decades of history and memories of amazing EDFL grand finals, and it will be fantastic to have the senior women create their mark.
We also consider our Division 1 junior boy’s competitions as a showcase of EDFL football talent and have a very strong desire to provide them with the opportunity to play grand finals at Windy Hill.
With multiple users of the Windy Hill ground, we need to be flexible in scheduling our finals, and it was tremendous that we were able to accommodate both the junior boys Division 1 and EDFL Women’s grand finals on Sunday.
There have been many learnings gained throughout 2018 and we are already looking forward to seeing how our senior women’s football competition looks in 2019.
From an EDFL perspective the composition of the 13 teams in senior women’s football this year has provided a broad cross section of our league.
Looking at the EDFL Women’s teams through a lens of our senior men’s competition shows a diversity of clubs:
- five women’s teams from clubs in Strathmore Community Bank Premier Division
- three women’s teams from clubs in Essendon Ford Division 1
- three women’s teams from clubs in Strathmore Community Bank Division 2
- two clubs who do not have senior men’s teams playing in the EDFL
It is also encouraging to see that the 13 clubs cover the full geographic footprint of our EDFL competition, and includes long-term, well-established clubs, and our newer clubs.
Good luck for the weekend.
