WFNL TO DEVELOP WOMEN’S & GIRLS FOOTBALL GROWTH STRATEGY

The Western Football Netball League (WFNL) is set to embark on the development of a Women’s and Girls Football Growth Strategy.

Through funding support from AFL Victoria, the WFNL have enlisted the services of former AFL legend, AFLW Bulldogs Coach and leadership consultant Nathan Burke to lead the development of the Strategy.

The WFNL is extremely proud of our Women’s and Girls’ programs and our Member Clubs who have delivered high quality environments and competitions for the western metropolitan area of Melbourne for many years now.

The game is still in great shape with introductory and Junior Girls’ program and participation numbers at healthy levels.  However, it is well known that the WFNL Senior Women’s competitions have suffered from decline in Club and team numbers in the past few seasons.

This project will offer the WFNL and our Member Clubs the opportunity to thoroughly review our current situation and to develop a plan to address any areas of decline that will see an increase in Club and team numbers from 2026 onwards.

The aims of developing a Strategy are:

• To engage our women and girls to gain much needed feedback on all of our programs to improve our competition structures, development programs, Clubs and League.
• To increase participation of Women’s and Girls’ football in the WFNL – by offering participation options that meet the needs of women and girls and a best practice environment for them.
• To enhance the understanding of gender equity practices within WFNL.
• To see more women in leadership roles within our Member Clubs and support our current female leaders.
• To see more women in coaching roles within our Clubs.
• To ensure the sustainably of all our current Clubs.
• To increase number of Women’s and Girls’ teams and improve the divisional structure of the WFNL.

The WFNL’s most important stakeholders are our Clubs, participants and volunteers.  We intend to engage all as much as possible through this project.

The league plans to host a workshop forum led by Nathan Burke for all Club officials and player representatives to attend and provide us with feedback on our current female football programs.

In the meantime, there will be surveys and for all participants and Clubs to provide feedback into the development of the Strategy.

If this Strategy is to be a success, we are asking on all our participants to provide us with feedback so that we can improve our Women’s and Girls’ football competitions for now and future generations.

All past and present participants can complete the short survey HERE.

This survey will take about 10 minutes to complete and will be open until the end of May.