FOOTBALL Wagga is considering the possibility of moving its senior female competitions to Saturday afternoons after the suggestion received a "mixed response" after a survey of players.
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The women's Leonard Cup first grade and Madden Cup second grade competitions have been played on Sundays. But Football Wagga feel a shift to Saturday could help attract more players, and give the women's game a better chance to thrive.
They also believe it would make it easier to schedule a 'club day' for each club every year, where all their teams would play at the same venue.
Football Wagga will also offer a junior competition for girls aged 12 to 14 from this season, with fixtures to commence on Saturday, April 4.
"We've done a survey with all the players (regarding a potential move to Saturday), and it was a mixed response," Football Wagga president Tony Dobbin said.
"We spoke to the clubs on Wednesday night and we'll have to make a decision shortly on where we head with that.
"It certainly wasn't overwhelmingly in favour, one way or the other. We're still going through that and haven't made a decision on that one."
Dobbin said the move could allow junior girls matches to be played prior to a senior women's double header.
"By moving it to Saturday, you could play the junior game first and they can then watch the women play, it gives them a more visible pathway and maybe we can recruit more ladies by doing that," Dobbin said.
"Because we don't have identical numbers of men's and women's team, the men could be playing in one location and the women in another.
"It makes it very difficult to have what they call a club day. We want to make club days where each team is given a round where all their teams play in the one location."
Dobbin said the 12-14 year girls division would help bridge the gap between the junior and senior ranks.
Players in that age group have previously only had the option of playing in mixed teams.
"There's a definable gap and I think a lot of sports have that," Dobbin said.
"Some girls try and go straight through to seniors as soon as they're eligible, and there's always been a gap between primary school age girls and high school girls where we haven't had that girls competition.
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