In the lead-up to their first games in the NFNL women’s competition, Heidelberg West senior women’s coach Brett Pollard and North Heidelberg senior women’s coach Shannon Bevis are hoping that Sunday is the start of a long and successful women’s football program for their respective clubs.
After participating in a practice match against one another earlier this month, both sides will compete in the NFNL Division 3 women’s competition in 2023 with the Bulldogs facing Wallan while the Hawks travelling to Laurimar to take on the Power.
Extending into senior women’s football was something North Heidelberg wanted to put in place for a period of time, and while coming from a junior football background, Bevis aligned strongly with the club’s ambitions.
Joining him as senior women’s coach will be assistant Phillip Maher, with both having spent the past few seasons coaching at junior clubs Bundoora Park and Research
“The club wanted to expand and get women into the club for the supporter base and to build around the community, so there were a couple of girls who were interested initially,” he said.
“From when I was at Bundoora Park (for the last four years) they’ve moved from Under-18s to here. I thought it’d be good for me to go up a level to seniors and bring across a couple of the young girls.”
Meanwhile, the creation of Heidelberg West’s team came about rapidly following great interest from girls in the area.
Pollard, who is coming off a successful four-year stint as Essendon VFLW assistant coach, was only confirmed as senior women’s coach weeks ago, but after previously playing with the Hawks as a junior and senior, the 2018 West Preston-Lakeside women’s premiership coach was excited to lead the club into a new era in women’s football.
“I had a chat with the committee and the president, and they had girls enquiring about a team, then the committee went to work, and the girls started to come in,” he said.
“Most of the girls from what I hear are father-daughters, it’s a great connection that their Dad’s played for the club and now the girls are going to play for the club as well.”
Bevis is keen to employ a one club mantra across both the Bulldogs men’s and women’s programs, adding that initial collaborations with both sides will help ease the transition process for new players in the women’s team.
“I’ve already chatted with (North Heidelberg President) Warren Haysom about interacting with the boys, even on a Thursday night. We’ve got a couple of the girls that have boyfriends playing in the senior side or the 19s so we can further develop a happy feel around the club,” he said.
Pollard also commented on how the transition for a lot of the new players in the side would be made simpler by their current affiliations with the club.
“Most of (these girls) are playing or have played netball there as well, they’ve already got that connection with the club. That makes the transition a little bit easier for them and they feel welcomed,” he said.
When asked about both short and long-term aspirations of the women’s side, Bevis stressed the importance of player retention and recruitment over the first few years of the women’s program to ensure its sustainability over a long period of time.
“I want to build a foundation just so the girls can have a bit of fun and so that in the next year and the year after we can ideally go up the grades,” he said.
“It’s not the be all and end all, as long as they’re having a bit of fun for the first year or two and we can get the numbers because with the demographic of Heidelberg, it’s pretty hard to get the numbers.
“There seems to be a lot of ladies around those West Preston-Lakeside, Banyule & Heidelberg areas, so we’re struggling a little bit, but if we can build a foundation where we’ve got a steady 18 or 20 and then we can build on that next year, the world’s our oyster.”
For Pollard, it’s about the girls ticking things off as they go in the hopes that they can have an enjoyable first season, which will in turn attract other players to the club.
“If we win a game, I’ll be rapt. I don’t have any expectations, I just want to meet the girls, get a bond with them and just see how we go. Kicking a goal would be a good start,” he said.
“Retaining girls is one of the big things. Hopefully we can get a winning culture and that will promote our club even more and draw more women’s footballers to our club.”
