recent report<\/a>\u00a0found that there is an urgent need to encourage Australian girls to play more sport.<\/p>\n\u201cLast year the women\u2019s football team was struggling to get numbers so I decided to play \u2013 I am not very good, but I had such a good time, so supporting the foundation of the girls\u2019 team this year was a no-brainer,\u201d said Tiarne, whose young sons also play soccer.<\/p>\n
Far South Coast Football Association\u2019s representative teams co-ordinator Peter Rees said the decision by the club to stage the girls\u2019 competition was an historic first, propelled by the popularity of Australia\u2019s female football team, the Matildas, and Australia hosting the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am over the moon that this is happening, and the clubs have worked really hard to get it off the ground,\u201d Mr Rees said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur club numbers have grown across the board in recent years and in fact 33 per cent of our members are female \u2013 and that told us it was time for a stand-alone competition for girls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minister for Lands, Tourism and Sport, Steve Kamper, said\u00a0Reflections Holidays manages 41 holiday parks on Crown land, with profits reinvested into the parks and reserves on which they are located for the benefit of NSW residents and regional tourism.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to see Reflections supporting both regional tourism and sport through initiatives including its sponsorship of the Eden Killer Whales, and the Cadet Cup junior surfing competition which it hosts at its coastal holiday parks,\u201d Mr Kamper said.<\/p>\n
Mr Rees and the Association\u2019s president, Matt O’Reilly, said that there were clear benefits of having a stand-alone girls\u2019 competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe girls can get a little left out by the boys in the mixed competitions, but our girls\u2019 registrations have shot through the roof in the last couple of years, so this competition is now possible,\u201d said Mr O’Reilly.<\/p>\n
Adds Mr Rees, who has been pivotal in encouraging more girls onto the field and encouraging elite skills: \u201cWhat I like is that the girls can go out and they decide what happens on the field, there are no boys and it’s all up to them. They are playing under their own right, and that’s what it’s all about as far as I am concerned. The elite players can do both, – play with the girls or play with the mixed competition, and some are doing both.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms Cronk, whose father once played for Tathra, said it was a significant milestone for the local community and regional sport to have the all-girls competition, which fostered inclusivity and an increase in participation:\u00a0\u201cSport is absolutely crucial, not just for fitness and mental health but to be a part of a team and for building social skills and resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Cronk said that until the launch of the new 2025 girls\u2019 competition, girls at primary and high schools in Eden were playing in mixed competitions until they reached the age of 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new league will provide a platform for girls to improve their skills, build confidence, and develop a sense of self-worth in a supportive environment that will hopefully see more girls continue playing football as they move into their teenage years,” she said.<\/p>\n
Reflections Eden is sponsoring the Killer Whales over four years, funding the training equipment and uniforms for its three teams.<\/p>\n
Reflections CEO Nick Baker said the organisation\u2019s belief that life\u2019s better outside extended to the sporting field, noting that many Reflections parks sponsored or supported local sporting teams who would otherwise struggle to afford miscellaneous costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled that Tiarne and her park team have helped their local competition in Eden off the ground and we can\u2019t wait to see how they perform throughout the season,\u201d Mr Baker said.<\/p>\n
Eden\u2019s Killer Whales, who celebrated their 60-year anniversary in 2024, will face off against teams from Tathra, Bega, Bemboka, Wolumla, Merimbula, Pambula, and Mallacoota in the new competition, which kicked off this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the first time in its 61-year history, the Eden Killer Whales football team will field three teams in the debut girls’ competition of the Far South Coast Football Association, thanks to vital support from Reflections Holidays. The participation of the Eden Killer Whales girls teams (Under 9s-10s, Under 10s-12s, and Under 13s-15s) was made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16585,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pacificposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16584,"href":"https:\/\/pacificposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16583\/revisions\/16584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}