The upcoming School Sports Australia 15 Years and Under Girls and Boys National Championships will feature a strong contingent from the AFL Barwon region. Seven players from the AFL Barwon clubs will be participating in the carnival, which commences on Saturday, July 22nd in Ballarat.
Representing Victoria in the Girls Championships will be St. Joseph's utility Meyah Fursland and Peninsula Sharks goal kicker Ziva Shawcross. Both girls from Western Heights Secondary College, earned their spots in the final squad after going through two trial matches and impressing the selectors. Ziva, a key forward for the Sharks, has already kicked an impressive nine goals this season. Inspired by AFLW star Tayla Harris, she has modelled her game on Harris' style.
Meyah has admired key defenders like former Geelong Cats Champion Matthew Scarlett to base her game off. The girls will head to a training camp prior to carnival where they will meet their Victorian teammates from across the State.
In the Under 15 boy’s squad, three Ocean Grove juniors, Jack Thomson, Darcy Harrington, and Ned Badrock, have secured their spots in the final squad. Additionally, St. Joseph's midfielder Archer Chamberlain and Torquay's key position prospect Jack Pickett will also represent Victoria in the Championships.
Archer Chamberlain, excited to follow in the footsteps of AFL stars like Darcy Parish, Patrick Dangerfield and Travis Boak, expressed his gratitude for the mentors who have helped him develop his game over the past year. “We had some really good coaches at our St Joseph's year 9 campus, with Mr (Paul) Hood being a good coach to learn from”.
Jack Pickett, a 189cm Ruckman was hopefully he would be able to have an impact forward in the carnival. “Hopefully I play in the forward line as I don’t think I am big enough to be a ruckman for Victoria” he joked. Torquay Senior coach Dom Gleeson had played a role in some mentoring sessions and sharing some advice according to Jack. He was hopefully to play consistent and as best as he could in the carnival.
The full squads for School Sports Australia 15 Years and Under Girls and Boys National Championships can be found here.
Author: Sean Atkinson
Epworth Geelong will continue as a major partner of AFL Barwon and naming rights holder of Female Football in the region for 2023.
Epworth has been a proud partner and supporter of Female Football and the entire region since the beginning of the partnership in 2018, and both parties are excited to see this continue through 2023.
Epworth will retain naming rights to all divisions of Senior Female Football, as well as division 1 of all our competitive underage Female competitions. In addition to the previous years, the Epworth branding will be on all Senior Female, Under 19 Female and Under 16 match footballs, as well as the playing jumpers for these Competitions.
Epworth Geelong Executive General Manager Leonie Lloyd said,
“The team at Epworth Geelong is pleased to continue our support for AFL Barwon and female football in the Greater Geelong region in 2023.
At Epworth, we are proud to be supporting women in sport. It’s great to see the rapid growth of women’s football in the Geelong region, where young children are now growing up with as much excitement for female football as any other sport.”
AFL Barwon Commercial Partnerships & Communications Manager Sean Atkinson said,
“It is wonderful to have Epworth continue to partner with AFL Barwon in 2023. Epworth have been the Naming Rights Partner for our female football section since the introduction of Senior Female Football in 2018, so to have them continue is fantastic for our Region.
The brand connection between Epworth and Female sport in our region resonates well, and we are looking forward to continuing to grow and expand the partnership”.
Epworth Geelong is located on 1 Epworth Place, Waurn Ponds. For more, visit www.epworth.org.au.
Reporting to the Region General Manager this role has three key focus areas:
- To oversee the conduct of all football and netball competitions in the AFL Barwon region
- To oversee the Operational staff of football, netball and umpiring at AFL Barwon
- To oversee the management of the Community Club Sustainability Program for football and netball in the AFL Barwon region.
Please see full PD below and please submit applications to Bruce Harwood – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
AFL Barwon Head of Operations PD
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