With their first game of the new season coming up this Friday night, United is looking to boost its numbers for the year ahead.
The Eagles’ female football program first took flight two years ago and the club is hoping participation will soar after two COVID-hit seasons.
United has 18 players training, but it still needs more ahead of the new season.
“We are very much in the market for additional numbers,” Echuca United youth girls co-coach and director of junior football Daryl Poole said.
“With this COVID world that we still live in we need a few more to cover those gaps that we’ll have.
“To anyone who is half thinking about having a play we say come on down, we’ll welcome you with open arms.”
United first launched its youth girls program in 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our timing wasn’t great, our first year was when COVID emerged,” Poole said.
“The first year we got three games in before it was all over.
“Last year we got a better run at it, but it was still fairly disrupted and there were no finals, so I think it’s a pretty super effort that we have still got a team together when we have had a start like that.
“The girls who have stuck through it really enjoy it, we try and facilitate that and that is our primary aim.”
United, Moama and Echuca share a combined strategy with female football.
The Magpies and Eagles field youth girls teams — open to players aged between 13 and 18 — while the Murray Bombers host a senior women’s side, with the aim of junior players transitioning to senior football.
Poole said the set-up was good given present circumstances.
“At the moment with the numbers that we have involved with youth and female football, that’s not bad of a mix,” he said.
“We all have a chance to participate in female football and at the moment the numbers support that volume of teams.
“Ideally, we’re trying to develop a connection with the Echuca women’s team by training with them every other week so our older girls get to connect with the women’s football side.”
The junior and senior teams compete in the Northern Country Women’s League, with five senior clubs and four junior sides.
The junior teams predominately play on Sunday afternoons at 12.45pm, with senior games mostly on Sundays at 2.30pm
Poole said he hoped to see the female football program at United continue to expand and grow.
“It’s a developing program,” he said. “It is following the trend of bigger and more interest in a growing sport, but we are still pretty early in our development.
“There is a desire to hopefully have a situation where we can have two age groups in the youth girls, but we are not there yet.
“There is a big age spread, but the reality is we need that age spread to get the numbers.”
He said female football was an important part of the football and netball club.
“It adds another level of diversity within the club,” he said.
“We have always had women involved in our club playing netball, so it just gives another level of diversity, which is great and provides an opportunity for those girls who want to play footy, so it’s good to be able to support that.”
Club culture will be a key focus for the Eagles this season, with extra emphasis being put on togetherness — a notion the club is implementing with their youth girls team.
“We made a conscious decision for our youth girls to train on Tuesday and Thursday nights because that is when most of the other sides train,” Poole said.
“We could have gone on a Wednesday night when there is less traffic on the oval, but we consciously made that decision because it is part of that connection — particularly on Thursday nights, when we do a club meal.
“Getting the girls involved there just helps with that integration.
“We had our youth girls involved in our club launch last week and they are very much part of the fabric at Echuca United.”
Player development will be the main focus this season, with three key areas that Poole wants to focus on.
“We want to help them develop their skills and teach them safety in terms of how to approach the ball and protecting themselves,” he said.
“But the most important thing is they have fun through the process.”
Poole and the team have a particular rule aimed specifically at keeping things enjoyable.
“One of our team rules is that when we kick a goal we do a cartwheel and that just signifies the focus on having a bit of fun,” he said.
“We may not be the strongest players in the league, but we’re the best cartwheelers.”
Anyone looking to play with United this season can contact the club for more information or come to training on Tuesday or Thursday nights.
“We have first timers and beginners through to experienced players,” Poole said.
“It doesn’t matter whether you have played the game or not, anyone is welcome. Come on down, I say.”
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