Touch football is just as popular as netball at St Hilda’s, an independent day and boarding school for girls on the Gold Coast. AFL is one of the most popular sports at the school. “We have touch football, cricket, AFL, soccer,” says head of the school’s Athena Sports Program Lisa Cleverly. “Some of them are actually more popular in terms of the number of girls playing them than some of the more traditional girls’ sports, like netball or tennis.”
Once played exclusively by boys, these codes are now enjoying booming popularity with girls across Australia, and around the world. The roaring success of national women’s sports teams such as the soccer-playing Matildas has boosted girls’ passion for these increasingly gender-neutral games. Driven by growing support, professional pathways, media coverage, and changes in cultural attitudes, this shift has been especially noticeable over the past decade.
Independent girls’ schools across Australia now routinely offer one or more of these now gender-neutral sports. They generally play a gentler game than boys, so they have so far avoided the potential damage of concussion and brain injuries. “We’re not hearing about concussion-type injuries,” Cleverly says. “Maybe as they develop more skills and more confidence, the tackles might become more intense, but that’s not a concern now – the girls just want to get in there and play.”
Cricket, which replaced softball at St Hilda’s four years ago, has caught the attention of girls who might not be drawn to other sports but who have found they skills with a cricket bat, Cleverly says.
“While they might not be the most coordinated girls in another sport, in cricket, they can bat, and they’re good, and so they’re finding skills and an avenue to go into competitive sport that maybe they thought they didn’t have before,” she adds.
The popularity of shorter forms of cricket has helped. “I don’t think any of the girls aspire to be a test player but T20 is really exciting,” Cleverly says. “It’s on the TV, and it’s fun, and it’s colourful, and there’s music and all the rest of it to draw their attention.”
Elsewhere in sports, St Hilda’s AFL teams have done extremely well in inter-school competitions and won pennants, she adds, and that notable success has boosted interest in the sport.
Physical education is part of the St Hilda’s curriculum from pre-prep to year 10 – but sport is not compulsory. Coaches are employed for each code and parent volunteers sometimes help out.
At Ravenswood School for Girls, in Sydney’s northern suburbs, students in the senior school can play rugby 7s, soccer, touch football, and AFL, and some of these sports are available for girls in the junior school. The school recognises a breadth of sporting choices “supports students’ overall fitness, health, personal growth teamwork and skills development”, says Ravenswood principal Anne Johnstone.
AFL was gradually introduced at the school in 2017, via a series of gala days, and Ravenswood was one of the first schools to join the Independent School Girls’ AFL competition. Netball remains the most popular sport at the school, closely followed by touch football – an increasingly popular choice for Ravenswood girls.