Picture credit: David Mariuz
The eighth season of the Hostplus SANFL Women’s League is set to kick off this weekend, promising a pivotal chapter for female football in South Australia.
In 2024, the league will see its largest expansion yet, boasting a robust 14-game home-and-away fixture. A standout event on the calendar is the historic Women’s State game, a first-time clash between SANFL and WAFL teams, scheduled for May 4th in Perth.
After officially launching the season on Thursday, SANFL Chief Executive Officer Darren Chandler said there was a great air of excitement around the start of 2024 Hostplus SANFL League.
“On the back of SA’s back-to-back U18s AFL Girls National Championship wins over the past two years, and the growing depth of youth talent in this State, there is an exciting crop of emerging stars, combined with mature age talent across all eight SANFL Clubs,” Mr Chandler said.
“In addition, there are a number of AFLW-listed players from Port Adelaide and Adelaide poised to make appearances throughout the season, an indication of the League’s reputation as the premier State League competition.”
The SANFLW season kicks off with two games under lights at Thebarton Oval and The Parade on Friday night, followed by games on Saturday afternoon and evening.
A $10 entry fee for adults, $5 concession, has been introduced for standalone Hostplus SANFL Women’s League matches this year, under-18s are still free entry.
After winning their first premiership by just three points last season, Central District’s premiership captain Shelby Smith said it’s back to business as usual after some tough trial games pre season.
“Obviously, it’s nice to come up with a premiership, but we’re in a different sort of position this year, as opposed to previous years,” Shelby said.
“People keep saying we’re the hunted team, but we’re still the hunters. So we want to still hunt just as much as we have every other year, it doesn’t matter where we finished off.
“As a captain, I’m just focusing on each week, which is what we did last year. The games where we were down and ended up being able to come back and get the win, we were able to achieve that by not focusing on the end goal and just going we have boxes we had to tick, and I think that’s the same with this year. We’ll just go like game by game quarter by quarter.
“We’ve got some young girls from our talent shoot that have come in and I feel like they just bring a new spark to the team, which has been nice.”
Across town, South Adelaide captain Brianna Cleggett said her squad are hungry for more but aren’t going to get bogged down in the what could have beens from last season.
“I’ve never seen our girls so focused and so hungry which is really exciting,” Brianna said.
“We had a great year, from the clubs perspective, we had two teams reach the grand final, which is an incredible achievement, we had three girls drafted to the AFLW, we’ve had a dozen new faces come in for their first year for our southern pathways. But I guess now we need to put a full stop on that and look forward.”
In 2023, more than 8,600 women and girls played competitive football at SA clubs, compared to approximately 4000 in 2017, while a record 2,870 girls participated in AFL Auskick in South Australia in 2023.
With strong foundations to keep pushing the sport forward, Brianna said there is still plenty of room for the league to grow to new heights.
“I am so proud of how the league is going at the moment, I do think that what we’re doing collectively, as a competition, is doing part of a bigger legacy than just ourselves. I think our cohorts have been quite important as a competition in building some really strong foundations in what the game will look like for young girls and females for a long, long time to come,” she said.
“I think we’ve done a really great job of attracting young talent even at an amateur league level, attracting girls into the sport, but I think now as we kind of hold that that momentum, it’s also really important that we’re focused on making sure that we retain them and that the culture and the environment that we’re bringing these girls into is sustainable.”
The 2024 season heralds the continuation of the State League naming rights partnership between SANFL and Hostplus, a leading industry superannuation fund recognised as the 2024 Money Magazine Best Superannuation Fund.
The enduring partnership between SANFL and Hostplus, stemming from the inception of the SANFL competition in 2017 and further solidified by Hostplus’s merger with former naming rights partner Statewide Super in 2022, remains a cornerstone of the league’s success.
“Our partnership with Hostplus started in 2022 and already they have made a remarkable contribution to our elite-level competitions and community football in SA,” Mr Chandler said.
“This is a tremendous boost for SANFL football and great recognition of our State League competitions as the best in the nation – it certainly stands football in SA in great stead for the future.
“Our valued partnership with Hostplus has helped both our SANFL and SANFLW leagues to grow over the past two years and significantly increase audience reach and fan engagement,” he said.
“We now look forward to building on this strong and successful partnership for the benefit of football at all levels.”
Hostplus SANFL Women’s League – Round One match schedule
Friday, March 1
West Adelaide v South Adelaide | Thebarton Oval | 7:40pm
Norwood v Central District | Coopers Stadium | 7:40pm
Saturday, March 2
Woodville-West Torrens v Sturt | Eastern Parade Reserve (Ottoway) | 1:00pm
North Adelaide v Glenelg | Thebarton Oval | 6:30pm
All matches will be streamed live and on-demand on SANFL Now. For more details click here.