By Mikayla van Loon
Mount Evelyn Football Club has welcomed the reappointment of women’s coach Steve Varley for another three years, bringing stability to the team after a jumbled few years.
“The past few years have obviously been pretty disjointed with Covid even though I started coaching the girls back in 2020,” Varley said.
“So my commitment is for three years just to show that this isn’t just a one year thing, it’s something that we’re looking to do long term and it’s going to be ongoing, and that’s going to be part of our club forever.”
The club’s aim is to create a strong women’s and girls program that doesn’t separate the two to ensure there is a pathway for female football in Mount Evelyn.
“At the moment, there’s not the funding to be able to pay players so there’s a lot of loyalty involved still in football with the girls, not so much with the boys,” Varley said.
“What we’re trying to do is make our own and have homegrown players who love the club and want to stay there and we’re going to do that by building the program with good coaches all the way through.”
Combining the under 18s with the senior women at training, Varley said each player does every drill the same to create that sense of community and friendship.
“There’s no difference at all. The least experienced under 18 would do exactly the same as the captain of the senior girls, so that fast tracks them immensely but it also makes them feel part of it.
“We want the girls to feel there’s not that stigma about going into the seniors because they have that sense of comfort and they already know everybody.”
Always encouraging girls and women to try football or get involved in the club, Varley said every level of skill is welcomed.
“We want to make sure that if any girl wants to come down and just have a kick or wants to try to make AFLW, whatever level they want to get to, we want to be able to facilitate that for them by having the right environment.”
With two female coaches already leading the under 16s and 18s, eventually Varley aims to have a female senior women’s coach.
“It wouldn’t be as a token but to have someone who is a genuine football person who understands the game and can pass that knowledge on and we feel we’ve got a handful of girls almost ready now which is a great position to be in.”
Proud of the success Mount Evelyn has had with its junior and senior women’s program, Varley said since starting the female sides in 2015 the club has seen numerous junior players selected to Eastern Ranges and the seniors have only missed out on finals once.
“We know what we do works and we’re really proud of that.
“The junior program has been brilliant right from the start. What we’re doing now is just making that a conduit between the two and making sure it’s just the one girls program.”
Preseason training began on Thursday 24 November and will continue each Tuesday and Thursday, with Varley saying the weeks before Christmas would be very focused on ball skills rather than game structure.
Mount Evelyn Junior Football Club will also be having two player registration nights on Wednesday 14 and 21 December.
To find out more information on the junior club, go to www.mountevelynjfc.com.au or for the senior club, go to www.facebook.com/mountevelynfnc
