World Footy News

With Australian Rules football starting to flourish on the west coast of Canada with its junior leagues, it's little surprise that women’s football is starting to take shape. This weekend sees the inaugural Canadian National Championships for Women and Youth taking place in Vancouver, at the University of British Columbia.

The round robin tournament is seen as a major step for women’s football in Canada as 68 women aged between 18 and 26 will be participating in the competition, representing three clubs across the provinces of British Columbia (BC) and Alberta.

The championships are believed to be the first time in North America that women's teams will be playing 18-a-side club football incorporating full rules and proper tackling. The tournament will also be used as an avenue for the women's national team, the Northern Lights, as initial selections will be made at the completion of the tournament.

The youth tournament will see U/12, U/14 and U/17 finals for players from the North Delta Junior AFL in BC. One of the key drivers behind the Runge Metro women's league, Jake Anson, explained that junior footy has also begun in Alberta, but 2009 was a little too soon to get a team to travel across to Vancouver.

"The schools program finished this week here and it's too soon. We have an integration day coming up where we can sell club footy to the kids and parents, and moves are afoot for a fall private school league here. So things are happening. It's just hard to get kids with 6 weeks of footy behind them out for such a big event at short notice".

With women's footy starting to grow quickly in Australia, but a wide variety of levels across the two levels used at the Australian nationals, the whispher is that the Northern Lights might be competitive with some of the Division Two states. No word of plans, but it would be great to see the Canadians compete with their Aussie counterparts in the near future. The US Freedom are believed to have plans to tour; more on that later.

Details of the Women's and Youth National:

June 20th 2009

Location: UBC Campus, Wolfson Rugby Fields 2598 E Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T‎

Event Sponsors: AFL Canada, Mahoney & Son Public House, Moose’s Downunder Restaurant, and South Pacific Division of The Travel Group.

Money Raised: Money taken from the food concessions will go towards the Canadian National Junior and Women’s programs.

Titles Awarded: 2009 Canadian Women’s Champions

2009 Canadian Junior U12 Champions

2009 Canadian Junior U14 Champions

2009 Canadian Junior U17 Champions

Note: Winning teams will receive a perpetual trophy and winning players will receive a medal.

Event Schedule:

9.30am Open event, photos taken and national anthems played
10am Women Edmonton vs Vancouver
11am Juniors U12
12pm Women Edmonton vs Calgary
1pm Juniors U17
2pm Juniors U14
3pm Women Calgary vs Vancouver
4pm Trophy & Medal Presentation

Additional reporting by Brett Northey