World Footy News

Zillmere Eagles Youth Girls Under 15’s players Eh Ka Dot Ray, Selee Po and Lar Htoo May lined up alongside their team mates against Calamvale last weekend. Despite their age, the three girls have great handballing and kicking skills, and aren’t afraid to go in hard after the ball- easily on par with their team mates, brought up with Auskick and the AFL.

But although the girls play like Australians, they are actually refugees, survivors of the ongoing conflict in Myanmar between government groups and Karen rebels.

Born into ethnic Karen families, the girls spent half their lives in refugee camps on the Myanmar/Thailand border, and didn’t even speak English when they were relocated by the United Nations three and four years ago. Today, through Zillmere Eagles’ Youth Girls football and an excellent multicultural program at Kedron State High School, the girls have become accustomed to Australian life and have made a lot of friends. Despite their background and the terrible things they witnessed as children, they have thankfully developed into outgoing talkative girls, enjoying music, Facebook and everything else their team mates do.

Having watched a few games on TV and recently seen the Gold Coast Suns play the Melbourne Demons at Gabba stadium, the girls are now even discussing the game like pros. Selee was impressed by Suns’ captain Gary Ablett, whilst Lar Htoo liked the Demons’ Aboriginal player Liam Jurrah. But the girls haven’t decided on a team to barrack for yet. Possibly Brisbane, though Gold Coast might have come out shining after the winning the weekend’s derby match.

Zillmere Eagles is the only women’s Australian Football club in Northside with a Youth Girls programme, and pride themselves on their multicultural club culture. As well as the three girls from Myanmar, there are also girls and women from Sudan, Fiji, Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea in their ranks. Even the AFL Queensland Female Participation Co-ordinator, Julia Price, is encouraged by the number of girls from multicultural backgrounds who are taking up the game.

Let’s hope that with a successful women’s competition in the International Cup this year, in a few years’ time we will get to see Eh Ka Dot Ray, Selee Po, Lar Htoo May and some more of AFL Queensland’s Youth Girls multicultural talent on a different stage, parading their skills in front of the Australian Football world at the MCG.