World Footy News

Last weekend the first ever game of AFL played by women in NZ was held against the visiting Australia Breeze Youth Girls Team.

Though the result was a sound thrashing for the Kiwis nevertheless Women’s football has to start somewhere in NZ and now it has.

The result really was inconsequential as with all of the development programs through primary and secondary schools in NZ administered through AFL NZ such as KiwiKick, Hawks Cup and Play AFL 9’s the opportunities are there for the females in NZ to become increasingly involved.

Stand outs for the Kahus (Hawks in maori) on the day were Kayla Paniora, Firth Bidois, Claudia McMeekin-Currin and Kiana Laing.

In a second game which had been fixture as a test between the two nations it was thought it better for all for the two teams to be mixed and to play a development game.

Kahus coach Mick Coultard was pleased to give his players the opportunity to learn through playing alongside Breeze players.
“The match was such a great learning curve for the Kahus, it was great to get them involved with such highly skilled and experienced players.”

For the Kahus McMeekin and Bidois were stand outs but also the performances of Hope Schuster, Tayla Cross and Marie Aleni were noted.

There will be a third game played on Wednesday 9th October as nation against nation and it would be expected that the Kahus may show an improved performance.

The reality may well be that a full scale match between future open age New Zealand and Australian teams may sooner be won by a NZ woman’s team rather than a mens!

For more:- http://aflnz.co.nz/nz-kahus-make-hist...but-match/
http://aflnz.co.nz/development-match-...for-kahus/