Perth’s Metro Football League continues to struggle with another women’s team forced to disband.
The Murdoch Vikings first introduced their women’s team just one year ago, in 2021, when it had a large group of women signed up to play.
This year however, a lack of signups has meant that the team have not been able to play, and after a continued lack of turnout, were forced to hang up their boots for the season.
“Both of our teams have struggled with numbers this year, but the women especially have had a really hard time with it,” Vikings coach Atten Mason says.
Murdoch Football CEO David Yole says last year’s success was a result of good recruitment and advertisement, which was lacking in this years signups.
“We had a presence in the guild days, we attempted to recruit people and we had good interest,” Mr Yole said.
The Murdoch Vikings are not the only team to struggle with finding players this year.
The Koongamia and Queens Park women’s teams also struggled to put together a team, but despite numerous attempts to recruit more players, coaches say they were forced to disband early on in the season.
“A lot of these women have never played football before, so it was really great to see them stepping out of their comfort zone to try something new,” Mr Mason says.
The women’s Vikings trained with the men’s team twice a week for their games on Sunday, and Mr Mason says there was some promising talent among the group.
“It’s a real shame we couldn’t get a team together, these girls all showed a lot of talent and enthusiasm, and it would’ve been great to see them play this year,” Mr Mason says.
“It was disappointing that it happened [but] we are certainly not giving up,” Mr Yole says.
Mr Yole says that this year’s setback will not stop them from continuing to support the women’s teams in the future, and they will be returning next year for another crack at the game.