VAFA holds Women’s Coaching Forum ahead of inaugural season

The VAFA held its first-ever women’s coaching forum on Wednesday night with more than 60 club members taking part at TH King Oval.

The sessions covered key issues for coaches and women’s players heading into the VAFA’s first season of women’s football; including, injury prevention, tackling and the art of coaching women.

Andrew Lozanovski, Malcolm Bangs & Steve Teakel held practical sessions, while AFL Victoria Female Academy’s Lilly Waisberg and Collingwood AFLW senior coach, Wayne Siekman, spoke to the group about their experiences in women’s football.

Siekman focused his presentation on the approach to coaching women compared to their male counterparts.

VAFA Women’s Football Development Manager, Shona MacInness, said Siekman piqued the interest of all in attendance, with the players acknowledging and taking in every word he spoke.

“You could see they appreciated he was in tune with them and understood and embraced their idiosyncrasies,” she said.

The practical sessions ran for 20 minutes concurrently, with Lozanovski (Northern FL Female Academy Coach), Bangs (AFL Victoria Women’s Academy Tackling Coach) and Teakel (AFL Victoria Coaching & Umpiring Manager) teaching the basics of kicking skills, tackling and body contact as well as game sense coaching.

The inaugural VAFA women’s season will kick off on the April 8 weekend with 40 teams across five sections.

As an introduction to women’s football in our competition, the VAFA will hold a Lightning Premiership weekend on April 1 and 2 with 24 development teams at Sportscover Arena.