VAFA Women for all seasons

Lana Ryan 

With the light at the end of an incredibly long lockdown tunnel, many are reflecting on the standout moments and projects in what has been a relatively idle year.

Maybe you ransacked Bunnings for DIY home improvements back in autumn, or put your creativity to the test by jumping on the millennial TikTok train. Perhaps you learned to knit and made winter woollies with skills to make any nana proud, or channelled the competitive drive into fitness challenges, or – even more intense – family game nights.

Our VAFA women undoubtedly dabbled in some of these activities during this very long off-season. In true Gilmore Girls revival style, let’s look back at some of the many off-field club highlights since we finished up the 2019 season last spring.

Summer

The blaring sirens and umpiring whistles were replaced by wedding bells at St Mary’s Salesian over the summer, with so many exciting announcements they had to be spread over multiple social media posts, including Alex and Vicky Bussell tying the knot, Mitch Op’t Hoog and Lizzie Wagner getting engaged as well as Madi Judd.

Safe to say it was the summer of love in the south-east suburbs.

 

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It’s been the summer of love pt. 1 ???????? Congratulations to SMS players Alex and Vicky Bussell on their marriage & James Barrie, Mitch Op’t Hoog, Lizzie Wagner and Madi Judd on their engagements ????

A post shared by St Mary’s Salesian AFC (@smsfooty) on Jan 7, 2020 at 11:50pm PST

Autumn

While leaves covered nature strips, the weather dropped and footy pre-season ramped up, VAFA babies were arriving! Member of the inaugural RMIT side, Hannah Coffey became the proud mum of baby Zoe back in May. There’s no doubt this bub will be donning the red and black, a future Redback in the making for sure. Many more of our women welcomed babies throughout the year, including a certain VAFA Tragics & Hawthorn AFC favourite Sarah Delbosc, and we can’t wait to see the mother-daughter/son rule come into effect in 18 years.

 

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Welcome to the world to the newest Redback! Zoe Coffey was born at 3.17 on Sunday to mum and inaugural Redback Hannah and RMIT Big V basketball star Steve. Future mother daughter recruit! ❤️????????????

A post shared by RMITWFA (@rmitwfa) on May 4, 2020 at 5:47pm PDT

Winter

As the temperature plummeted and the hibernation began, the lack of a footy competition and the community spirit that always accompanies it was felt by all. Over in the north-west, four clubs came together and decided to channel their competitive drives into an off-field initiative.

West Brunswick, Preston Bullants, Brunswick FC and MUWFC took their competitive rivalry to the blood bank as part of the Blood Drive Challenge. To replicate a footy season and encourage donations, they created head-to-head fixtures for the six-week period where the club with the most donations within the fortnight would win the round.

West Brunswick took out the top spot both within the VAFA club comp and across Victoria. All four VAFA clubs finished in the top eight spots in the state, with the total donations saving 534 lives between them. Bloody impressive!

 

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Westies! Even though things might be different this season, what remains the same is our determination to win! So that’s why we have taken it upon ourselves to set up a mini @vafahq competition within the @lifebloodau Victorian Football & Netball Blood Challenge. Sign up to our donor team, roll up those sleeves and let’s save more lives than any other team in the VAFA. ???????? Our competition starts tomorrow!????More info in the next post! Thanks to all the people who have already joined our team and donated or booked donations, let’s keep up the great work and get a few W’s on the board throughout this competition! #WBAFC4Lyf #WBAFC4Lifeblood #OutForTheSeasonStillKickingGoals

A post shared by West Brunswick AFC (@westbrunswick) on Jul 26, 2020 at 3:47am PDT

Spring

De la Salle didn’t let restrictions stop them from participating in the annual Connor’s Run, the largest fundraising event for paediatric brain cancer. Despite being unable to run as a team like they had previous years, club members made individual fitness pledges over the month of September instead. Grace McDonnell and Steph McMurray went full Forest Gump and ran an incredible 100 kms each!

During their many hours on the jog, the De La Salle girls may have seen our female umpires on the track. VAFA’s BJS Women’s Umpiring Academy entered the One Foot Forward: The Walk for Mental Health across the month of October, aiming to cover 100 km together they have already raised over $3,000.

 

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Today we we’re supposed to run the @rcdfoundation Connor’s Run. Connor’s Run is reimagined this year, so head to our stories to see how our Guns are tracking against their “I will pledges”! Throwback to our Guns getting it done at the Connor’s Run last year ???????? ???????????????? LINK IN BIO IF YOU WISH TO DONATE

A post shared by De La Salle Women’s Football (@delasallewomens) on Sep 13, 2020 at 3:11am PDT

While we haven’t been able to celebrate on-field success this year, our women are always kicking goals in every aspect!