Longwarry u12's player Marli Gay (left) and Delia Knights (right) pose with Kim Rennie at football training on a wet and muddy night.
by Jack Morgan
Young footballers were starstruck last week when AFLW star Kim Rennie visited the Longwarry Recreation Reserve.
The North Melbourne ruck ran drills with the Longwarry junior football teams and spoke to the kids about following their passion and sticking through any hard times, such as cold and wet footy trainings. Rennie hopes by talking to kids about AFL, she’ll have a small but positive impact on their future.
“Looking around at all the kids holding sausages and a can of coke, that’s something that my brother and I did growing up and it kind of sets you up moving forward, so it’s really awesome to be involved at a junior level,” she said.
As a kid, Rennie started playing football at Auskick. But after growing too old, there were no options for girls to pursue football.
“So I grew up playing basketball and it wasn’t until the AFLW competition had pretty much started, it was following that first year where I tried out at the Western Bulldogs and I was drafted as a rookie,” she said.
Longwarry Football Club president Annie Van Der Heyden said it was fantastic players went out of their way to visit the small country football club. Marli Gay plays in Longwarry’s under 12 mixed team and said she was inspired by Rennie.
“To just keep going and to keep trying and then maybe one day you will end up in the AFLW,” she said was her favourite piece of advice.
Marli started playing football to try something different and hopes to continue playing when she’s older.
“I just love stepping out on the field because I feel like I’m important and people cheer me on,” she said.
The club president has seen a surge of young girls taking up football. A third of Longwarry’s Auskick clinics are now made up of girls.
“We’ve usually only had one or two girls here and there so to have that many this year, especially with Auskick, it’s definitely getting ready to explode,” Van Der Heyden said.
The club have initiated talks about starting a youth girls football team in 12 months’ time. The only issue is numbers.
“Our main focus at the moment would definitely be youth girls and then followed on by ladies after that,” she said.
Rennie said it’s exciting to see new pathways popping up for girls’ football. And while she has never visited Longwarry, she said it was an honour to be involved with the club.
