The inaugural Southern NSW AFL Women’s club competition will get underway in February and CSU have already committed a team to the concept.

The Farrer League club enjoyed a great response to a recent charity game they played and will ride that momentum into the new competition next year.

CSU president Harry Unthank said the concept has proven popular at the club.

“The charity game, to be honest, we used it as a way to get the girls involved but also to scope the numbers,” Unthank said.

“With the AFL Women’s comp earlier in the year, there has been a lot of interest from the girls so we used the charity game to see the numbers and see what we could do.”

Gabrielle Goldsworthy took the idea and turned it into a reality.

“The girls are super excited,” Unthank said.

“There is a fair few girls that have been wanting to play for a while so they have finally got the opportunity and they’re stoked.

“It will be a fair few netballers playing for us, and it won’t clash with netball so we should get 30. That’s what we’re aiming for at the moment.”

The competition will get underway on February 23 and will be run to coincide with the second AFL Women’s (AFLW) national league.

It will be held on Friday nights, over about six weeks. It will be based around Wagga with games to be held at venues across Southern NSW.

AFL Southern NSW game development manager Marc Geppert believes the time is right to expand the women’s game in the region.

“It’s very exciting for the region to have our first ever club based competition,” Geppert said.

“Obviously Riverina Lions and Cootamundra have been stalwarts for women’s footy in the region for a while and now we’re looking to expand on that and with the success of the Wagga Youth Girls competition recently, hopefully that is a sign of things to come."

Geppert expects the competition to prove popular.

“If we could have a six or eight team comp that would be great,” he said.

“In saying that, the Wagga Youth Girls competition blew us away so we have high expectations after that.”

Geppert was pleased to have CSU jump straight in.

“It’s great, hopefully it’s a kick along for some other clubs looking to be involved,” he said.

“CSU have been very proactive, following on from the charity game they had a few weeks ago.”

Geppert expects to release the final teams and draw by the end of November.

Any existing clubs that put in a team will be assisted by a resources and jumpers subsidy.