Female football fanatics were out in force at Robertson Oval for the AFLW competition, where die-hard Giants fans came down to exchange some semi-friendly banter with born-and-bred Richmond loyalists.
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One of the loyal stalwarts was Wagga AFL tragic Margaret Post, who has been an enthusiastic fan and an even more enthusiastic punter for the last 57 years.
"I take great delight in tipping teams that I probably don't like, but because I've tipped them to win I hope they win," she said.
Over the decades she's seen the women's football scene make a dramatic appearance, with more young fans jumping onto the AFLW craze.
One of the young fans was 4-year-old Richmond supporter Elsie Chamberlain, who has been playing football for as long as she can remember with her 7-year-old sister Maisy Chamberlain.
"Sometimes we have a football at home and we sometimes practice throwing the ball," Elsie said.
"We practice at school and at home."
Debi Booth came to Robertson Oval emblazoned with both teams' colours, but she said she was barracking for Richmond 75 per cent and the Giants 25 per cent, and that she ends up winning either way.
Mrs Booth grew up in a stalwart rugby league household, but was instantly converted to AFL when she laid eyes on her first major match in Melbourne.
"You can't really appreciate an AFL match until you go to the MCG and see a huge crowd of 90,000 people in a Richmond-Essendon game," Mrs Booth said.
"Just the atmosphere - you can't get that in any other sport I've been to."
Her daughter was a keen AFL player who played for her under 18 team despite being just 11 years old, due to the shortage of players.
However Mrs Booth said that in just a few years the girl's AFL club went from barely being able to scrape together one team to having three full teams of young aspiring players.
"We saw just how much the [AFLW] women's team had an effect on the numbers of girls playing every year," Mrs Booth said.
"It was quite substantial. It blew our minds how just a couple of years away the whole game was so different."
Kenji Sato
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
