New team set to welcome footy talent from across capital country in debut season

Seeing a new sports team run onto the field in the 2025 season will be the culmination of years of planning by one footy club.

Southern Cats Football Club (formerly known as the Cooma Cats) president Anthony Sexton said they would receive “five or six expressions of interest” each year from women looking to play AFLW.

But without a women’s team, they would have to send their would-be Cats off to other clubs in the area, such as those in Tuggeranong or Queanbeyan.

“We would have to tell them, ‘These are the people that we know; we’ve dealt with them in the past. They’ve got good programs, so go work with them,'” he told Region.

As the club approached its 50th anniversary since its 1975 founding, members decided to make a second team a reality.

“We decided we wanted to stop having to tell women, ‘You can’t play with us,'” he said.

“Whilst it was something the board has driven, there’s only so much we can do.

“The girls are the ones who are really driving with this.”

From the 2025 season, the club’s debut women’s team will play in the AFL Canberra community women’s division, taking in players from across capital country.

The new Cats players are set to lace up their boots in early 2025.

“At our level of football, you don’t start [preseason work] until the new year,” he said.

Mr Sexton said the team’s first training session was scheduled for 22 January, with sessions split between Cooma and Canberra so players could attend the one closest to them.

When the season kicks off a few months later, each match will rotate through everyone’s home grounds. The women are set to play immediately before the men’s game.

Mr Sexton said the only difference between the club’s women’s and men’s teams was that the former would be “better kitted out than our men” with new equipment and uniforms.

“The only time we’d split the women and the men would be for full-contact work. We’ll generally train completely combined, so all skill work will be done together,” he said.

“There’s no separate women’s program and [a separate] men’s program.”

As the new footy season approaches – and the starting whistle of the first game gets closer – Mr Sexton said the club has already seen interest from potential players.

“You do have women who say, ‘I’ve always liked Aussie rules, and I like to play it, but I’d never known you could play it down in our region,'” he said.

“Some say their families really like it, others say they want to be active and make friends or be part of a community organisation.

“It is a mixed bag on the reasons.”

While some women had already reached out to the Southern Cats to join their roster – or had played in friendly games against nearby clubs in 2024 – Mr Sexton said the door was open to any who wanted to get involved.

“You can register, literally, at any time of year to play,” he said.

“You can contact us at any time and we will tell you how to get involved.”

More information can be found by emailing the Southern Cats club at [email protected].