Sport
10 October, 2025
Girls show strength on and off field
REPRESENTATIVE football in the south west continues to gain momentum, with Football Southwest, (previously known as South West Victorian Football Association), sending two teams to the female-only Western United Cup in Ballarat last weekend.
The newly-formed girls’ teams (under 15 and under 13) played four group matches each over the weekend, with both teams advancing to elimination quarter finals.
The competition standard was noticeably elite across all four groups for the under 15 division.
South West fought hard against last year’s finalists Calder, and New Zealand international academy team RH3.
On Saturday the girls competed strongly against Brimbank Stallions in a match that saw two offside goals granted, unfortunately being the deciding difference in the 0-2 result.
Despite missing finals, the under 15s continued to battle strongly, and finished the tournament with a hard-fought contest against Lara, going down 0-2 in their last match.
The under 13s had an equally tough draw, with their first match (ever) as a team scheduled on Friday night against ProStar Academy from Melbourne.
ProStar were in a league of their own, dominating the entire division and winning the overall tournament without conceding a single goal.
Despite this being their first ever match together, the girls showed incredible focus and resilience, keeping their heads up.
Their next match saw the 13s face Ballarat FC, a seasoned team fresh from winning their 2025 league and grand final two weeks prior.
Defensive midfielder Georgie Milroy got Football Southwest on the scoreboard, breaking through the midfield and slipping a beautiful strike past the keeper, before a reckless tackle (yellow card) from Ballarat saw her sidelined with injury for the remainder of the match, which ended 6-1 to Ballarat.
The 13s then faced Lara FC shortly after, who scored early.
The girls regrouped immediately, however despite having the majority of possession for the remainder of the game, were unable to convert, finishing 0-1.
Sunday morning saw the 13s team seize their first ever win, in the Plate quarterfinal against Surf Coast FC, scoring 3-2 to advance through to the Plate semi-final (scores to M Rocka, M Nield, M Nield).
The girls then faced off against North Sunshine Strikers in the semi-final.
Both sides played with utter desperation in a fantastic contest, with neither team able to score by the final whistle.
The girls then participated in their first ever penalty shootout, narrowly missing a grand final berth and scoring two penalties (G Milroy, M Rocka) to North Sunshine’s 4.
Football Southwest’s representative player coordinator Melissa Condo said she was thrilled with the way the girls had competed across both teams.
“This is the third year now that our representative teams have attended the WU Cup, and thanks to our competition finally having a junior girls’ division, we are now in a position where we have enough players to enter our girls’ teams in their correct age groups,” she said.
“We are in a similar position and level to a lot of the younger teams such as under 12s and 13s, while the standard of the 14, 15, and 16 age groups seem to be of an increasingly elite standard.
“This is evident with the tournament attracting international and academy teams.”
Condo said it was also fantastic to see so many more community and CPL clubs out there this year at the WU Cup that were at a similar stage of development to Southwest in their younger age groups.
The tournament provided a chance to network with other teams, which was critical for creating further match opportunities for the girls to develop.
“This year we’ve attended the Dandy FC thanks to just meeting the organisers in a line at a tournament last year and chatting,” she said.
“We also enjoyed a friendly match with Forest Rangers just prior to going to Ballarat.
“Our 13s finals against Surf Coast and North Sunshine were played in wonderful spirit, and it was wonderful to share those matches with clubs that have a similar agenda to Football Southwest around increasing and developing female participation in football.
“I’m really looking forward to growing stronger connections with those clubs so that our girls can play as a team more often throughout the year.”
Football Southwest has a busy month ahead, sending seven representative teams to Shepparton FC at the end of October, and then hosting an inaugural event with Limestone Coast Football Association in Hamilton on November 8.
This will be a one-day tournament with nine junior and two senior matches played across the day, the overall winners claiming the Cross Border Cup .
Condo said the Football Southwest representative squads welcomed expressions of interest, and relied on sponsorship from local donors to maintain its representative program in a way that was affordable for junior players to participate in football.
Anyone wishing to support the representative program can contact Melissa Condo at Football Southwest at swvfarep2@gmail.com.
