City Women Back Up and Running

A year after the collapse of their Women's program, Launceston City have officially announced that they will be returning to the Veto Women's Northern Championship in 2020. A former powerhouse of the Women's game in the state, City's program slumped in 2019 as they lost their top flight status and had to withdraw from the Women's Super League and Northern Championship competitions due to low player numbers. But the club has used that disappointment to fuel an overhaul of the entire Women's program with the efforts spearheaded by newly installed Women's Development Officer, Amy Geach, who along with Richard Riley, Jenny Duffy, and Kiara Walsh formed a committee tasked with overseeing the club's return to senior competitions for 2020. That mission has now been declared a success with a #bringitback2020 campaign helping drive player recruitment and getting them in the position to make their return. "Launceston City is extremely committed to valuing all women in football, and we have listened to past players and current interested females about how we can encourage their participation and ensure equality in our club." said Geach "For the last 4 months we have worked hard to rally together and have been promoting our campaign with a #bringitback2020 theme and are at a place now where we know we can support women in our club to play, but also junior females coming through the club who are keen to continue their involvement in football." That focus on juniors has been viewed as especially important in order to ensure the future sustainability of the program and avoid any repeats of 2019, with the club already seeing a return on the approach. "Already, we have had junior players as young as under 14 joining in our training sessions which provides them with mentoring and the courage to continue through the club."  Geach said her motivation in helping drive the campaign came from her daughter, a junior player at the club and providing a pathway that would allow her to reap the benefits that football can bring. "My daughter has just turned 13, and wants to be a Matilda one day. What do I tell her about where she can go to develop this pathway for herself? What I want to be able to tell her is that she doesn’t need to swap clubs, that she has a place here, with mentors to guide her, good coaches to develop her skill, and team mates to connect with." "During my time as a soccer mum, enduring the cold, the rain, the wins, the losses and as you know sometimes the politics, I have also come to see young girls grow in confidence, develop grit, learn how to bounce from knockbacks, develop friendships they can rely on when highschool gets tough, belong to something, feel valued by their team and be proud of themselves. The benefits of soccer for girls, teenagers, younger women and those a little older are worth us fighting for." An experienced duo of Barry Baker and Darren Cook have been appointed to coach the Senior Women's side and they will have an ace up their sleeve in the form of boom recruit Zoe Horgan who has moved North for University. The Club will be having a kit handover celebration on 15 March at the Ringwood Hotel in Cressy who have come on board as a major sponsor for the team ahead of this season. Their first game will be against Ulverstone on Saturday 21st March at Buckby Landrover Park. [caption id="attachment_13712" align="alignnone" width="538"] City have lured one of the best players in the state in Zoe Horgan[/caption]