Female football umpires across Tasmania will receive sports bras and access to a new statewide development program under two grants aimed at attracting and keeping women and girls in umpiring.
The Tasmanian Football Umpires Association (TFUA) secured $11,000 through Active Tasmania’s ‘Her Path to Play’ program for an umpire development series, with separate funding covering the sports bras.
The development series will run six sessions on nutrition, strength and conditioning, health and performance, injury prevention, recovery, leadership and cultural change.
TFUA vice-president Olive Anderson said the sessions would be a mix of online and small-group, in-person sessions with local facilitators.
The program has been opened to umpires in the north and north-west.
She said it would run over the next 12 to 14 months, to the end of 2027, with expressions of interest to be released in due course.
Anderson said sports bras were “non-negotiable for our women and girls umpires” and that she had paid around $100 each for them.
On top of uniform costs for new umpires, she said, the expense “is potentially a barrier”.
“These initiatives are about ensuring women and girls feel supported from the moment they enter umpiring and are given every opportunity to succeed and stay involved in the game,” Anderson said.
The funding supports AFL Tasmania’s aim of improving the retention of women and girls in umpiring, which is a key part of the AFL’s women and girls action plan.
Anderson, a field umpire, said that when she started she was the only female field umpire at senior level and at times felt like “the odd one out”.
She said there had been “huge growth” in the five or six years she had been involved.
However, umpire numbers were still catching up with the growth of female football.
Over the next five to 10 years she expected more female players to try umpiring and she said “the opportunities are pretty well limitless”.
