The following article is courtesy of Bathurst Western Advocate newspaper. The article was written by Candice Falconer and can be found here.
THIRTEEN year old Katie Kennedy has had the experience of her young footballing life – making the Northern New South Wales CHS under 16 girls AFL side last week.
Having only ever played against boys, trialling for an all girls NSW side has given her more drive and determination to play.
Katie has been playing AFL for the past three seasons and only tried out for the Northern NSW side because her mum stumbled across an email.
“It was by chance, I got an email saying there were try-outs, I sent an expression of interest and they included her in the trial,” Liz Kennedy said.
The selection process for the NSW team has two rounds.
At the trials held on May 18 in Randwick, Kennedy made the Northern NSW squad.
The next stage for the teenager will see her travel to Canberra to compete against Southern NSW in July.
A NSW CHS side will be selected following this match.
For Katie the try-outs really cemented her commitment to the code and she even told her father Mark that she wants to move to Tasmania as there is a profession league for girls.
“I can only play here for a few more years, I don’t know what will happen after that but I’d like to go to Tasmania,” Katie said.
“I usually play forward or around the centre. All my family play and follow the sport so that’s how I got into it.
“We haven’t had a win yet this season at the Bushrangers under 14s but there are still a lot of matches to go.”
Katie’s pedigree is strong, given that her dad currently coaches the Bushrangers first grade side.
As you’d expect he was proud of what his daughter achieved in getting as far as she has with the try-outs.
“She did extremely well and held her own against the older girls. Some of the other girls she was playing against are already state representatives, so for her first time in a trial, it gave her a really big boost,” Mark said.
Because there is not a girls competition, she plays with, and against the boys, but more than holds her own.
“Sometimes the boys stand off her and don’t want to tackle her, but she gets in there and tackles the boys,” Liz said.
AFL was not always her sport of choice, she did try dancing, but the family was at football most of the time as her father and brother play.
Mark said she used to play in the backyard with them before she started to play in organised competition.
“Mark was on night shift so it was hard to get the kids to different sports. She said she wanted to start playing, so it was an easy choice for us,” Liz said.
Katie has two seasons left with the Bushrangers because the rules state females can only play until they are 14.
“She has expressed interest in umpiring and there is a girls competition in Illawarra, we might look further into both of those. We will just wait until the time comes,” Liz said.