Railways officially will not field women’s side in 2024 despite efforts from league board

One of the clubs that pioneered women’s football in Geraldton will unfortunately not have a side in the competition this year because of a lack of numbers.

On the eve of round one, Railways will not field a women’s side in the 2024 Great Northern Football League season.

GNFL president Carrissa Bellottie said the league board held discussions to try to resolve the issue, but could not find a solution before round one.

“Discussions were held with the board, and we concluded that the Railways won’t field a women’s team this year for the 2024 competition,” she said.

“With the fixtures already being done, those games will be recorded as a bye.”

Despite being one of the competition’s founding teams, the Blues had some players leave for work or retirements, causing a shortage in players.

“They tried their hardest to get a team, but obviously due to work commitments and other things, they just didn’t and couldn’t get the numbers, unfortunately,” Bellottie said.

“We’ve been working with them and talking with Railways for several weeks, getting the updates, and unfortunately, it’s going to be a six-team women’s competition this year.”

Despite missing the 2024 season, the club and league are confident the side will be back in 2025.

“They’re quite confident they will be able to field a team next year,” Bellottie said. “They do have a number of youth girls coming up through the competition.

“The GNFL women’s competition has a really good leeway to getting into women’s. We’ve got young girls playing juniors, that they then lead into our youth competition, which not many other country football leagues do have.”

Any games involving Railways will now be a bye, with the colts now playing at 11am and the reserves playing at 1pm.