As we continue to delve through the club archives, it’s time to turn our attention to girls football at our club.
The first thing to note is that girls playing football at the Eagles (& the former club in the area in Hornsby Heights Sports Club Australian Rules Section) has been a regular feature across the time that both of these clubs have existed. In fact, there have only been 6 years since 1987 where there have been no girls playing football at the club.
The first girls to play football at the club (then Hornsby Heights Sports Club) were Amanda Smith and Laura Milkins in 1990. The number of girls grew through the 90s and from the time the Hornsby District Junior Australian Football Club (the formal name for our club) was formed at the end of 1994, there was a core group of girls which remained at the club until the late 90s. These were different times and having these numbers of girls playing football at any club was quite a remarkable achievement. Girls played in mixed teams with the boys and were only able to play up to u13s (beyond this there was no option to continue playing football). The numbers across the club at the time, meant that it was common practice for kids to play multiple games on a weekend and playing up many age groups. The result was that many kids at the club amassed large numbers of games played in a short period of time, and the girls were no exception.
One of the prominent names at the club during the 1990s was Amanda Smith. Amanda played 6 seasons at the club from 1990 – 1995, starting in the u9s at the age of 6. Amanda was the first girl at the club to reach the milestones of 50 and 100 games. Even more incredible is that she reached 100 games at the age of 11! She was awarded her 100 game medallion by Ron Barassi at the SCG in 1994. She remains the club girls games played record holder with 125 games (it must be noted that the club records from back then are somewhat incomplete and these are the games that are known to have been played).
There was a resurgence of girls numbers at the club through the 2000s, after they had waned at the end of the 90s. Circumstances hadn’t much changed and girls who wanted to play football still needed to play with the boys and they were only able to do so through until U12 age group (beyond this there remained no option to continue to play). At one point in 2006, the U10 team at the club had 4 girls in the team which was remarkable for that era.
A small number of girls continued to come and go at the club through the late 2000s and early 2010s, mostly in our Auskick and younger age teams.
A big change occurred in 2015, when a big push was made by our club in association with Pennant Hills and Westbrook Junior AFL Clubs to provide an avenue for girls to train and play football in a girls only environment. This led to organised girls only training sessions on Sunday mornings at Pennant Hills and Westbrook for girls from the 3 clubs – we had 5 girls from our club who participated in this initiative. Whilst there was girls only training, there was no girls only competitions at this point. This combined initiative from Pennant Hills, Westbrook and Hornsby Berowra Junior Football Clubs effectively began the North West Lightning alliance which commenced the following year.
In 2016, the North West Lightning was established being a joint venture between Pennant Hills, Westbrook and Hornsby Berowra Junior Football Clubs and continues to exist to this day. 2016 also saw girls from our club being able to play in a girls only team and a girls only competition for the first time! In this first season of the North West Lightning, a single team (u14) was formed.
The North West Lightning has continued to grow ever since and in 2023 now fields 8 teams from U10 to U18 age groups. The Hornsby Berowra Junior AFL Club currently has 38 girls participating in North West Lightning teams in 2023.
In recent years, whilst there has been large growth in girls junior football numbers at the club and growth in North West Lightning teams, there has also been significant growth in our youngest Eagles – our Auskickers. From 2019, our club introduced girls only activity groups within our Auskick program as well as a number of other initiatives to try to promote girls joining our Auskick program. One of the opportunities which presented in 2022 for our older Auskick girls was an U8 girls only gala day, which saw our inaugural Hornsby Berowra Eagles girls U8 team formed to participate in this gala day. It is fair to say that there has been considerable growth from 9 girls in our Auskick program in 2019 to 27 in 2023, with room for many more!
This large growth in girls participation numbers across the club in recent years has flowed on to other areas of the club, and it is great to see so many females (mums, ex-players and some of our older girls from our playing group) step into coaching, Auskick activity helper, committee roles and other club volunteer positions.
Over the years there have been some significant achievements by some of the girls at the club. There have been 8 girls (see image) reach the milestone of playing 50 games, with a 9th in Claire Bridge reaching this milestone this weekend! There has only been 1 girl thus far reach the 100 game milestone in Amanda Smith, although their will be another joining her this weekend as Tara Coopman plays her 100th game!
There have also been a few girls who have received major club awards over the years (see image for full details). The most recent of these award recipients was Tara Coopman who was awarded Hornsby Berowra Eagles Player of the Year in 2022!
As you can see, there has been a significant history of girls playing football at our club for over 30 years. Girls football is something that we continue to look to grow and nurture.
Go Eagles 
Go Lightning 
