SIX years ago there was plenty made about the appointment of Colleen Rogers as the chair of the Loddon Valley Football-Netball League.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Not that Rogers was one to make a fuss of it, saying at the time her elevation to the role was “no big deal”.
However, it was certainly noteworthy given associating females with that of the leader of a football league was a rarity.
Yet six years on, Rogers’ appointment in December, 2010, has proven to be the beginning of what has become the AFL Central Victoria region becoming a pace-setter in women holding positions of footballing administration significance.
And that has been taken to a new level now with the appointment of Carol Cathcart (pictured) to the region’s top administrative position – AFLCV region general manager.
It’s the position that had been held by Paul Hamilton for three-and-a-half years before he left in October to take on the role of AFL Victoria state talent manager.
While Cathcart is new to the position of AFLCV region general manager, she’s a familiar name having spent the past 19 months as manager of the Bendigo Football-Netball League.
Two months prior to Cathcart’s appointment in May, 2015, Dr Carol McKinstry was announced as the BFNL’s new chair – the first female to fill the role in the history of the league that dates more than 130 years.
Which means the past two seasons have featured two of the BFNL’s top off-field roles being filled by women, while the LVFNL in recent years has not only had Rogers – who has now stood down – as chair, but also Laura Naughton as executive officer.
Again, two females filling key off-field league roles.
Cathcart’s new role as the regional general manager is a trailblazing appointment given she is the first female across Victoria to hold such a position. So what’s next?
Is Cathcart being appointed to the region’s top football administrative job a breaking of the metaphoric glass ceiling?
Or could that still be to come if and when the first female coach appointed of an AFLCV senior men’s footy team in either the Bendigo, Heathcote District, Loddon Valley or North Central league makes headlines?
Because if the past six years have proven – particularly with women’s football on the field growing stronger each season – it’s that the influence of footy females in the region is on the increase and anything is possible.
Luke West – sports reporter
