AFTER waiting eight long months to play footy again, Coffs Coast’s Aussie Rules juniors returned to action during the opening round of AFL North Coast’s junior season last weekend.

This year sees a record 50 teams competing across seven competitions each Sunday.

This season also sees the introduction of a new Youth Girls 13s competition, in addition to the Youth Girls 15s and Youth Girls 17s competitions.

Coffs Harbour Breakers and Sawtell/Toormina Saints junior teams faced off in their opening round match day at Richardson Park.

Sawtell/Toormina Saints Youth Girls 15s coach Josh Murphy shared his thoughts on AFL North Coast’s burgeoning Youth Girls competitions.

“I think the growth has shown to be fairly amazing, as in the girls had to play with the mixed boys until 14s and then they had no other options or pathways, then they introduced the 14s two years ago and from then I think they’ve seen an almost 50 percent growth in numbers,” he said.

“And I think further growth will be seen in the next few years.”

Murphy said it was exciting times for girls footy on the Coffs Coast.

“It’s exciting, and for our girls, you don’t realise this is the first year it’s been played, you don’t even realise that it is something that we will look back on and go, oh yeah, 2021, that was the inaugural game,” he said.

“I think going forward it’s going to be great with the three age groups.”

By Aiden BURGESS