Lithgow clubs to launch inaugural women teams for 2021 Bathurst District Football season

Lithgow City Rangers and Lithgow Workmen’s will launch their inaugural women’s teams for the upcoming 2021 Bathurst District Football season.

Rangers has nominated a team for the women’s third grade competition, while Workmen’s will contest second grade.

Lithgow City Rangers secretary Paul Goodwin said the club has longed to establish a women’s team to provide a pathway for girls looking to progress in football beyond the junior levels.

“In recent years the oldest age group offered in Lithgow has been under 15s and there has not been a full-scale women’s competition,” he said.

“Close to half our junior player base is made up of girls and we’re keen to ensure that we as a club can provide them with options to play once they are too old for the junior competition.

“We’re proud that in recent years two of our girls have been able to go all the way to state level competitions and we want to foster a culture where all our girls know that we can support them in the sport beyond.”

Goodwin explained that there’s been a number of factors to why Rangers has not had a women’s team in the past, including the travelling, which will see the club travel mainly to Bathurst for a majority of their games.

“The distance and travel has also been a factor as our team are from a range of diverse backgrounds and ages and managing the challenge of looking after kids whilst training and playing also is a factor,” he said.

“We make our training sessions as family friendly and inclusive as we can with older kids encouraged to join in and build their skills alongside the senior players. We also can have the kids looked after inside the clubhouse when we move into the colder months.”

Lithgow City Rangers’ women’s team will kick-off its season on April 18 against Oberon United Wolves at the Oberon Rec Ground, before playing its first home game at Rangers Park on May 2.

For Lithgow Workmen’s, its maiden game as a women’s team will come on April 18 too, on home soil at Marjorie Jackson Oval against Panorama FC.