By Mark Perriman
Queensland’s finest young female talent descend on Brisbane today for the 2014 Under-17 AFL Queensland Youth Girls State Championships.
When it comes to guernseys, teams have brought their A-game to the design stakes, with each girl flying the flag for their local community.
Gold Coast Development Coordinator Ally Kenwood explained that local heroes played an integral part in the Gold Coast Sunsets design.
“We took quite a lot of inspiration from the Gold Coast SUNS team,” Kenwood said.
“We have the yellow representing the Sun, as well some pink for something a little more feminine, and also some blue. We are really pleased with how it has turned out.”
Marcus MacDonald-Camden from Brisbane North says that the choice of name and logo is representative of side’s values and traits.
“It has been written that the Brumby has etched itself into the Australian identity by portraying values and traits such as strength, loyalty, intelligence and protecting every member of their mob,” said MacDonald-Camden.
“Brisbane North wants to build and foster the development of young female leaders on and off the field as we aspire to represent these values.”
Striking a balance between femininity and the ferocity of footy was a design aspect MacDonald-Camden said the side was conscious of.
“We took the idea of the Brumby on its hind legs, threw in some purple and black to keep the jersey feminine yet intimidating, and an art student friend drew up a design that we all loved,” said MacDonald-Camden.
“We believe the final design represents our values and traits, and has encouraged us all to be brave and support each other to get female footy on the map.”
You can follow Brisbane North on #brumbiesarego and #getaroundthemob.
Wide Bay’s Dean Bakewell said his side was wild in both name and nature.
“Our boys are the Wide Bay Tigers, so we thought the Wild Cats was a fitting name for the girls considering how they play,” Bakewell explained.
“On-field they go crazy like a pack of wild cats.”
Taking inspiration from the region’s footy roots, Bakewell said the Wide bay’s design cast a feminine light on an established regional stable.
“Our jerseys for the boys have always been yellow and black,” said Bakewell.
“We thought we keep this in there, and put in a splash of pink for the girls.”
Like the Wild Cats, Brisbane South Assistant Coach Damien Richards said local influences played a part in the design of the Vixens’ kit.
Richards also made note of the substantial influence that a particular inter-state netball side played in both design and name.
“We took our colours from the olds sides, the ‘Bushies and the Taipans, and wanted to keep them similar to the boys talent programs,” said Richards.
“The name came from the Melbourne Vixens netball side, as they have a fairly similar colour scheme to us.”
You can follow Brisbane South on #girlsplaytoo
Vanessa Creeley of Mackay Vipers said inspiration behind the name and design of the side stemmed from paying homage to a former association.
“Our Guernsey design came about as we wanted something new and fresh,” said Creeley.
“We initially had a couple of names but Vipers stood out to us as Mackay had previously participated in this competition with the Capricornia Cobras, and we wanted something that related to keep that link.”
Creeley said that their design was satisfying synergy of country grit and femininity, reflective of the local communities newfound individuality.
“We thought the Viper about to strike is fitting with us coming into this competition for the very first time on our own,” said Creeley.
“The colours come from knowing our girls in this region. They love girly but also have that little bit of country girl edge in them, and black with hot pink just seemed to fit.”
“We absolutely love the final product and cannot wait to show them off at the Championships.”
Capricornia’s Ben Hopkins said the Cobras guernseys were designed to be reflective of the local community and history.
“Well we have a very indigenous side, so we wanted the gurnsey to represent our region, which as a whole is quite indigenous,” said Hopkins.
“We also had a choice of keeping the cobra, but there is so much history behind it, so it would have been silly to change it.”
You can follow the Cobras on #fearthecobra
Darling Downs’ representative Jeff Neumann says history and simplicity played central roles behind the Demons popular design, with this year’s crop pushing to be part of that long line.
“The Demons date back to 1971, with the regions best players representing the region in the famous red and blue colours in various representative games ever since,” said Neumann.
“2014 marked the inaugural year for female football representative sides, and the talented girls wanted to don the regions famous red and blue Guernsey just like their male counterparts.”
You can follow the Demons at #AFLDD and #ReleaseYourDemon
Townsville’s Kath Newman says her Eagles are proud to fly the flag for both club and community at this year’s championships.
While part of a proud club, Newman notes that the girls are very much forging their own identity within.
“We designed out Guernsey based on our senior Townsville Eagles men’s team because we want the girls to be an extension of our men’s representative program,” said Newman.
“The teams also carry the Eagles name, which is a strong tradition in the Townsville area, but to give the jumper a point of difference with a bit of a female touch, we added a touch of pink to the Eagle’s face.”
Conceived after the merger of the Cairns Lions and Cape York Crusaders, the North Queensland stars took their name from a mutual theme between two sides.
Representative Sean Hunter said that given the diversity within the side, common grounds played a key role in the design on the team’s gurnsey.
“While we wanted to incorporate Pink to signify females, green was selected as this is the main colour of the Torre Strait Flag, as well as the Cairns regional representative teams,” said Hunter.
“The subtle pattern within the jumper is a representation of Aboriginal/Torre Strait artwork.”
Matches kick off at 1:00pm at Leyshon Park Yeronga.
