AS a working mother, Julianne Long is used to juggling her day. This particular one, it was a trolley full of shopping for her family – husband Wayne and four children – fielding the odd work-related phone call and keeping up with the daily operations of her local football club.
“It never stops,” says Long, who somehow finds time to perform one of the most important tasks at Epping Football Club in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
In her first year as president, after four years as secretary, Long has stepped into the role and is overseeing a senior team that is unbeaten in division two of the Northern Football League.
“I think any football club president will tell you there aren’t enough hours in the day but we have some really, really good people at Epping,” she said.
“Everyone has their set jobs, so people know their role. I like to have a clear direction in most things I do and running a footy club is no different.”
The focus of Long and her committee has been to build from the bottom and the early results are encouraging.
With the senior side eyeing a return to division one in 2013, the club has established an Auskick centre under Long’s guidance. Epping hoped to attract “around 30-40”, but the number has swollen to 70. There is a first-year girls team, which is also proving popular.
So how hard was it to come into a senior football environment and break down some long-held perceptions that football clubs were best left to the domain of males?
“I guess being secretary for the previous four years helped and we have a lot of women involved, including our secretary Cheryl Wood, who took over my role,” Long said.
“I love the environment of football clubs and the pleasing thing was that I was encouraged to run for president by a number of senior players.”
Across the entire operation of Epping’s junior and senior clubs, there are 10 women involved in committee/management roles, a model AFL Victoria’s northern region is particularly pleased with.
Northern region community development manager Phiv Demetriou said the NFL was a good example of a community competition embracing its female involvement.
“There are nine female presidents across the Northern Football League, probably the best (in terms of female representation) of any league in Australia,” he said.
“It is certainly a by-product of our ‘Fair Game Respect Matters’ program, which was introduced in the NFL in late 2008.”
The following are presidents of NFL junior clubs: Kate Anderson (Mernda), Megan Beattie (Whittlesea), Joy Lee (Lalor Bloods), Helen Smith (Eltham), Cindy Dale (Hurstbridge), Donna Sandford (West Lalor) and Jackie Aquilina (Mill Park). Rebecca Hickmott is president of Darebin Women’s Sports Club, which fields girls’ youth teams in the NFL.
