By Heidi Sheehan
Edited for online by Tobi Loftus

The Queensland Youth Girls AFL Team smashed Western Australia by 31 points at the National Championships in Perth last night, securing their place in Friday’s final against Vic-Metro.

The results of the competition are seen not just as a win for the team, it is also a win, and an exciting look to the future, for females in AFL.

Queensland AFL Craig Starcevich Female High Performance Manager says the girls are playing well and the success of the completion could see a professional women’s national competition as soon as 2017.

“So I think once we announce that we have got a high level national competition, I think girls will flock to our game,” Mr Starcevich said.

“It doesn’t take you too long to get pretty passionate about where it’s all going, I just hope that there is more men, boys, that come across from the traditional male space and check out what’s going on.

“I think once you have a look at the style of player that we’re producing, I think you’ll be very, very pleasantly surprised.”

Queensland Youth Girls co-captain Tayla Harris says she is excited about the prospect of playing at a higher level.

“Just hopefully it can get done, everyone can pull together and make it happen, we just want to do what we do and get as high as we can,” Ms Harris said.

AFL Queensland fan development and marketing manager Bindi Perkins has created the ‘Girls Can Play Too’ campaign to promote women in AFL.

The campaign, which has seen five new teams introduced to the under 13s Brisbane completion, has also been adopted in other states.

Ms Harris says it is an exciting time for women and AFL.

“We knew when we created this campaign that we were on the edge of something really exciting and if we didn’t make that move now to create that campaign and I guess garner that awareness we could potentially miss that opportunity,” Ms Harris said.

“It’s an incredibly exciting time – in the next five to 10 years, watch out.”