Tara Murray
The future is bright for females at Keilor Park Soccer Club.
The club, which first had female teams in 1998, has decided to make its female program a big focus going forward.
While the women’s side plays in state league 1 north-west and the club has three junior sides, the club knows it has to get better.
Louie Trajcevski has been appointed as the club’s first female technical director. Trajcevski had been the club’s women’s coach the past two years.
“There are exciting times ahead,” he said.
“We’ve had involvement with women’s football for almost 25 years, we were one of the trailblazers.
“We’re putting a real focus on female football especially with the world cup around the corner.
“I put my hand up for this role after realising we didn’t have anyone looking after the whole program.
“I thought it was really important to have someone oversee the whole program and provide a good pathway to push into seniors.”
Trajcevski has stood down as coach to concentrate on his technical director role.
He said the club was looking to have mentoring and a buddy pathway so the younger players don’t feel intimidated. Several of the players did a leadership course with FV this year and the club is hoping to put more players through that next year.
“The main thing is to have a pathway from under-12s, under-14s and all the way up to seniors.”
Trajcevski said the club would look to put some more resources into the program, like strength and conditioning, and physiotherapy to help it match the top sides.
He said ideally Keilor Park would love to have a National Premier League side in the future, and he said the addition of a Western United women’s A-League side was massive for the club.
“We want to fast track the development of some of our younger girls.”
Club vice-president Nicole Camilleri said the development of the women’s program was really important for the club.
“It aligns with our strategic plan and aligns with Football Victoria’s strategy of 50-50 participation rates by 2027.
“It’s a massive ask, but we’re making a concerted effort with the football program and with the new committee, it is one of the major priorities.”
Camilleri said Keilor Park has about 400 members and 70 of them are female.
She said the existing players were excited about what the future holds for the club.
“We’ve got players who have been at the club for 10 to 15 years and they say this has rejuvenated them and pushing them to keep playing.
“We want to be a female friendly club that incorporates players of all abilities. There is a pathway to state league 1 or if you want to play social football we have that too.
“We welcome all gender and age groups. It’s about a holsitic approach, not just on field.”
