By ROY WARD
TWO Hallam Senior College graduates will play in the first AFL-sanctioned women’s match on the MCG on June 29.
Melbourne Demons and Western Bulldogs will field women’s teams for the match. The players were selected at a specially convened AFL women’s draft last Wednesday.
Hallam graduate Ellie Blackburn was taken with pick 13 by the Demons and Bianca Jakobsson was also picked by the Demons at No. 33.
Blackburn was named the player of the carnival at the AFL under-18 girls carnival earlier this month. Jakobsson plays for Berwick in the Victorian women’s football league.
The women’s match will be played as a curtain-raiser to the AFL men’s clash between the Demons and Bulldogs.
The women’s players will get to spend several days before the match doing an AFL induction program and doing training and preparation similar to their AFL men’s counterparts.
Both players played for several years in Hallam’s elite women’s football program, coached by Brett Alexander.
He said he was proud to see the pair selected in the draft. “I’m rapt for the two girls individually,” he said.
“I know how hard they have worked and have seen their efforts at training and what they have put into their football.”
Alexander said he hoped the match would grow into more AFL women’s matches in the years to come.
“Hopefully it’s a stepping stone for the game and we see other AFL clubs come on board.
“It’s great for us as a school program to see Hallam girls in this draft.
“There were a few girls in the current program and from past years who were also in the draft pool who didn’t get picked up but they will look to put their hand up again in the next year or two.”
Jakobsson, a 20-year-old Skye resident, said she considered her selection an honour, given that the match would be a first for women’s football.
“It’s so overwhelming,” Jakobsson said. “It’s such an honour and will be a historic night for women’s football. It shows where our sport is going and puts it out there to the public.”
Alexander said the Hallam girls’ football program continued to produce representative players.
Nine players have been selected to play junior interleague football in the coming weeks.
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