A recent posting on Facebook by Leanne Brown uncovered a story of the joys of playing football at the age of 12, before being denied playing due to being a girl.
After a 35-year wait, Leanne was able to live her dream and rediscover the joys of playing the game of football, taking the field in the AFL Masters Competition.
Leanne was drawn to football at a young age, playing kick to kick with her two brothers in the backyard at their home in Liddiard Street, Hawthorn. In earlier years, for extra pocket money, her father would hire out their backyard as car parking spaces for the fans attending the Hawks’ home games at Glenferrie Oval on Saturday afternoons at 10 shillings ($1) a car.
In 1982, Leanne, then a grade 6 student at Canterbury Primary School, was picked to represent her school team that was to play in the VFL Little League during the halftime interval of the main game.
Leanne has vivid memories of this game. She recalls the camaraderie with her school friends on the bus ride to Windy Hill to play the Essendon Little League Team.
Essendon had no facilities for girls in the visitors’ change rooms and Leanne was offered the broom cupboard in which to change into her footy gear. She got the fright of her life when she opened the broom cupboard door and was confronted by Dermott Brereton’s bottom as he prepared for his rub down after playing for the Hawthorn Reserves team. One wonders what crossed Brereton’s mind when a young girl, dressed in her Hawthorn gear, rushed past him to join her Little League teammates as they disappeared out the door and down the race to play the Bombers.
Girls playing in the Little League must have been a rare sight in the early 1980s. It’s likely that Leanne was the first young girl to represent the Hawks at this level of football. As the two teams took up their positions, with Leanne at full forward, the opposition team passed disparaging remarks towards her.
Obviously unaware of Leanne’s talent and determination, she dampened her opponents’ cat calls by delivering a perfect shirt front to the fullback, whilst kicking the first of her two goals. The Hawks won the match 2 goals to nil, with Leanne the only player to register a score. Leanne captured the admiration of the spectators with her ponytail flying as she sped through the packs in pursuit of the football. Leanne’s coach, Mr. Peter Shein, speaking to the press said that Leanne was “quite an extraordinary player”.
The certificate received from Hawthorn when she played in the Little League against Essendon on July 31, 1982, is one of her favourite football mementos. To see Leanne’s game from an historical point of view, her match was played during the half time interval of the memorable Round 18 game against Essendon when Leigh Matthews broke the point post at Windy Hill, and when the Hawks came from 19 points down to win by 18 points.
Leanne went on to play her favourite team sport, football, with her local team, Canterbury in their under 11 side and then with the under 12 team. When she turned 12, being a girl, she was told she could no longer play with the boys. Her disappointment became more apparent when she was unable to find a local girls’ team to play.
In 2016, Leanne saw an ad for interested players to apply to try out for the AFL Masters Competition to be held on the Gold Coast. She wondered if she could still kick a football after all those years. She knew just how much she missed playing in a team and the joys of winning or of regrouping after a defeat. Her latent talent shone through as she was selected to represent Victoria as part of the AFL Masters National Carnival, restricted to players over 35 years.
Come 2017, she had become an active participant and she helped to form the De La Salle Guns football team, being named as Vice-Captain, and playing again in her favourite position, full forward. She was affectionally known as the goal kicking fossil.
In 2017, she was named as co-captain of the Presidents Team that played in the AFL National Carnival that was played on Kardinia Park, Geelong. Her outstanding form continued when she made up the numbers for the Tasmania team, which played in the 2018 AFL Masters National Carnival, this time at Coffs Harbour, NSW.
Leanne is to be commended for returning to her favourite sport after missing the opportunity to play for 35 years. She summed up her sporting journey as being all about Friendship, Fun and playing the game of Football.
The Hawks Museum would be very interested to hear from any women who, as young students at primary school, may have played in the VFL Little league. The Little League started in 1967 with nine senior clubs participating, with South Melbourne joining in 1968. Hawthorn and Collingwood had their own individual junior competitions held at Glenferrie Oval and Victoria Park and joined the VFL Little League in 1973, thus making the Little League complete with representation of all 12 VFL Clubs.
The Little League was designed to encourage young boys attending primary school to play football on a league ground and provide halftime entertainment to the spectators. The games were 14 minutes in duration and early on, used the whole ground. The season consisted of one round of games and then finals.
It remains unknown when girls could play but we have learned that Leanne starred for the Hawks in 1982. It would be interesting to learn of any girls who played for Hawthorn Little League prior to 1982.
The Hawks Museum is endeavouring to build a list of players who played for the Little League and later the Auskick competition. We know Simon Beaumont (2004-2005, played 27 games) is one. If anyone can add to the list, please contact the Hawks Museum at hawksmuseum@hawthornfc.com.au.
