By Luke Voogt
After 25 years the Geelong Women’s Cricket Club has merged with its male counterpart in hope of boosting its expansion.
“It’s been slow to start with but in the last couple of years (women’s cricket has) really started to get noticed,” said under-14s coach Mariah Dodd.
The 22-year-old bowler said the Geelong’s Cats female side, which last week announced its new AFLW licence, had helped lead a revolution in the city’s female sport.
“Cricket is not too far behind,” she said.
“Even the VFL Cats team and the promotion it’s gotten this year has really helped.”
The Hamlyn Heights local started playing with the boys when she was 10 years old.
“I only saw a handful of girls over the six years I played with the boys,” she said.
“It’s definitely more common now to see the girls in the junior boys’ division.”
Geelong’s six-week, all-girl cricket competition would hit last year’s participation for six in just its second year, Mariah said.
The number of teams registered for this year’s competition had more than doubled from the original four, she said.
“This year they’re looking at having 10 or 12 teams in it.”
Mariah rose through the Barwon Rockettes development program and was thrilled to play in the Victorian women’s senior cricket competition this year.
The Barwon Rockettes will announce their training squads next week and Mariah urged girls interested in playing to go the Geelong Cricket Club website.
“If you have any sort of love for the game you’ve just got to get out there and play,” she said.
