The sound of trucks and cars merging on the freeway can be heard from the ground as the warm-ups start. They are quickly drowned out by shouts of “that’s it”, “you got this” and “great kick”. Beanies are a must because no matter how much you run around, that cold winter wind isn’t going anywhere. Kids are screaming and chasing their parents or a football, whichever is closer. Colours of AFL jerseys, team polos and pride jerseys lighten up the darkening Crofts Reserve oval.

The call comes loud – time for a lap. In one large group they go, the over 35s women and over 55s men. Together.

That’s how these two Williamstown Superules teams have approached this 2023 season. It’s unorthodox, but it’s been by design. And it’s achieved its goal.

Superules, or AFL Masters, is a modified version of AFL for players over the age of 35. With altered rules, shorter quarters and matches every fortnight, the game enables players to continue to participate in the sport they love, without the injuries or roughness they’d expect from a senior level. In other words: it’s for fun.

The women’s competition was created in 2018, with Williamstown joining it the next year. When Glenn Evans took the reigns as coach this year, he wanted to ensure that the women were incorporated into the club as much as possible. He discussed a plan with his over 55s coach.

“It’s no use adding a female side in, and them not being a part of the club,” he tells upstart.

“The whole point of that was the 55s men that have been playing football for 40 years help the women out. And it worked, skills wise, and just the encouragement the guys gave to the women, which then lifts the women to try even harder.”

Eleven new players joined the women’s team this year, so the combined training also helped share the load of teaching the game.

“That was my aim, to build up their skills more than anything else,” he says.

The women also love it, with first-year player Lauren Rossi telling upstart it’s an “added advantage that other teams don’t have”.

“The guys can teach us things that we didn’t know,” she says. “They also overall have a higher level of fitness than us, so they motivate us to be better.”

First-year player, Melanie Dmytrenko, admits she was intimidated to train alongside the men at first.

“I was freaking out,” she tells upstart. “After I got over the initial nervousness, I found it quite good.”

Despite a 30-year coaching career, this was Glenn’s first year coaching a women’s team, and it came with its own set of challenges.

“I had to tone down my coaching and be more nicer,” he says.

“Coaching a women’s team is challenging. They’ve got a different mindset. They haven’t been brought up through juniors.”

“I had to adapt to it,” he says.

Not only did he have to adapt, he also had the added task of teaching “a lot of newbies”.

“You couldn’t make the drills too hard because the newer ones couldn’t handle it, but we had to make it challenging so the people who could or had played football had a challenge themselves.”

Fitness and community were two major factors in why many of the women decided to play football. Catherine Patience says she had been around football clubs her whole life and wanted to try herself.

“My two sons are now playing football,” she tells upstart.

“I wanted to show them that you always continue learning.”

In the playground in the distance, you can see at least three bright t-shirts of kids running and playing. But even more are still on the ground with the adults. They run with them, do the handball drills, kick if they get the ball. There’s no telling them to leave the adults alone. And they’re welcome to stay.

“I really wanted to make sure that the family was looked after,” Glenn says. “They’re women, they’re mums, they’ve got families.”

“We look after the whole club, and I thought that was more important than anything else.”

This caring environment echoes throughout the whole club’s ethos, which has revealed it has collectively raised around $20,000 for different charities throughout Australia.

The 2023 season might be over, but the training keeps going. Some of the women are travelling to Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast for the Superules carnival in October, while others keep training for fitness. And they’re still looking to recruit new players.

Anne Halkier loves football and appreciates it so much more after her first year. She tells upstart she wishes the public was more aware of Superules and wants to encourage more women to play.

“I drive an hour and half to get to training and to get to the games,” she says.

“Give it a go, because you’ll never look back.”

Lauren Rossi agrees, and while she doesn’t have the travel time being a local, she’s had her fair share of injuries.

“It’s a commitment, but it’s a great commitment,” she says. “I don’t regret anything.”

“I think a lot of women in particular don’t put themselves first and so I think this is a good way to show you can do that, do something for yourself.”

Photo: Taken by author.