by Nicholas Duck
Drouin Football Club will be looking to take their women's program to the next level in 2025 as they look towards the future.

Having officially launched their women's program in recent years, the Hawks are encouraging anyone and everyone to jump on board for the upcoming season.
The Hawks are currently the only women's football club in Gippsland able to provide a pathway for girls all the way from juniors through to senior football - a fact they are very proud of.
The club's youth girls and senior team compete in the Female Football Gippsland league, and with numerous mixed and girls teams in the West Gippsland Junior Football Competition plus their Auskick programs, Drouin can provide girls and women of all ages a place to play.
The team will be training and playing their home games out of Hallora Recreation Reserve next year due to the resurfacing works on the Drouin Recreation Reserve.
While the change of venue is hardly ideal, recent upgrades at Hallora, including their changerooms and scoreboards, have made the Wednesday training sessions much more palatable.
Mitch Fort will again take the reins for the Hawks' senior side, who play in the FFG's top level.
The addition of Nar Nar Goon next season will bring the competition's number of teams to five.
Fort said numbers were looking strong which he said was particularly pleased by given the change in venue. "To be honest I didn't think we'd get the numbers we have at the moment, it's been good to see," he said.
Fort added that enthusiasm was high for the seniors, in particular the returning players keen to amend for a challenging year in 2023.
He said a particularly strong appeal the team had was its range of player ages and experience levels.
A number of the Hawks' youth girls will be making the jump to seniors along with several players from Bunyip, but for Fort he said he wanted prospective players to know that mothers are welcome along with their children.
"Some of our players use footy as an escape for a few hours, some of them make it a real family affair, whatever works for them."
Former Longwarry junior coach Jason Clarke will be taking charge of the youth girls, bringing a wealth of experience with him.
Clarke coached the Crows' under 14s girls side to great success in the West Gippsland Junior Football Competition and will be hoping to do the same with the Hawks.
Some question remains over whether the Hawks will field both an under 16s and under 18s side like they hope or an all-encompassing youth girls team, but regardless Clarke is keen to get stuck in.
"Everything's going pretty well at the moment. We've got a lot of girls who have hit the ground running and really want to put in the hard yards which is great to see," he said.
Clarke said the Hawks youngsters had already enjoyed a few sessions together with the seniors as some of them look to get some top level game time next year.
To enquire about Drouin's women's program contact the club's Facebook page or program coordinator Debra Guastella at guast04@gmail.com or 0403211014.