LA Aussie Week Match Report

History was made again on the 18th January 2004.....California's first Women's Aussie Rules Football match was played. This was also the 2nd game of women's footy played in the US. Alot of new faces were on the field, with a strong contingency of ladies coming out of Simi Valley, a good turnout of Gaelic football ladies from Orange County, and two Arizona ladies who drove all the way from Phoenix for their first game of footy!

 The Orange County Bombshells were divided into 2 teams: Valley Vandolls vs Orange County Bombshells.

Before the match both teams jogged a warm-up lap around the ground to show the unity and sisterhood of the players. Katie Wingenroth was the captain of the Vandolls and Jayme "5 0 " Weaver was the captain of the Bombshells. Vandolls won the toss, players got into their designated positions, and the whistle was blown by umpire Mr David Thurmond. Amanda "Gee" Lynch and Diane "Dee" Browning rucked the opening bounce and the game was on.

Both teams showed their newly learned skills. I was very proud to see the newbies taking marks and kicking the ball straight with a rotation. Handballs were being effectively used, not to mention some serious bumping and pushing! Our umpire wasn't used to our "women's rules" and quickly reverted back to the men's game rules. This confused all of us I'm sure, but still we all played on. Vandolls and Bombshells made a contest out of every ball and passage of play. Besides dodging the opposition defense, we all had to watch out for the two camera men on the field. One was from Channel 10 in Australia, the other was Mini-Mart. My mother in Oz emailed me yesterday saying she saw us on the Australian national news. Awesome PR for women's footy in America and abroad.

The final score of Bombshells 51 - Vandolls 14 doesn't give a true indication of the closeness of the match.

Goal scorers for the Vandolls: "Bex" &
Bombshells: "Lethal", "5-0", "Boots"