Published on Thursday, 13 October 2022 at 1:25:00 PM

Female football stars will be able to train and play under new lights at night at Charles Veryard Reserve thanks to a floodlighting upgrade.

Various local clubs including the Mt Hawthorn Cardinals Junior Football Club, Modernians Hockey Club and North Perth Cricket Club call the reserve home.

The City of Vincent received a $100,000 grant from the State Government to upgrade the existing lights, due to an election commitment from Hon. John Carey MLA, Member for Perth.

The Cardinals also contributed $10,000 to the upgrade.

The existing lights have been with high-tech, energy efficient LED lights on the eastern half of the reserve.

The new lights are dimmable and provide between 100 lux and 50 lux on the sports field, which will allow the Cardinals to host female football games at their home ground for the first time.

Hockey players will also benefit from better lighting during their winter training sessions.

Mr Carey said the funding would enable the popular Cardinals to hold training and games into the evening.

“I believe we should strongly support our local junior sporting clubs and encourage greater participation –and I am really proud that this project can be delivered,” he said.

Member for Perth John Carey MLA, Mt Hawthorn Cardinals players Amelie Harrison, Raffaella Larruthers, Alyssa Locano and Mayor Emma Cole.

Mayor Emma Cole said the much-needed lighting upgrade would allow local sporting clubs to hold games and training sessions at night.

“The new lighting will go a long way in supporting our local clubs in providing more opportunities to train and play games at Charles Veryard Reserve,” she said.

“The Mt Hawthorn Cardies girls’ teams have been playing at other reserves at night so we are really happy to support our local girls to be able to play and train under these bright new lights at their home ground.

“With Vincent really pushing female participation in sport, new infrastructure like this makes all the difference.

“We would like to thank John Carey for securing funds for the upgrade and supporting our local sporting community.”

Mt Hawthorn Cardinals Junior Football Club representative Rod Gardiner said the club was grateful for the support for the growth of female football in Vincent.

“Female football is fixtured on Friday evenings which has meant in past seasons the club has been unable to host home games, relying on other clubs to accommodate our girls,” he said.

“To be able to bring female football home games to Charles Veryard Reserve will be great for the girls and enable the club to continue to grow the female game in our community.

“With the club fielding 17 football teams training up to twice per week, the new lights will also provide a greatly improved training facility for our youth teams during the week.”

Mr Gardiner said through the improved facilities, the club was excited about the future of AFLW in Vincent.

In 2019, the club fielded its inaugural female football team and since then, it has grown to three teams with strong growth in participation every year.

For information, contact the City on 9273 6000 or email mail@vincent.wa.gov.au

Back to All News