Mornington Peninsula league celebrates inaugural women's premierships
The Mornington Peninsula Football Netball League (MPFNL) celebrated an historic moment last weekend at Kinetic Stadium, Frankston, when it hosted the inaugural MPFNL Women's Grand Finals.
In 2024, the AFL South East women's competition was was transitioned to sit under the MPFNL banner for the first time. Previously, women's football in the region sat under the South Eastern Women’s Football (SEWF) League, which dissolved at the end of 2023, allowing for the MPFNL to welcome the women's teams into its competition.
The 2024 MPFNL Women’s competition consisted of 22 teams across three divisions, including the 11 existing MPFNL clubs as well as four associate member clubs – being Warragul Industrials, Frankston FC, Cerberus/Balnarring and Bass Coast FC.
After a 14 round home and away season, followed by two weeks of finals, the league got the chance to see the best women's teams in the competition fight it out for an inaugural MPFNL Women's Premiership on Saturday.
The Division 1 Grand Final saw the 2023 SEWF Premiers, Mornington FNC, face the highly competitive Warragul Industrials FNC.
In the two home and away matches between these two clubs this season, each club came away with a win. The Qualifying Final saw a margin of only a goal until halfway through the last quarter, with Mornington running away with the win, meaning there was lots of anticipation for a tightly contested Grand Final.
In the end, Mornington 5.5 (35) was defeated by Warragul 7.3 (45), to claim the first even MPFNL Women's Division 1 Premiership.
The Division 2 Grand Final saw Bonbeach FNC take on Edithvale-Aspendale FNC.
Bonbeach went undefeated in the home and away season while Edithvale-Aspendale only lost one game. After finishing on top of the ladder, Bonbeach took the win in the Qualifying Final to solidify its spot in the Division 2 Grand Final. Edithvale-Aspendale took the win over Tyabb in a highly contested Preliminary Final to claim their spot in the big dance.
On Grand Final day, Bonbeach's dominance proved too strong for Edithvale-Aspendale, completing an undefeated season with the inaugural MPFNL Women's Division 2 Premiership. Final scores were Bonbeach 3.6 (24) def Edithvale-Aspendale 1.4 (10).
In Division 3, Seaford FNC faced off with Frankston FC on their home deck.
As the clear top teams in Division 3, the pair matched up three times this season with Seaford coming away with the win twice. Seaford FNC led by Tina Henshaw field a team with a host of experience while Frankston FC, led by Teagan Bitters, field a team of young guns.
In a tightly contested, low-scoring affair, Frankston came out on top to win the MPFNL Women's Division 3 Premiership by only one goal. Final scores were Seaford 1.4 (10) def by Frankston 2.4 (16).
On what was already a record-breaking day for the MPFNL, it was great to also see record attendence for the Women's Grand Final day, with a total attendence of 2,130 spectators at Kinetic Stadium, Frankston, up from 1,830 (2023 SEWF GF) and 1,415 (2022 SEWF GF).
