Kathy Sloan becomes first female president of a Bathurst AFLCW Club

Sloan has been elected as the president of the Bathurst Giants AFL Club.

While she is not the first female president in the league - Merinda Roll heads Dubbo Junior AFL - Sloan is the first female president of a Bathurst AFLCW club and believed to be the first female head of a senior club.

Though a little hesitant to take on the role, Sloan knows she has the support of her club.

"I like being in the background, so this is going to be a bit of a change. I don't like being the front person really, but there were a lot of people who said 'You can do it, you can do it', so I thought okay," she said.

"I was a bit nervous about it, but I did ask all of the guys did they think it would be a problem and none of them said it would be a problem, so I think it is good that we can be progressive enough to have that.

"I'm the president and Liz Kennedy is the secretary, I think that's pretty amazing. I don't think that would have happened 10 years ago, but I think we've got respect of people in the club.

"We're a very inclusive club and we've always promoted it as such, so it's not a problem."

After spending the past three seasons as secretary, Sloan takes over the Giants presidency from Darryl Macauley. She praised him for helping build the club's presence both on and off the field.

"Darryl has been really instrumental in turning around the strategic focus of the club and getting the off field stuff happening," she said.

"He just set it up so it's great to follow him, I'm a bit nervous to follow him to be honest, he's done a great job, as has Liz Symes and James Kennedy. We've lost the three of them off the executive and they've done a great job."

READ MORE: Mick Sloan among AFL Central West's inaugural hall of fame class

GROWING up in Albury, Sloan got an early introduction to the sport of Australian rules.

Her father played and she has long been a supporter of the Collingwood Magpies.

Her husband Mick was this year inducted into the AFL Central West Hall of the Fame, while her sons Will and Sam both play for the Giants.

Before she served as secretary of the Bathurst Giants, Sloan was the AFL Central West secretary. It means she not only has a good knowledge about the sport, but how both her club and the league operates.

"I've been around footy my whole life, so it's not like I know nothing about footy, it's just whether or not you can know enough in this league," she said.

"But I think I've been around long enough, I was secretary of the league for six years, so I think I know what is going on."

READ MORE: Bathurst Giants' Mitch Taylor named 2021 senior men's tier one best and fairest

DURING her days at school the closest Sloan came to playing Australian rules was a muck-around, mixed game where girls could tackle each other and boys, but the males in turn could not tackle them.

For her, school sport was about netball.

Now at schools in Bathurst - and across Australia - there are all-girls AFL outfits, there are regional leagues like the AFLCW which have women's premierships and there's even the national AFLW competition.

"There was no girls footy when I grew up at all, foreign concept, nothing around," Sloan said.

"We've come a very long way in a short period of time with AFL women's and I love it, it's awesome, I wish I was young enough to play."

READ MORE: Callum Munns named 2021 AFL Central West's under 12s best and fairest

WHEN asked about what her focus will be as Bathurst Giants president, Sloan said it is about "growing and consolidating" her club's presence both on game day and via off-field activities.

"We just want to keep building. On field is really important and we want to get those premierships, but we also want to do more community stuff, we want to do more Kickability stuff," she said.

"We've got money in the bank, we've got really good sponsors. We've got facilities going in, we've got player dug outs going in, we've a scoreboard going in - we are trying to get that happening.

"We want to make sure we have our club culture right too. We have our Indigenous round, Kickability, making sure our women's programs are just as strong as the men's programs."

This season saw the Giants field three senior teams - a men's tier one, men's tier two and women's - as well as their junior sides. Sloan is eager to maintain that presence and sees continuing to foster the junior ranks as a key.

"I'm obviously passionate about juniors, I've been involved with the development squad, I've been involved in the junior focus. Clearly my boys are coming through now with seniors, but juniors is still always the focus, you can't build a club without juniors," she said.

"Our 12s were fantastic this year so clearly we've got a stream of kids coming through, we've got Auskick happening ... making sure the club is always junior focussed, so we've got kids coming through and always got a senior team, is really important."

The other thing Sloan is proud about - and wants to consolidate - is the profile of the Giants in Bathurst community.

"If everyone is happy they want to come to us. We've got people chasing us now to play for us, people chasing us to sponsor us and support us - we had to go cap in hand when we first started, but now we've got a profile," she said.

"That's brilliant, that's where you want to be, people want to be associated with the club now.

"I want to keep improving that profile so if people come to town and they Google Bathurst AFL, we are there as well, that we are considered an equal option."

Joining Sloan and secretary Kennedy on the committee for 2022 are Brad Broes (vice president seniors), Ashley Boylan (vice president juniors) and Colin Whitchurch (treasurer).

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: