Western Australia's $6 Million Game On Girls Fund to Keep Teenage Girls in Sport Explained
Share
We don't often stop to celebrate government announcements. But this one? This one deserves to be shouted from every sideline in the country.
The Western Australian Government has just launched Game On, Girls, a $6 million investment aimed at reversing the sharp decline in sport participation among teenage girls across Western Australia.¹
So what is Game On, Girls?
Over four years, the program will provide grants of up to $5,000 to community sporting clubs to help design and deliver inclusive, girl-friendly programs and environments that encourage participation, build confidence, and improve retention among girls aged 13 to 17.² In other words, it's putting real money directly into the clubs on the ground, the ones doing the daily work of keeping girls in sport, and that is exactly where it needs to go.
Why does this matter so much?
The numbers tell a confronting story. Girls' participation in sport drops from 83 per cent at age nine to as low as 23 per cent by age 15.³ Read that again. In the space of just six years, we lose the majority of girls from sport entirely. And research consistently shows that a lack of confidence and self-belief is one of the key barriers keeping them away.
This isn't just a sporting issue. It's a confidence issue, a mental health issue, and a social issue. Because we know what girls lose when they stop playing — the friendships, the resilience, the self-belief that sport builds like nothing else can.
Why this feels personal to us
At Hero Athletica, this is exactly why we exist. We were those girls. We grew up in Far North Queensland, obsessed with sport, and we experienced firsthand both the profound gift that sport gives girls, as well as the barriers that can get in the way. The ill-fitting kit. The feeling of not quite belonging. The quiet message that certain sports weren't really made for us.
We started Hero Athletica to change that. To make sure every girl who steps onto a field feels like she was always supposed to be there.
The momentum is real
Game On, Girls doesn't exist in isolation. March 2026 is shaping up as a defining month for women's sport in Western Australia,⁴ with the Matildas hosting the AFC Women's Asian Cup and sold-out crowds turning up in record numbers. At the federal level, the Albanese Government has launched a $200 million Play Our Way program to improve sporting facilities and equipment specifically for women and girls.⁵
The tide is turning. Slowly, but unmistakably.
What you can do
If you're a club in Western Australia, we'd strongly encourage you to look into the Game On, Girls grants. Funding is available now, and the clubs that step up to create genuinely inclusive environments for teenage girls will be the ones that change lives.
And if you're a parent, a coach, a club volunteer anywhere in Australia, keep showing up. Keep cheering. Keep telling the girls in your life that they belong on that field.
Because they do. They always have.
💛