It was a girls only affair at Sir Jack Brabham oval last Thursday, with primary school girls from Orange and surrounding towns enjoying a little friendly competition on the soccer field.

The girls gala day was organised by the Orange Football Association as part of a push to see more women get involved in the sport. More publicity and events will follow over coming months.

“We have a lot of girls that play in our competitions, but you tend to see them drop off in the teenage years,” said Orange Football Association administrator, Brad Hazzard.

“It could be such a growth area and it is something we need to do more of in Orange.  So we decided to start with the young ones and build up from there… The whole idea is to build on what the Matildas are doing for the sport as well, so we decided to run it while the World Cup was on and try and build on that good will and hopefully get more girls involved and build them into football players.”

The Orange Football Association is looking to start summer football at the end of this year to continue building a local women's competition.