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Orange City Council has advised that football players at Sir Jack Brabham Park in the coming season will be the first to make use of the new purpose-built female changerooms, following this week's official opening.

The purpose-built, $670,000 amenities block includes:

• changerooms, showers and toilets for two teams
• a referees’ room with two showers and toilets
• a dedicated first aid room
• an accessible bathroom
• the new building’s wheel-chair accessible toilet, also includes a shower and toilet.

Last year Orange City Council accepted the recommendation of the Orange and District Football Association to name the new building the ‘Brett Hazzard Change Rooms’ in honour of a long-time stalwart of football in Orange, Brett Hazzard.

As well as being involved in football in Orange for more than 30 years Hazzard has been a driving force in establishing a women’s football competition in Orange. Starting out five years ago with three women’s teams playing in an all-age open men’s league, the 2024 Orange competition had grown to include nine women’s teams playing in a stand-alone, all-age league. With a new team expected to enter from Cowra this year, the extra change-rooms will be put to use.

Hazzard also helped establish the Girls Football Academy in Orange which currently has 32 participants.

Hazzard helped establish and drive girls’ representative football in Orange, where junior players come together from all local clubs for specialist coaching. The ODFA representative program forms teams in the U10, U12, U14 & U16s age groups with around 70 young players taking part in regional tournaments.

Orange Mayor Tony Mileto said the new facilities are a sign of the growth of football in Orange and noted “In both junior and senior grades, football is growing strongly in Orange, and I’m glad Orange City Council can work with the NSW Government to deliver the infrastructure that’s needed for the city’s growth.

“Women’s sport is a key element of that growth, and it’s important that new change-rooms like this meet contemporary expectations of what a change room should deliver.

“If the change-rooms aren’t booked to be used by women’s teams, there will be extra capacity for the men’s teams playing at Brabham.”

Orange City Council’s Recreation & Culture Committee Chair Cr Tamy Greenhalgh has welcomed the new project adding “Recently I was pleased to launch the ‘Let’[s Move Together’ scheme in Orange, that’s funded by the Australian Government’s Play Our Way program. It’s all about encouraging more women to be involved in sport. This is the other side of the same coin. When they turn up to play, women and girls have got to be confident that good facilities will be in place at local sports fields.

“We’ve recently upgraded facilities at Wade Park. We now have four change rooms there, so we can have men’s and women’s games following each other, and we’d like to look at other grounds in future where there’s a need for better change-rooms.

“The number of women officiating in major codes is also growing and it’s good to see the new building will have a dedicated referees’ room with two toilet-shower cubicles.”

Funding for the project was shared between:

• the NSW Government’s Stronger Country Communities program ($493,000) and,
• Orange City Council ($169,000)
• Orange District Football Association $7000

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