Karen Milne and her daughters loving life at Albury United.
24 MAY 2019
The Milnes have become household names at Albury United.
AWFA executive committee and Greens’ board member Karen Milne has watched her four daughters from the sidelines for years, before finally pulling on the boots herself last season.
Milne plays alongside eldest daughter Netaya, 15, in United’s reserve women’s team, 11-year-old Kyanna features in the under-12s, while Maysie, 9, and Willow, 6, play miniroos.
As for her off-field duties, Milne runs AWFA’s miniroos program and is also Albury United’s miniroos coordinator and registrar.
“My oldest daughter (Netaya) started playing at United about six or seven years ago,” Milne said.
“I’ve always been there at training and done the manager role at United.
“Everyone at the club kept bugging me, especially ‘Chiefy’ (Les O’Brien) and l went to pre-season training and said I’d finally start playing.
“I’ve been loving it, I take it seriously when I have to, but otherwise I’m just there for fun. I call myself the benchwarmer.”
Milne’s mission is to promote the game for women and she’s been the driving force behind this weekend’s Female Football Round in the AWFA.
All senior women’s games have been moved forward to 1.10pm on Sunday to be played before the senior men’s matches at 3pm.
However, St Pats and Melrose agreed to play their senior women’s clash as the marquee fixture at 3pm.
“My original plan was to have all senior ladies games played at 3pm, but a lot of clubs came back with ‘no’,” Milne said.
“Melrose and St Pats are the only clubs playing at the 3pm time slot, while the other senior ladies games are at 1.10pm.
“All girls and women’s teams from Albury Hotspurs are playing on the main field at Aloysius Park.
“I’m interested to see how everyone feels about the senior ladies being at 1.10pm.
“We wanted to (permanently) move it to that time slot (1.10pm), but everyone said no, so we’re intrigued to see if it works.
“For our miniroos gala day next week, I’m trying to organise female only games so all the girls can play with each other.”
All senior women will wear pink socks and play with pink match balls.
The executive also floated the idea of a ‘Super Saturday’ where all senior ladies matches are at one venue.
FAB FIVE: Karen Milne is a mother to six girls, four of which play for Albury United. Milne and daughters Kyanna, 11, Willow, 6, Maysie, 9, and Netaya, 15, will all feature for the Greens this weekend in AWFA’s Female Football Round. Picture: TARA TREWHELLA