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As a youngster, Webster was a good enough Australian Rules Football player to have considered entering the draft.

"I said 'punter'," says Bennett, who moved to the United States as a 29-year-old after a successful career as an Australian Rules footballer.

Under the floodlights of a chilly Australian Rules football pitch In Melbourne's inner suburbs, another community programme is trying to do just that.

Teammate Nahkita Wolfe was told at 11 that she had to stop playing Australian Rules football because she was a girl.

"There were definitely some comments that these days you wouldn't walk past anymore - things like 'girls can't play footy' or 'you play like a girl,'" says 26-year-old Conor Fowler, who's been playing Australian Rules football since he was a boy.