The Melbourne dozen, all students of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College in Bentleigh, will fill out the Ballarat Football Umpires Association umpiring ranks as part of the Green Shirt junior umpires program.

Their mission: to boundary umpire the reserve and under-18.5 grade matches at Dahlsens Park between Ballarat and Redan, and the reserve grade match between Sebastopol and Melton South at Marty Busch Reserve.

The girls, many of whom regularly umpire in the Moorabbin Saints Junior Football League, chose Aussie rules umpiring as part of their Duke of Edinburgh's Award skills program.

And they are in Ballarat to spread the gospel that girls who love footy can and should consider getting involved in umpiring.

Hannah Faulks, 14, says girls and women might actually have an advantage over their male counterparts when it comes to umpiring.

"I think a lot of the boys treat us with more respect on the field. They think twice about abusing a female umpire, I think," she explains.

Leah Astone, 15, says there are plenty of women who love the game and there is nothing that would prevent women being involved at the highest level as umpires.

"Women might never make it as AFL players but could easily become AFL umpires," she says.

The girls are being instructed by AFL Victoria's Umpire Development Manager Neville Nash, who umpired 217 AFL games during his career.

Nash says women are the great untapped resource in terms of boosting footy umpire numbers.

"At present 1.7 per cent of footy umpires are female. I can't see why it shouldn't be 50 per cent one day," he says.

"Getting that message out is part of our reason for coming out here, to attract more females into umpiring. Last year we took 12 girls up to Horsham, where there were no female umpires, as part of the program. This year there

are now four female umpires officiating up there."

Deanna Taylor, 14, is hopeful her introduction to the BFL will boost her general understanding of the game but expects there is one skill she will definitely pick up today.

"I think I will learn how to umpire in the freezing cold," she jokes.