To be fair, doing the not-really-that-beep-ish runs back-and-forth was probably the only way to keep the flies away.
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Ok, so interesting names in interesting categories
https://x.com/vfl/status/1739798320435110221?s=61&t=17l-wi7YICeEeetAuF5jow
Nothing new there.
Their “to be confirmed” list indicates they are not paying much attention… but I guess they would argue Footscray are just not denying, rather than confirming.
Clifford, Heil(!!!), Davidge (listed twice), Ugle, Crook…
Marshall likely to be “added”. Wilson likely to go back to the VAFA.
Next game is exactly four weeks away.
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Sophie Molan is currently in a moon boot…
Mia confirming on Insta that she has signed with Bulldogs.
Today’s training was definitely narrowed down from the one five weeks ago; we are winnowing down the options. When I arrived 30 players were out there; Davidge turned up later.
Molan was there initially in the rehab group, and not in a moonboot. Injury was not obvious, but she was not there for long.
Lily Bateman spent the whole session running the boundary. Seemed to be moving fine, and had times to hit and exceed.
Dani Marshall in #46
Apparently we signed Marnie Robinson today (un-drafted 18yo from the Swans Academy). Has moved from Newcastle to Melbourne. 173cm agile defender who captained the Allies at the 2023 AFLW Under 18 Championships.
Much less certain: Bailey Hunt??? Was delisted from Footscray AFLW last year.
Toogood, Cain, and Alexander made cameos in or on the fringe of training. Woods present but not involved. MORCS doing laps on the main ground.
Spargo also helping. We had one player tonight that made Spargo look really tall, which is a pretty neat trick. Built like a brick shithouse, though. Looked familiar but couldn’t place her.
The list out there tonight was pretty consistently middling in height – very few overt smalls or lightweights, and also not enough talls. Athlete of the night was one of our few talls – not sure who, maybe wearing Cannon shorts and just taller than Morrow’s 177cm. In the long-range beep test she was destroying everyone else. Skills a bit rough though.
In one of our “transition down the ground” drills she was playing the role of CHF. Prpic was CHB… eek.
Lot of running, a bit more contested play than in the December training session I attended (it was -10 degrees, +30km/h wind, and -99.9% flies compared to that day). I was impressed early with the improvement (you don’t want to see me trying to clunk high balls in strong wind), but less so during the final “congested fifty” drill of working the ball to and from goal.
Long player huddle after training, perhaps looking forward to next Wednesday in Darwin. There will be training next week, though obviously at least some of them will have fewer players.
P.S. I buried the lead. While Hardy was still main coach this evening, I can confirm Cherie O’Neill is our new senior VFLW coach. She was coach of the Hawks 2021-2023, before resigning from them last September.
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Not present tonight included:
- Ford
- Dicker
- Russell
- Hart-Aluni – doesn’t get to play in Darwin?
Along with Molan, that is a decent chunk of the much-needed height – but Ford might be the only one of those playing forward or back!
No evidence they remain at the club:
- Elarmaly
- Hurrell
- Cornish (has been in NZ recently, is still?)
- Melanie Bateman
- Sutton
- Ryan (still in Australia; Doonan is currently in Ireland)
- Strahan – so it’s not all distastrous!
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Brief history of Cherie O’Neill:
- 2011-2017 player/trainer/coach at Bendigo Thunder (senior women’s coach last two years; one premiership)
- 2017-2022 coach Bendigo Pioneers (boys, then girls senior; and a part-time assistant in recent months)
- 2022-2023 senior coach Box Hill Hawks (assistant AFLW)
Oh yeah, and she was a forward line development coach at Essendon VFLW in 2019.
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I’m guessing Cloke is now in player development for both the mens and womens?
O’Neill seems experienced which is what we need after many of our veteran players have headed off.
OK, we have some names from the NTFL squad listing, which broadly can be summarised as:
- 11 VFLW players from last year
- Dani Marshall
- 6 new and presumably signed-up VFLW-listed
- 5 Tiwi, one of whom played for us in 2019
Let’s see if her name still auto-completes: Puruntatameri! Wow, did so after “Puru”… phone has a better memory than I do. Though that name is permanently burned into my brain; zero problem spelling or saying it at pace.
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I’m doing this away from The Spreadsheet, so might not get all of this right.
2 of the 11 returnees are not publicly confirmed yet: that’s MadGray and JamieeLee Morrow.
There’s no indication either way whether the Tiwi players are here for more than this game.
The new 6 are:
- Amy Cariss-Brett
- Ruby Mahony (previously announced)
- Karla McNeice
- Ashley Melnikis
- Maddi(son) Shaw
- Kyla Tracey
Amy Cariss-Brett is described as a “specialist winger” at the below link, which is definitely a gap we need to work on after losing the 2022 premiership rotation of Marianna/Courtney/Kendra.
Karla McNeice first played VFLW for Darebin in 2017. Stats trending up in recent years:
Ashley Melnikis is from Norf VFLW. In the second-last round of 2021 I mentioned her being third in the league for tackles (just ahead of G) and tenth for handballs (while at Willy).
Stats down since leaving Willy (different role?)
Maddi Shaw has four years at Box Hill and Port.
https://vfl.aflwstats.com/player/Maddi_Shaw
She can crack a whip and likes vanilla yoghurt.
Has a few videos on Hudl.
Kyla Tracey is from Footscray. Not sure we won the “trades” with them and Port…
Originally from NSW (Swans Academy)
https://www.playhq.com/public/profile/bccdec33-96ca-471d-ab23-4e720b462373/statistics
She was announced as going to Box Hill in Brendan Rhodes’ article of a month ago…