As I rocked up to training tonight, Loz Sparky said “you’ll be lucky to recognise ten players”.
There were indeed ten 2024 players present:
El Chaston
Sophie Molan
Emily Tassiopoulos
Ash Melnikas
Marnie Robinson
Sarah Ford
Maddy Ford
Lily Bateman
Bailey Hunt
Drew Ryan
Richardson not present (nor Orritt), but per Instagram she was at the club earlier today.
Another 20 mysteries present!
Sarah Ford and Molan were rehabbers today. Lily had a finger issue (not sure if copped during this session).
I may be as shallow as an ump, but the two newbies with the hats were the standouts (white as possible tall full-forward, yellow as medium-sized zippy mid?)
Drills were overwhelming game-oriented, not isolated skills. Ongoing gameplay still minimal, but there was full-ground-length movement drills.
Hunt maybe slimmed down a bit; was leading the pack in the final run-throughs.
Cool-down exercise was “walking-only” soccer on a tiny congested pitch, with varying levels of skill and competitive nature displayed.
Last year we retained 15 (but lost much bigger names).
Based on yesterday we have kept at least 12. You can’t say the loss of at least Marshall (pregnant), Manfre (scholarship and chance to be an Olympian), and Hart-Aluni (horrific injury) are the club’s fault.
Possibly losing all of the ruck is a concern, plus the two overt high-performers in Mahony (confirmed) and Davidge (not confirmed).
There was not sufficient contested gameplay yesterday to overtly identify the best new accumulators/mids etc.
P.S. Per the previous photo, Brooke Plummer was present (and Molan has been in rehab for at least two weeks).
Note also that the VFLW is starting four weeks later than last year, so you may get a few more NTFLW players doubling-up (hopefully including a returning Maddison Shaw).
I may be cursed after Hunt left a couple days after I locked her in, but Tia present at training (you can tell it’s a modern image because WHITE HAT is on the left).
Some likely names derived from team camp photos and comments:
Bernardi still playing?
Layla Prince (~22yo, former basketballer, 11 games with spit Fark Carlton VFLW as a mid last year - LINK)
Eva Downie (Tassie U18 captain last year)
Meg Harrison (also from Tassie Devils)
Bella Page (Point Cook Bulldogs captain and second in WNFL league B&F last year)
Megan Mifsud (Giants Academy)
Maggie O’Connell (Suns Academy, 171cm notable goalkicker for Southport in the QAFLW)
Ella Brown (Eastern Ranges, “speedy little pocket rocket, hurting opposition with her ability to apply high pressure and lay big tackles”)
Molly “White Hat” Heymanson (Park Orchards, unspecified cancer diagnosis 18 months ago but played last year to be in the EFNL Div One team of the year. They were premiers and she only kicked 6 goals from 17 games, so my spec on her historically “being” a forward might be wrong.)
Grace Azzopardi (Cannons captain, 163cm defender)
P.S. Hudl hasn’t got a page for this year’s squad yet, and no one new is on last years.
work in progress… by which I mean little progress has been made! Pesky pre-season hats…
Orange team (back first, left to right):
?
Emily Tassiopoulos
Maddy Ford
??? Christina Bernardi
?
Abbey McDonald
Jayda Richardson
Yellow:
Molly “wrong team to wear a White Hat” Heymanson
?
Ava Jordan
Lily Bateman
? Meg Harrison ?
El Chaston
?
Green:
Sarah Ford
??? Madison Ibrahim - "A quick defender who got her opportunity on the inside, Ibrahim showed she could match it at the national championships as well as for the Murray Bushrangers.” (LINK)
Marnie Robinson
Tia Davidge
Freya Hibberd (note moonboot)
?
Brooke Plummer
Blue:
?
?
Sophie Molan
Grace Azzopardi
Scarlett Orritt
?
If we’re ignoring the Power Rangers (because come on, man, and there was comment on the existence of four competing teams), that’s only 27 so not the full squad.
Missing/not confidently identified, but likely in the squad:
Ash Melnikas – seen in a non-teams photo
Layla Prince
Eva Downie
Meg Harrison
Bella Page
Drew Ryan
Megan Mifsud
Maggie O’Connell
Ella Brown
And if all of the above were missing but are real, that would make 36 for the squad.
