Tara Murray
Essendon is hoping to take another step forward in the Victorian Football League Women’s competition this season.
The Bombers were one of the big improvers last season, resulting in their first finals appearance and first finals win.
Bombers coach Brendan Major said the program had grown in recent years and the results showed that.
He said finals were again the aim this season.
“Preparation across the board,” he said, was the key thing. “We were better prepared as coaches, better prepared as staff and better prepared as players.
“We came into the league and won one game and we knew there would be natural improvement.
“We thought we could make finals last year, to make finals and to win a final is a great result for us.
“The only disappointing thing was that we couldn’t do it in front of a crowd with our friends and family.”
Major said the squad had continued to develop and believed that they had a much deeper squad this year.
There was seven players drafted from the Bombers squad from last year, headlined by young star Georige Prespakis, who was taken at pick two.
The Bombers have looked all round Australia to find the right mix.
“We think we’ve got some players who will turn out to be really good VFLW players from all across Australia,” Major said.
“Jordan Zanchetta comes from Brisbane, She’s an in and under mid with really clean hands.
“Sarah Ford is from GWS and a similar player.
“Renee Tierney comes from Geelong, while Danielle Marshall was delisted from the Bulldogs and can play both ends of the ground.”
Major said across the board they had seen at least 10 per cent improvement across the whole playing group.
New co-captain Mia-Rae Clifford is leading the way.
“Mia is in the best shape of her life,” he said.
“The co-captaincy is a result of that. She’s always been well prepared and always been a natural leader.
“She’s shown a level of professionalism.
“Eloise Ashley-Cooper won our best and first and was super consistent and has taken another step forward.
“Georigia Nanscawen prepares exceptionally well.”
“Younger player Amelia Radford, I think she’s going to be an exceptional player with poise and composure.
“She looks like she’s played 10 years of footy.”
The group has been training since Melbourne got out of lockdown.
“We played in a preliminary final and went into lockdown one day later and we came out of lockdown and were back at training one day later.
“We think we are well prepared and we have left no stone unturned.”
The Bombers are set to kick off their season on Saturday against the Western Bulldogs.
Major said the club had a massive benefit being an unaligned club, with the AFLW running concurrently.
“We do have multiple players in train on positions,” he said.
“You don’t know from week to week how many AFLW players will be playing. Analysis can be difficult.
“A massive benefit from not being an aligned club, we get the players for longer and it’s a tighter group.”
