By Tara Murray
Keilor Park coach Marcus Barclay has been pleasantly surprised with his side’s start to the Essendon District Football League women’s division 1 competition.
With a new coach and a new playing group, Barclay was unsure where their side would sit this season
Having played everyone once, the Devils sit in second spot with only a loss to ladder leaders Strathmore.
Barclay said it had been a really start to the season.
“I’m a little surprised,” he said. “Against Westmeadows was our performance of the season.
“Westy is such a great side and one of those clubs that have been around for a while now.
“It’s our second season back and my first season. It’s happened a little bit quicker than I would have thought.”
Barclay said the first part of the season for them was getting to know everyone and how each other played.
He said in round one he still had some players learning each other’s names.
“I said to the girls from the beginning, until you play everyone once, just go out there and have fun,” he said.
“We were more getting to know each other.
“We’ll see where we sit after five rounds.”
Barclay said they had a good chat after their round five match of what is next for them going forward.
He said they will now start looking a bit more at structures, midfield and forward set up as they look to start taking the next step.
“We are hoping to finish in the top two now,” he said. “Strathmore is obviously the benchmark.
“We haven’t trained for structure, so it’s exciting to see what we can do.”
While Barclay had coached many of the group at Airport West, there’s some others who have impressed him early in the season.
Kyiesha Taylor was one that Barclay didn’t have in their starting line up in round one and now does.
Caitlyn Crameri, Krystyn Raymundo and Maddison Cooper are three that have been really strong down forward.
“We getting to know each other and we’ve got a couple of young ones,” he said. “Kaitlin Bojarowski is just 18 or 19 and is getting better and better.”
The Devils had the bye on the weekend.
Barclay said they were focusing on the next run of games. The first of those matches will be a top of the table clash with Strathmore.
“We’ll look to set up the way we want to run and start having them in different positions with what looks good.
“It’s still not easy. We play every team three times. It’s been about getting them caring about each other off the field and Saturdays are easy.”
Burnside Heights, which sits in fourth, also had a bye on the weekend.
The Bears face Westmeadows this Saturday.
