Tara Murray
The hard work continues to pay off for Spring Hills with its FV state league 1 north-west and state league 2 north-west women’s sides earning promotion.
The Stallions have long focused on their female program which continues to grow each year.
The club has now gone from the state league 4 west competition in 2016, to preparing to play in the second top tier in the state, the Victorian Premier League next season.
Stallions technical director and women’s state league 1 coach Tom Markovski said after a couple of tough years with COVID it was nice to see the girls get some reward for effort.
“It is a fantastic effort,” he said. “It’s a great reward for the players, the committee, the coaching staff and the club itself.
“It’s especially good after the last couple of years. You want to see the girls get rewarded for not giving it away.
“We’ve managed to get a group of local girls from division 4 into the VPL and division 1 next season.”
Markovski said the core group of players had returned to this season in the hope of a full season for the first time since 2019.
They also looked to promote local girls from their under-16 team up into the senior teams as they continue to plan for the future.
For the state league 1 side, this year was their first opportunity to play a full season at that level having earned promotion at the end of 2019.
They finished third, seven points behind champions Brunswick Juventus.
Markovski said they had an idea early on they would be in the mix.
“There’s bigger players putting in big funds,” he said.
“We stuck with working with local talent and wanted to aim for promotion and go from their
“Started off fantastic in the preseason and in the Nike F.C Cup we lost to [National Premier League Women’s] Bulleen Lions on penalties which was a massive feat.
“From there we had a couple of injuries, but were able to get the job done.”
The state league 2 north-west team was also playing at that level for the first time. They finished second, four points behind Lara United.
Markovski said it was a juggling act early on working who played in which side. He said the second half of the season they just got better and better.
With the two promotions, the Stallions will now need to have a fourth team, a senior and reserves team in each division.
Markovski said they were already looking at the next generation of players to step up.
“I coach our under-13s and they finished 11 points clear,” he said. “They’re that next group of players we’ll look to have come through when the older ones give it away.
“We’re always planning two years into the future.”
While celebrating the two promotions, the Stallions aren’t done. They want to become an NPLW team in the near future.
“I think the area needs another NPLW team,” he said. “The west especially needs another one.”
