By Briana Kendirian
The Deakin University Women’s competition returns this Saturday and 2021’s finest are raring to go, as we eye the first full season since 2019.
The Women’s competition will have a new look, with the introduction of a Premier B Division, and new sides, including the Eastern Devils, Beaconsfield, Mount Evelyn, Mitcham, Mooroolbark, Nunawading and East Burwood.
Division One Best and Fairest co-winner and Park Orchards star Isabelle Pollock is extremely excited to start the 2022 season alongside her teammates, kicking things off against newcomers Beaconsfield.
“I really think all of us are looking forward to this season with hopes there will be no interruptions and look forward to getting a full season in,
“Going into this game with Beaconsfield I think it’ll be good because none of us know what they are like, we don’t know if they’ve got new players or if they’re really well-developed team, so we really have to go into it with no expectations and just try our best,” said Pollock ahead of the Sharks opening salvo.
Park Orchards has established a club motto to keep the senior boys and girls engaged and motivated for the new season, hoping to get their players even more motivated and connected this year.
“We have a main word we are focusing on this season which is ‘relentless’.
“We’re one club, supporting each other continuously, trying to strive to be our best and that’s the main focus for this season that the senior coaches really drilled into us.”
Pollock believes an injection of youth will help push Park Orchards up another rung or two, which will be crucial given the new look make up of Division One, with Women’s stalwarts Blackburn and Chirnside Park coming into Division One, along with undefeated Division Two Minor Premier Ringwood.
“We have a lot of new players from the juniors that have come up to stay so I think they’re a huge asset to our team,
“They challenge how we all play individually and how we work as a team; They’ve made us a lot stronger,
“A lot of teams have come down from Premier Division so there’s going to be some good competition this season, but I know we can all work well together as a team,
“Compared to previous pre-seasons we’ve done a lot more fitness.
Our main downfall [last season] was just legs getting tired and dropping off and not keeping that pressure up, so we’ve done a lot more running at training and I think it’ll show this season.”
Pollock believes she still has a lot more improving to do from an insular point of view, despite having taken out the division’s top gong in 2021, alongside The Basin star Julia Baker.
“Winning the League medal was a huge surprise for me,
“I think personally last season my skills improved; I’ve been focusing on my kicking which was probably my biggest improvement last season, but I am still working hard to keep getting better.”
Another 2021 Best and Fairest Winner is even more bullish than Pollock regarding her side’s premiership hopes, with Kilsyth’s Felicity Neligan confident the Cougars can make the most of Ringwood’ promotion.
“I think with Ringwood being gone it means that we do have that potential to finish on top,
“We have had some very talented sides coming as well like East Ringwood and Heathmont last year were very competitive so I think it will be an interesting season for sure,
“Last year our goal was to win the premiership and it’s very much the same this year.”
Kilsyth’s first game back will be up against last year’s bottom of the ladder, Surrey Park, but Neligan isn’t letting the team get too carried away.
“We’re just trying to take it as equal playing field and then just seeing what happens,
“Teams can change so quickly especially in women’s footy; you can be poor one year and then be the best the next year.”
With new additions to the team such as Emily Van Veen who comes from Montrose and Maddy Beard from Vermont’s as well as junior players making the step up, there is another layer to Kilsyth in 2022.
“Our teams changed a lot, we’re very different, we’re stronger in other areas to what we were weak in last year and probably weaker in areas where we were stronger last year so everyone else will probably be the same,
“I think our team will be very different to what it was last year, and I think we’ll be a little bit more versatile in all areas of the oval so I think that will help us with our premiership aspirations,
“We have done a lot of team bonding exercises outside of training as well as during pre-season which we started two weeks after the season ended last year to try and make sure that we got as much preparation in as we could.”
It’s no shock Neligan won both club and league best and fairest’s last year as she always ensured she had her best foot forward by nonstop working on her skills.
“During lockdowns and stuff, I was always out with a footy in my hands just working on my skills trying to make sure that I was the best that I could be,
“I just continued to try and push to not only be better myself but to help other people to get better because that in turn made me better.”