Alana Long
There was no break from football after the end of the first Shepparton Youth Girls competition in 2013, with selected girls from the four teams; Echuca, Mooroopna, Notre Dame and Kyabram going straight into training in preparation for the Subway Shield. Having several training sessions at the end of 2013 then commencing again at the beginning of 2014. We played together as a team for the first time in a practice match against Ballarat at Heathcote in mid March, in the end unfortunately loosing but building important team orientation, learning our strengths and areas for improvement, which was a major learning curve in preparation for the Carnival.
The day finally arrived when the girls boarded the bus in Shepparton to make the journey to the big city, we all arrived at Rydges on Bell Street in Preston at 3 in the afternoon on Sunday the 6th of May. After a slight delay with the room allocation and a drawn out tour of the Hotel’s extensive facilities including the swimming pool, gym and sauna we finally settled into our rooms. We were all wowed by the amazing views of the city from the huge windows in our rooms which also included an ensuite, kitchen and TV’s. We then headed across the road to the oval for a quick training session, where we got our hands on the footy, had a few kicks and talked strategies for our first game the next day. After that being footballers we were all starving so we got back on the bus and went to the Preston City Oval Football Club, the location of our first game, for dinner, with the Under 15 boys’ team.
Once back in the Hotel the whole team squished into the coaches room for a team meeting, but before we all got serious and talked tactics for tomorrow we did a get to know you exercise by telling two truths and a lie to see how much we knew about our team mates. While there was lots of laughing and stories about embarrassing childhood incidents, it was time to get down to business in preparation for the following day’s game.
Day 2 we played our first game against Bendigo at Preston City Oval. We had a solid warm up and the girl’s nerves were high as we got ready to run out onto the field. Everyone was excited to play and we went out strong, matching Bendigo for intensity. Unfortunately in the end they managed to get a few lucky goals and we lost 4.7 – 2.5 but we never stopped pressuring the opposition, refusing to give them any easy kicks at all, we continuously laid tackle after tackle, unfortunately not getting rewarded for our efforts in defence.
The stats at the end of the game showed we laid over 60 tackles. After the game we did a pool recovery back at the Rydges Hotel. Some of the girls, Ada in particular wasn’t too keen on getting in the freezing cold water and needing a little encouragement from the coach (by encouragement I mean Mick pushed her in) it was good to see the girls ticking boxes to look after their bodies, including going to extra lengths to get on the bikes in the gym and then back into the pool.
Unfortunately some injuries couldn’t be avoided, we lost two vital players to the team after the first game, with a badly sprained ankle for Alex Mulcahy and a fractured wrist by Jade Tancred. We were then lucky enough to have a guided tour of Essendon’s new state of the art facilities, which was awesome for the girls to see what the future possibly holds for female footy, giving the girls something to aspire to. We weren’t lucky enough to meet any of the players but we got a good look in their locker rooms, the indoor heated swimming pool, gymnasium\weights room, basketball courts and indoor training area as well as the oval and conference room.
The team then headed out to dinner for a well-earned meal of chicken parmas, for the second night in a row! We were then privileged enough, thanks to Trev’s contacts, to have a Daisy Pearce come to talk to the team about her experience as a footballer growing up playing the game and her development in the lead up to the first ever state female football game at the MCG, and being the number 1 draft pick, placing her as the best female footballer in Australia. This was an amazing inspiration to all the girls as like many of us Daisy grew up in a small rural town and played football with the boys not realising there was a pathway for her in female football. To look back on that now after all her football achievements is such an inspiration to us girls as aspiring footballers. After moving to Melbourne from Bright she joined the division 1 team at Darrebin and went onto win 5 back to back premierships and captain the Victorian team.
Day 3 some of the girls pulled up a bit sore but that didn’t dampen any of our spirits and neither did the drizzling rain for our much anticipated clash against Geelong. The team took all learning points on board from our previous game against Bendigo and dramatically improved our style of play, although the score board didn’t show these improvement’s it was obvious on the field as we applied relentless pressure to our opposition and kept them to 8.9 however only managing to kick 1 point. We then took a reluctant trip to the beach where we did our recovery in the freezing cold ocean in the spitting rain. It was then time to head to South Warf DFO for some well-earned retail therapy (definitely a highlight of the trip). Out to dinner again at the Preston Football club, where Alex and I spoke to the boy’s team and their coaches about our progress in the carnival so far and our journey as female footballers, the boy’s also told us about how their team has been going. Then it was back to the Hotel for the important team meeting about the finals the following day. We also watched some highlights from the Melbourne versus Bulldog’s women’s game Daisy starred in.
Wednesday we all reluctantly packed our bags ready for our last day of the carnival, it came as a shock to the girls to realise that this was the last time we would ever play together as a team, which was sad especially after bonding with each other and enjoying the experience of the trip and the high level of football many of the girls were exposed to for the first time. The weather provided an obstacle for the team but all the girls took the rain in their stride and made the most of it out on the field, playing our best game ever as a team against Western District.
We were rewarded for our relentless pressure on the field, constant running and tackling by coming away from the last day with a good win for the first ever Shepparton District youth girls’ team, the score was 10.13 – 1.0. Singing the Bushies song after the game was the best feeling and the girls earned ever bit of it. After getting a few happy snaps of the team soaked and covered in mud we had a quick presentation, with Reni Hicks, Alyx Glanville, Alana Cuthbert and I all being identified as the carnival’s best players and walking away with trophies to reward our hard work out on the field over the three games. Then regrettably it was time for us all to head home for a well-earned rest. Our team made history by being part of the first ever Shepparton youth girls team to compete in the Subway Shield, an experience that the girls will remember for the rest of their lives and an achievement to be proud of. It was also a great learning curve for the girls in developing their football skills, as well as being role models at their local club for other upcoming female footballers. I would just like to say thanks to everyone involved in contributing to our team and giving the girls the opportunity to play in the 2014 Subway Shield.
Trevor Mellington did an amazing job with organising and developing the girls skills, as well as Britt Tancred our team manager and Kylie and Helen our trainers, the girls all appreciate the time and effort they put into our team, Mick the assistant coach played a big part in the teams game plays and of course our coach David Pearson was the driving force behind the team, contributing enormously to the girls improvements during the training leading up to the carnival and throughout each game, Pizzle’s constant encouragement and expert advice made the girls better individual players and brought our team together for an awesome carnival.
Last Modified on 22/11/2016 19:07