THE higher level of football the Western Region Football League junior Interleague teams were exposed to during the Metro Championships is set to motivate the league’s young stars to be better next year, Football Operations and Club Development Officer Tim Shellcot says.
The WRFL was moved into Division 1 in 2016 after its teams earned promotion into the premier competition after a successful campaign last year.
The Western Youth Girls team, a team combined with the Essendon District Football League, was the only team to score a win during the carnival.
Shellcot said despite not getting the scores on the board, the WRFL were more than competitive in all of their matches.
“It has been a tough carnival,” he admitted.
“The step up in standard with our Under-14 team and Under-15 teams has been a big challenge for all the players.
“Our talent spread has been not quite as good at the Under-13 level as it was to last year and probably the year before.
“It has been a bit of a wakeup call.
“The disappointing part, is that if you looked at the scoreboard you would think we didn’t do as well as we actually did.
“In some of those games we were really competitive, we probably just lacked some goal scoring power to really hurt the opposition.”
This year the WRFL took on teams from the Yarra Juniors Football League, Eastern Football League and South Metro Football League.
Shellcot said despite the win-loss ratio not in the WRFL’s favour the step up into Division 1 needed to happen.
“At Under-14 level in 2015, we had a really good group and we won 11 of 12 games,” he said.
“They needed that promotion to get a good understanding and awareness of where they are at when they compare themselves to the big junior leagues on the other side of the city.”
A shining light of the carnival was the Western Youth Girls team, who defeated the South East Juniors by 28-points.
“They had a poor first game, the second game they came close and in the third game they had a win, which was really good,” Shellcot said.
“People within our clubs and our league looking at interleague and seeing the girls having a positive interleague experience is a really good thing.”
Shellcot said overall the experience would be a positive one for the league’s juniors.
He said playing in Interleague could give them the motivation to work harder at club level and then in turn impress TAC Cup selectors, in particular, people from the Western Jets.
“For the Under-14 squad, interleague is an eye-opener for them, because it is really their first significant step onto the talent pathway,” Shellcot said.
“The players are in a more structured program and the people coaching them, particularly the A squad, are clearly involved with the Western Jets development programs.
“It is a lightbulb moment for them.”
In 2017 the WRFL will be relegated back to Division 2 in the Metro Championships.
“This will mean it will be a more even competition and the scoreboard will be a lot closer, which will ultimately be a benefit for us,” Shellcot said.
“We will take on the Riddle League, the EDFL and South East Juniors.”
The Under-16 team have one final match to be played against the Riddell District Football League on Wednesday in Arnold’s Creek.
Last Modified on 22/06/2016 13:49