With no junior or youth football being played last weekend, we take a look at how the 14th Grade Div 2 team are getting on so far:

I started the season with 15 girls wanting to play 14th grade girls football. Having inherited a couple more I had to send two up to play in div 1. Hence I ended up with 15 lovely faces staring at me, two of which who had never played before and 6-7 players who had never had the wonderful and enlightening experience of being coached by me. 

At the first training of the season we started with fitness work and soon found out who had done some fitness work over the holidays and who had just thought about it. The coach kept saying that the exercises were not that hard as he wasn’t sweating. That might be because all he did was wander around, while the girls did all the running.

During a break in training I’m sure half of the team was wondering what the hell they had just got themselves into. Here was an “old man” coaching the team and all he seemed to do was yell and shout at everyone. Meanwhile my manager Vanessa Bawden was quietly walking around telling all the new girls that eventually things get easier and that the coach does stop yelling.

We hit the first game vs Halswell and got hammered 14 – 0 and I began to think this could be a long season. However the girls rebounded and we worked on team strategies and formation techniques. Things started to click into place as the girls got to know each other and how each person played. The team evolved as we moved from technical skills onto tactical skills.

After the grading games, we got into the serious stuff of playing footy and having some fun. We finished the first round of games undefeated and sitting in 2nd place on the table, thanks to a couple of draws.

All I can say is bring on the 2nd round and the challenges that comes with it. We now know what the other teams bring to the field and where we need to improve personally and as a team. With this growth I hope I can improve the girls as football players, but more importantly as young women.

I must make a special mention to all the parents who have been wonderful to deal with and great at encouraging both teams on the field. Also Vanessa (manager extraudioner) who works away in the background doing all the off field stuff, leaving me to look after the team and the on field things without any distractions.