Diamond Creek Women’s 1 coach Colin Wallington wants his team to continue to improve further following an impressive win against VU Western Spurs 1.
Speaking after the 26-point win at Plenty Park, Wallington said he knew it would be a hard-hitting affair, but was always confident his side could pull through in the 2019 Division 1 Women’s grand final rematch.
“We knew they were going to come in as a different side compared to the 2019 side and we were able to maintain a fair bit of our list from that COVID year, which was great,” Wallington told NFNL.org.au.
Wallington felt the win was “reward for effort”, believing his side had worked hard since the 2019 grand final defeat – including putting in the hard yards prior to the 2020 cancelled season.
“Coming off the back of a win against them this weekend, it shows the girls their hard work and what they’ve done deserves a pat on the back,” he said.
Wallington said that whilst the Creekers hope to be contending for the Division 1 finals at season’s end, he doesn’t want to put too much pressure on his players following the weekend’s result – which handed VU Western Spurs its first loss since the 2018 Division 1 Women’s preliminary final.
“We’re just focusing round by round. Work on our strengths, improve on our stuff that we need to improve on. We don’t like to think about the negatives at our football club, it’s more about the positives,” he said.
“Definitely having a look at 2019 and where we are now, just reflecting on that, we’ve come in pretty strong compared to others. Even our reserves getting the win against VU when their Division 2 side in 2019 absolutely whitewashed the whole competition.”
The Creekers have acquired some outstanding talent for the 2021 season, including returning duo Shae Audley and Laura Duryea.
Audley played 16 AFLW games for Carlton between 2017 and 2019, while Duryea featured for Melbourne 11 times across the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
“(Audley) has come back to play at her old club. Her leadership itself is something spectacular. The girls really look at the way she plays and not just what she says but the way she plays her football,” Wallington said.
“(Duryea) had a little time off from football. She recently had a baby not that long ago. First game back on Sunday and she was a great asset to the team.”
The Creekers also obtained VFLW players Monique DeMatteo and Eleanor Cornish, and ex-West Adelaide tall Leah Swain, who will bolster the club’s tall stocks.
“We got a really good acquisition from the Essendon VFL with Monique DeMatteo. She’s been a really good acquisition, along with Eleanor Cornish.
“Leah Swain from West Adelaide came down to Victoria this year due to work commitments and came and picked us to play for.
“We played her in the twos the last couple of weeks just to get her touch back. We’re looking forward to having her in the ones very soon.
“We still have our rock-solid players. Girls like Kaitlin Smith. Girls that really stock that list at Diamond Creek Women’s Football Club.”
Diamond Creek Women’s 1 will face Heidelberg at Warringal Park on ANZAC Day at 4:45pm. The seconds will face Montmorency 2 at Montmorency Park from 1:30pm.
