The Northern Football Netball League has announced its women’s football representative team to take on AFL Barwon at the 2019 Worksafe AFL Victoria Community Championships.
The match will take place this Saturday May 18 at Queens Park Highton from 9:50am.
After an extensive selection and training program, the NFNL has named its 25-player squad to make the trip to take on the best of AFL Barwon.
NFNL representative coach Caroline Kilmartin said it was a difficult process picking the final squad from such a talented field.
“As you can imagine, the closer we’ve gotten to the 25, the harder it has been,” Kilmartin told NFNL.org.au.
“The last two cuts have probably been the hardest.
“What is fantastic to know is the range of players. They’re not from two or three different clubs. They’re not just Division 1 clubs, they’re from Division 2 and even possibly a Division 3 team as well.”
The NFNL will be looking to atone this year after going down to South East Women’s by one point in extra time in last year’s inaugural senior women’s representative game.
With just three sleeps remaining until the clash with AFL Barwon, Kilmartin said preparations had begun to ramp up.
“Given it was only a five or six-week program leading into the game on Saturday, we’ve spent the first couple of weeks looking at who we want to take in,” she said.
“At the end of last week as a coaching group we started looking at what strategy we wanted to take into Saturday, and we started implementing that last night.
“We’ve got our 25 now so we’re set going into Saturday and we know what we’re working with.
“Thursday night we will have a short little sharp session and some dinner, and the girls can get to know who is in the squad.
“Saturday, it’s quite early in Geelong – but we’re ready for the challenge.”
Kilmartin said she wanted the players to embrace the opportunity to play representative football.
“These younger players, they’re a little bit spoilt for choice in some respects compared to what some of the older players have had to grow through over the years to get to this,” she said.
“Back when I first started playing there were only two divisions in all of Victoria in the VWFL. Now, for the NFNL alone to have three divisions is just mind-boggling, from where we’ve come from.
“For the NFNL to have this opportunity to give to the up and coming generations of footballers is something we will speak about on Thursday and Saturday.
“Just about how lucky these girls are to have this opportunity and how they should take it by the scruff of the neck and give it all they’ve got.”
Continue below to see the NFNL senior women’s football representative team:
| No. | Player | Club |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephanie Trkulja | St Mary's |
| 2 | Kayla Peake | VU Western Spurs |
| 3 | Megan Allan | Montmorency |
| 4 | Nicole Blythe | Montmorency |
| 5 | Debra Bonde | VU Western Spurs |
| 6 | Sianne Clancy | Bundoora |
| 7 | Karly Cobern | Diamond Creek Women's |
| 8 | Bianca Jones | Bendigo |
| 9 | Amanda Kennedy | Diamond Creek Women's |
| 10 | Demi Hallett | South Morang |
| 11 | Michelle Millhouse | West Preston-Lakeside |
| 12 | Ashleigh Bayes | Montmorency |
| 13 | Georgia Gordon | Bendigo |
| 14 | Ellie Koiker | Bundoora |
| 15 | Chloe Moorcroft | Bundoora |
| 16 | Shae-Lee Murphy-Burke | Diamond Creek Women's |
| 17 | Tamara Olcorn | Darebin |
| 18 | Molly Reinke | Montmorency |
| 19 | Claudia Williver | Eltham |
| 21 | Perin Breakell | Darebin |
| 22 | Sabrin Nyawela | VU Western Spurs |
| 23 | Bridgette Taylor-Gray | Bundoora |
| 24 | Ayrlea Bailey-McClanahan | Bendigo |
| 25 | Catherine O'Bryan | West Preston-Lakeside |
| 28 | Stacey Cross | Diamond Creek Women's |
