Tara Murray
The real tests will start to come for Essendon in the Victorian Football League Women’s competition in the next few weeks.
With more AFLW players starting to flow back through into the competition, including at the Bombers, the competition will be taken to the next level.
As one of two undefeated sides after six rounds, the Bombers have been one of the standards so far.
Bombers coach Brendan Major knows while they’ve been playing some good football, things could change the next few weeks. He said it was an evolving situation which AFLW players might play for them.
“The AFLW players will come back in the next five weeks,” he said.
“It changes the competition a lot… how you get your hands on the ball and the way you want to go about it.”
Major said with the end of the NAB League Girls competition this weekend, they would start to see a few more of the most talented under-18 players in the competition too.
The Bombers returned to the field on Sunday against Geelong after having the bye the previous week.
Major said the bye had come at the perfect time after a big start to the season. The Bombers drew their last game before the bye agaisnt St Kilda, having gone away from a lot of the things they had done well.
The freshen up did the Bombers well, with the Bombers beating Geelong, 13.11 (89)-1.5 (11).
Major said the scoreboard didn’t reflect how the match played out.
“It wasn’t too bad a win,” he said.
“Geelong really came hard at us. The players said the scoreboard didn’t reflect how it felt out there, that it felt a much tougher affair.
“We were able to consistently kick goals at regular intervals every five minutes, so we were able to kick the scoreboard ticking over.’’
Federica Frew kicked four goals in the win, taking her season tally to 17 goals in five games.
Co-captain Georgia Nanscawan had 28 possessions in her return to the side.
Major said the performance was the most even of the season.
“It was our best team performance,” he said. “Georgia was back in the side.
“Dani Marshall was good in the ruck, as was Simone Nalder.
“Jordan Zanchetta got better as the game went on as did Joanne Doonan. The forwards competed really well and the backs stuck to their job and didn’t let them get any easy balls.”
The Bombers were set to face North Melbourne on Sunday, after deadline.
It was a tough start to the season for the Bombers VFL side which lost to Geelong.
The Cats blew the game open in the second quarter, to lead by 31 points at the main break.
It was a deficit the Bombers couldn’t come back from, losing 12.14 (86)-8.10 (58).
Kaine Baldwin kicked three goals for the Bombers,
The Bombers were due to face the Casey Scorpions on Saturday in round two, after deadline.
For the results of both matches, head to www.starweekly.com.au.
