Tara Murray
Essendon is hoping to iron out a couple of issues into the lead up to the Victorian Football League Women’s finals.
The Bombers, who are on top and are yet to lose a match entering the final round, have finished the season facing some of the other top teams.
Bombers coach Brendan Major said the tough run home was an ideal preparation for finals.
“We can get a look at where we are at,” he said.
“We were lucky to get a draw the week before against Hawthorn and then this week we played well in patches and got away with a win.
“We get these things right heading into this week and before heading into finals in June.”
Major said at times they go to sleep in quarters and go away from what they want to do each week.
He said the nature of the draw probably hasn’t helped them with that.
“It’s been an up and down year and the difference between the best and worst has been quite large this year,” he said.
“We were able to get away with not playing our best against the bottom sides. The good teams you can’t get away with things that you shouldn’t.”
Major said heading into the final round that they were looking like having nearly a full squad heading into finals.
The Bombers were guaranteed a top two spot heading into the final round against the Casey Demons.
While the injury list is small, the unknown nature surrounding the AFLW and player commitments is something the Bombers might have to juggle.
Georgia Nanscawen, Federica Frew, Joanne Doonan, Danielle Marshall and Jordan Zanchetta are among those who have agreed to sign with the Bombers AFLW team.
It was recently announced the season would start in August with pre-season to start in June.
The AFLW draft will occur before the end of the VFLW season.
“This year with the AFLW it has been quite a mixed bag,” he said.
“We’re probably thought for a couple of months that it was set to start in August.
“The dates were released last week and they’re really close dates.
“There’s a big question mark and it’s pretty exciting for those players who have signed and hopefully a few more will sign with Essendon or other clubs.
“It might be a case by case basis… We don’t have any players on other lists, so we’ll come to that bridge if we come to it.”
