Tara Murray
The scoreboard doesn’t reflect the progress Tullamarine has made in this year’s Essendon District Football League women’s division 1 competition.
Last season’s division 2 premiers, have just two wins on the board after 10 rounds this season.
Coach Peter Labbad said while there was a massive jump from division 2 to division 1, they had shown a lot of positive signs at this level.
“It has been a positive year and the girls have stuck together and still playing hard at the back end of the season,” he said.
“I guess we say the scores don’t tell the whole story. We belted Greenvale in the middle of the ground, but we don’t have the forward line to get the scores.
“Our defence is strong, our midfield is strong and dominating. Without having a strong forward line it makes it hard.”
Labbad said due to a shortage of numbers they’ve had to move players out of their forward line and into the middle of the ground.
Courtney Annett, who is capable of kicking a bag of goals is further up the ground, while Tricia Devine, who can play anywhere, is another having to play in the midfield this season.
Labbad said a lack of depth was also hurting them.
“Everyone is playing with four to eight players on the bench,” he said. “Most games we’re playing without one or just one person on the bench.
“We have zero rotations.
“We’ve got a couple of long term injuries as well. Stacey McDonnell who played a key role for us last year is out for the year.”
Labbad said one big positive for the group was that they were able to reduce the margin from the first time to the second time they played them.
“I commend the girls,” he said.
“We lost to Gisborne by 28 points. The first time we played Greenvale it was 116 points, this time was a massive improvement on that.”
The Demons have also had to play away from home all season while work is being completed on their club rooms at Leo Dineen Reserve.
Labbad said ahead of next season, the league needs to chat to club’s about their positions and decide the grades from there instead of based on last season’s results.
He said women’s football isn’t like men’s football.
“We’ve just got girls that want to play footy,” he said.
“We don’t have VFLW [Victorian Football League Women’s] players. We’ve got some good damn footballers, but they aren’t at that level.
“There is a massive gap and we have 20 girls who just want to play football.”
The Demons faced Essendon Doutta Stars on Saturday.
After an even first quarter, the Stars kicked out to a six goal lead at half time. They added to that after the break on the way to an 11.7 (73)-2.1 (13) win.
Taylah Hardman was named the Demons best.
Meanwhile, Greenvale suffered its first loss of the season, losing to Burnside Heights.
