Tara Murray
The Whittlesea Pacers are bringing back their women’s side for next year’s Big V women’s season, with a familiar face at the helm.
The Pacers announced that Shannon Bodley would coach the side next season, as they look to further get their female program back on track after not having a women’s side the past two seasons.
Bodley has coached both the women’s and youth league girls programs at the Pacers and has also been coaching director more recently.
He was in charge when the Pacers won the division 1 women’s championship in 2015, which saw the Pacers step up to the top grade.
Bodley said the biggest thing for him was making sure they did it properly.
“The league wanted us to bring back the side for this year but they gave us an extra 12 months,” he said.
“It was a no-brainer that it had to happen. It shows a pathway for young girls and young juniors and girls in youth league, there is somewhere they go.
“We always wanted to get the team back up and running, it was a matter of timing.”
The Pacers have a number of talented players coming through the pathways.
They won the division 2 youth league women’s championship last season and were promoted to youth league 1 for this season.
Bodley said some of those girls would come into the side, while they had a number of good players in the under-16s, under-18s and under-20s as well.
He said when he was still director of coaching they had discussed getting the side back up and going and had to look at the program as a whole and be sustainable.
“We’ll look to fill some gaps,” he said. “It will show year after year that the youth league will flow into the women’s side.
“I’ll be involved in the youth league and juniors as well.”
After a few years out of coaching at this level, Bodley said it was something he missed and he was looking forward to it.
Even though the 2024 season hasn’t finished, Bodley is already getting down to work.
“Me being me, I’ve already been on the phone and had some positive phone calls with some ex-players,” he said.
“We’re going to have an import and we’re going to pay players, just like with the men’s.”
Bodley said this was more than just about the association but female sport more broadly in giving them someone where they can play for 10 to 15 years if they want to.
It was one of two coaching announcements, with the Pacers announcing that men’s coach Des Radoslovic had re-signed for next year.
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