By Tara Murray
Greenvale is starting to find its feet in Essendon District Football League women’s premier division season.
Last year’s division 1 premiers, the Jets have two wins from their first three matches.
After being awarded the points in round one after Keilor played an eligible player, the Jets got their first actual win of the season on Saturday against Maribyrnong Park.
Jets coach Troy Newton said it was a challenging game but they were happy to come away with the points.
“Maribyrnong Park are struggling a little bit and only had 13 players,” he said. “We will take the win, it was not the prettiest game.
“The conditions were pretty good and you couldn’t tell there was rain about. It was a strange game.”
Kayle Peake kicked three goals in her debut for the Jets, while Jorji Allison and Marli Klaumanns-Moller kicked two each.
Peake and Klaumanns-Moller are both Victorian Football League women’s players.
Malake Hamdan, Kalani Tapungao and Hannah Masters were named the Jets best.
Newton said one of the biggest challenges for the side had been not having the depth that they would have liked.
They played with just 14 players in round two and have had to throw their team about.
“I think we bought nine players this week and lost five from the week before. We still have five or six not playing at the moment.
“It makes it a bit difficult.
“Depth is what we are lacking. We had one girl do a knee in round one and another with a broken ankle in round two.
“Keira Delia has done her hamstring twice and hasn’t played and we’ve got girls in Europe. We have not been able to get our best side on the park.”
Another yet to play this season is their main goal kicker Alisa Margi who is struggling with a leg injury she carried into last year’s finals series.
Newton said they were hoping she might be back in six weeks.
He resigned to not having Grace Matser for most of the season with both of Carlton’s other VFLW rucks both hurting their knee, meaning she’ll have more opportunity at the higher level.
The Jets are hoping they might get an extra boost having put in a clearance for Audrey Rhodes on the weekend.
Rhodes was part of North Melbourne’s VFLW premiership last season and was named in the VFLW team of the year.
Playing the top flight for the first time, Newton said they had kept the goal simple this year.
“The aim is to stay up in premier division,” he said. “We want to get a feel for it and what it looks like.
“We want to be more competitive and stay in games for longer.”
