Tullamarine has locked in its women’s coach for next year’s Essendon District Football League season.
The Demons have secured the services of Travis Fitzpatrick for the 2024 division 1 season. Fitzpatrick has a degree in applied science human movement and is a qualified strength and conditioning coach.
“I’m absolutely wrapped to get the role, I’ve been contemplating coaching senior women’s football for three or four years,” he said.
“Having three daughters I definitely see the growth in [women’s football] and I’m definitely going to enjoy the role 100 per cent.”
Fitzpatrick said he is keen to employ a simple, collaborative and fun approach to the game.
“I’m huge on the skills of the game having coached juniors over the past seven or eight years,” he said.
“I’m massive on really trying to break down the skill to its smallest little part in terms of the skill acquisition and skill gap and slowing and breaking all of that down and then accelerating it and putting it under pressure as well.
“I did a really cool seminar with Nathan Burke, who coached the Western Bulldogs in the AFLW, about coaching girls and making sure that they are really connected and having fun while learning the craft.
“Making sure that they have a big chat and jog a lap and tell a few jokes before training starts so they have that time to communicate and then they’re ready to go for training.
“Because I was appointed quite late we had two main sessions before the Christmas break and I just wanted to make those really skill based and have a look at that side of things, my coaching philosophy is ‘let ‘em play’ really.”
In his two sessions before the break, Fitzpatrick said he was delighted with the response and turn out he got, giving him even more excitement and confidence heading into the back-end of the pre-season.
“We’ve had great numbers, thanks to my assistant coach Emily, she’s really kept the group connected. I think at our first training session we had 22 on the track which was fantastic and they are a great bunch of connected people and they really impressed me at how close they were as a team and then how much they are willing to learn,” he said.
The Demons finished the division 1 season in fifth spot this year with two wins, with injuries and lack of depth resulting in the Demons performances not being reflected on the scoreboard. But this season the goal is simple under Fitzpatrick.
“We want to win more than we lose,” he said.
As well as having locked in a new coach, the club has announced a number of re-signings. Hannah Birdo, Emily Angelidis, Kiara Talbot, Maddy Aguis, Carmela Talia, Tricia Devine, Laura D’Amore, Amy Warden and Sophie Kelly will all be back in 2024.
