SANFLW Pre Season Report

Pre season is well underway for our SANFLW team with the squad having been in training for 8 weeks now. The squad has been working hard on the track with an emphasis being placed on skills and conditioning work. There is a great balance within the squad with a nice blend of youth and maturity. This has seen a tremendous culture develop, mixing fun with a competitive appetite to succeed.

The closeness of the group has seen tears of joy when one of our own, Hannah Martin was drafted to the Adelaide Crows AFLW team. This has motivated a number of the players to try and emulate Hannah’s deeds and drive standards to another level. An example of this is that the winner of our recent 2km time trial, would have finished 4th at this years AFLW National draft combine testing day.

Despite most players only being in their second to third years of football, it is pleasing to see the natural progression and development of our list. The next phase of training will see the training squad move into ball movement drills and begin walk throughs on our game structures.

Last week representatives of the SANFLW program attended a female Come N Try day in the Riverland at the Barmera Monash Football Club. It was good to identify some of the talent the women in the Riverland possess and provide these players with a pathway to play SANFLW for the club.

Finally, we also welcome Adelaide Crows players Stevie Lee Thompson and Irish Rookie Ailish Considine to the club, under the Crows mini draft system. We selected these players and believe they will be a perfect fit with the current squad of players. Stevie-Lee will provide excellent leadership to our young talent as well as pace and aggression with her running and tackling ability. Ailish, a talented Irish Gaelic footballer is the first international women’s player recruited to Adelaide. Ailish is a tremendous athlete with an ability to kick on both sides of her body. When available we believe both players will be an asset for our team.