WAFLW Senior Development report with Coach Ben Howlett

Peel Thunder WAFLW Senior Development  Report 

The women’s senior development sit 3-1 at the end of round 5 after 3 consecutive wins in a row. We began our season in round 2 against East Fremantle at New Choice Homes Park against a very strong team who look to be the benchmark of the competition. After missing some chances in front of goal our self, we unfortunately couldn’t register a score and went down to the Sharks 0 – 75. The better players were Brooke Shurbsall, Maddie Bedford and Sierra Smith.

The following week saw us play our first home game for the year against a strong looking Subiaco. Our girls bounced back with a great win despite having 2 players short on the interchange. The girls showed fantastic spirit and improvement from the previous week with strong tackling pressure and 2nd and 3rd efforts from players such as Tess Blackburn & Kayla Bradshaw. The best players for the day included Blackburn, Sidebottom, Shrubsall, Jefferies & Bradshaw.

Round 4 saw us travel to Altone Park to play East Perth. The girls played a terrific brand of football and showed further improvements all over the ground. Younger players such as Amber Clarke and Georgia Seymour really stood up down back. We also welcomed back Racheal Tilbrook, Simone McCann, Chloe College and Hannah Church back in for their first game of the year. Goals from Ava Muir, Nat Dash, Hannah Church and Narelle McIntyre saw the Peel Thunder girls win convincingly 8.13.63 to East Perth’s 0.3.3. The best players were Church, Shrubsall, Sidebottom, Muir, Clarke and Williams.

Round 5 was played under lights against West Perth up at Macdonald Reserve, home of Whitfords Football Club. We went into the game short with players, starting with only 2 players on the interchange. The girls showed great fight getting off to a good lead in the first quarter but lost Shanaya Dorizzi to an ankle injury during quarter leaving us with 1 on the interchange. West Perth showed why they matched it with East Fremantle the week before and kicked 4 straight goals in the 2nd quarter to jump into lead at the halftime break. The girls fought back showing immense effort and putting their bodies on the line with Williams, Smith & Blackburn all coming off with hard knocks in the 2nd half. They all showed great courage to go back onto the field and fight out the game. Every girl showed real character with no rotations as we fought back into the lead, going on to win the game 6.9.45 to West Perth’s 4.6.30.

Next week provides a great test for our Senior Development girls as we go up against an unbeaten top of the table Claremont at Claremont Oval. We hope to see everyone down supporting the girls. For those who can't make the trip, the game will be live streamed via the WAFL facebook page or WAFL website.

Go Thunder!