Tara Murray
West Footscray coach Shane Windridge is excited by what his new look playing group can do in the Western Football League women’s competition.
The Roosters won the division 2 premiership last season and would have likely gone up a division had the competition stayed at two divisions.
Now with all the teams in one division, the side had a number of new challenges ahead of them.
“There’s been a lot of change with a lot of sides,” Windridge said. ”We are no different, we pretty much have a brand new side from last year.
“We don’t know how we will go until we play.”
Windridge said they had lost 20 of their 30 players from last season.
He said some had looked to start families and a number of retired after getting the premiership they were after.
While they’ve lost a number of players, Windridge said they still had good numbers.
“Lucky for us we’re a club that gets a lot of new players turn up out of nowhere,” he said. “Some are brand new to the game and I’m excited to see what they can do on game day.
“A couple of other players have come back and we’ve got some players that have moved down to the area and will be pretty handy.”
The Roosters started the season with a big win against North Sunshine, winning 17.15 (117)-0.1 (1).
Windridge said it was nice to get out there and play with each other and give some of the new players an opportunity to learn the rules.
The Roosters faced a bigger test on Friday night, facing one of the premiership favourites in Werribee Centrals.
It was a tough night for the Roosters, with the Centurions winning, 23.16 (154)-0.0 (0).
Ashlee Carey, Kathleen Gannon and Ashton Sly were named their best.
Windridge said he expected his side to get better as the season goes on.
“It’s a big step coming up from division 2,” he said.
“We’ll definitely get better as the season goes along. The benchmark for us will be the second time we play teams and what improvements we’ve made from the first time.
“I think we’ll see rapid improvement by the end of the season.”
In other matches on the weekend, Parkside Spurs had a 28.17 (185)-1.0 (6) win against North Sunshine.
Mary Sandral kicked 10 goals in the win.
Yarraville-Seddon kicked off its season with a 19.21 (135)-0.0 (0) win against Laverton.
