Williamstown’s Victorian Football League women’s side found themselves in a draw over the weekend against Carlton as they try to salvage the rest of their lacklustre season.
Both teams struggled to get their feet off the ground in the first quarter in what was a windy day down at Downer Oval.
The Gulls managed to hit the scoreboard in the second term but were unable to hang onto the lead, resulting in a 2.6 (18) to 2.6 (18) tie.
With two of the team’s key forwards Sophia McCarthy and Cassie McWilliams out of the match due to being nominated to play for the under 23 All-Stars Game, Penny Cula-Reid said they lost a lot of scoring power.
“I thought I’d midfield group worked extremely hard. They were rotating forward as well so in terms of their game time, they were on the field for quite some time,” she said.
“It was great to see Aimee Wheelan get on the scoreboard for us and Ellie Cleland late in the last quarter to even up the game for us [to] come from behind, something we haven’t done before to either potentially win the game or draw so in that aspect it was kind of pleasing.”
Saturday’s game marked Wheelan’s last for the club before she jets off to Sydney to play in the AFLW.
“It was again really nice for her to get amongst the group and finish off.”
A few new young faces debuted for the Gulls, among them WNBL Basketball player Asha Price and Amika Manoa from the Western Jets.
“[Amika] played in the backline for us, I thought she did again, relatively well. Camryn Tyrrell, her second game in, continues to show that she can play at this level, which was really, really pleasing,” Cula-Reid said.
Statistically, Cula-Reid said the two teams match up quite evenly, however Williamstown struggled to halt Carlton’s transition from full back to their forward line.
“[Carlton] were able to rebound on a few occasions which allowed them to open up the opportunity to score and we just didn’t have that ability to slow them down on transition,” she said.
One player who continues to stand out and show tremendous leadership despite the team’s disappointing season is Ruby Tripodi, who notched up 17 disposals in a very low scoring game.
“He got hit pretty hard with COVID so she’s been really battling through that midfield group and pushing through games. But I think she’s sort of coming to the top and she’s really peaking now,” Cula-Reid said.
The remaining three weeks of the season will be tough for the Gulls, with top six teams the Cats and Hawthorn in the pipeline.
They’ll take on North Melbourne next weekend however, an winnable game according to Cula-Reid.
“If we can get our…processes in place, and drive that strong sort of cultural behaviours, never giving up, drive the effort, drive the contest and the ability to compete, you know, I think that there’s a chance against North Melbourne on the weekend.”
