By Molly Magennis
With the Williamstown Seagulls gearing up for the 2022 VFLW season, coach Penny Cula-Reid is looking to build upon the foundations the women’s program established last year.
Having started back at training after the Christmas break, Cula-Reid said the team initially faced some COVID related disruptions, with some of the players contracting the virus over the holidays.
“We had a bit of a COVID fiasco on the first week back and had to cancel training and cancel our camp and just monitor symptoms,” she said.
“Some of the girls have come back from having COVID quite well, then some girls are taking a little bit more time.”
The Seagulls have developed a strong list for this season, with the addition of a handful of big signings Cula-Reid describes as ‘weapons’.
Cleo Saxon-Jones, a product of the Western Jets, hails from Richmond after having been drafted at pick 58 in the 2019 NAB AFLW Draft.
Saxon-Jones will join the Gulls this season, and has one of the best kicks in Women’s football, according to Cula-Reid.
“She can kick 40 meters on an average day, so on a good day she can definitely roost them, so she’s going to be an absolute weapon for us up forward,” she said.
Sharnie Whiting, who played for Williamstown back in 2019 before being drafted to Carlton, is making a return home this season.
She will be joined by fellow Carlton draftee Bridie Kennedy, who was drafted back in 2017 at pick No. 36.
After being delisted, Kennedy had a year off footy and was bouncing in between clubs before deciding to call Williamstown home.
“She’s been a player that we’ve been trying to chase for a couple of years and finally signed her, so [it’s] great news for us,” Cula-Reid said.
Having been mostly unsuccessful in the past, coaching the Gulls has been a bit of a different ball game for Cula-Reid, who coached Collingwood’s VFLW side in 2019, leading them to a premiership.
“Because Williamson hasn’t been successful, it’s really going to test me as a coach to find the balance between a non-aligned club who doesn’t have access and the resources to, I guess, the top level players, it’s now up to the coach to create this environment, this culture to get these girls to compete,” she said.
“Like we all know, [our players] are all coming from full time jobs or full time employment or study, and then we’ve got to play against part time athletes, and that’s the mentality that the boys had to do for many many years, but they’ve had success.”
“So how do I build that success from you know, using the men’s program as a foundation to build our program here at Williamstown in the women’s space?”
But with Williamstown having shown they are committed to strengthening the women’s program, Cula-Reid said, “there’s no other club that I would want to be a part of in trying to create equality across the industry.”
The VFLW season is set to kick off on Saturday, February 12, and will mark the league’s sixth season after its inception in 2016. The season’s fixture is yet to be released.
