By Mikayla van Loon
Eight players from Mount Evelyn Football Club have been selected to play for the Eastern Ranges in the upcoming NAB league season.
This is a record number of players chosen to represent the Mount Evelyn junior and senior clubs, something junior girls vice president Ben Thiele said was an incredible effort.
“We’re really thrilled because a large group of the girls have come through playing all of their football together. To see that they get the opportunity to play at the top level in the underage competition in Victoria is fantastic,” he said.
With 25 junior clubs and 35 senior clubs the Eastern Ranges recruit from across the Eastern Football Netball League and the AFL Outer East, Mr Thiele said it was unbelievable to have so many of Mount Evelyn’s key players selected.
“For us to have eight players out of I think it’s about 35 or 45 listed is exceptional,” he said.
“We’re extremely proud of our girls and the way they conduct themselves and the way they’ve worked really hard to keep their fitness up and get the opportunity to actually play at the best level.”
To top it off, Bridget Deed was also named captain of the under 19s Eastern Ranges team, with the other players chosen being Caitlin Hoskin, Amelie Moore, Gabby Woods, Bridie Burton, Matilda Kelly, Jessica Hoskin and Sky Wilson.
Mr Thiele said the girls are spread right across the ground, each filling different roles and playing to their strengths.
“The girls are uniquely talented and we’ve got some really good in and under players but also quite handy on the outside. We’ve got some great defenders that have gone down there as well and a couple key forwards, so the flexibility within the girls is really great.”
Mount Evelyn Football Club, both juniors and seniors, is committed to providing girls with the best women’s program to get them into representative teams but also hopefully the VFL and AFL.
“We make sure that there is the potential for each of the players from senior down to juniors to be the best they can be,” Mr Thiele said.
“We were extremely successful last year, both as a senior club but also as a junior club. We finished on top of the ladder in all grades last year, from under 12s, under 14s and under 16s, and then the senior club as well went through the entire season undefeated, which we’re really proud of.”
Not only did Mr Thiele say that came down to the work ethic of each of the players on the teams but also the coaches and staff who helped guide them.
The Eastern Ranges season is planned to finish up at the end of March or early April and Mr Thiele said he hopes the five girls who were from the under 18s teams will be able to represent the club again next year.
“A couple of players will hopefully get the opportunity to play further down the line with the VFL, which I believe Bridge is going to be playing with Casey.
“The other girls will come back to play at Mount Evelyn with the under 18s and a lot of them get the opportunity hopefully to represent the Rangers again next year and then the opportunity to nominate for the draft and potentially see a couple of our girls getting drafted.”
The selection of the eight players has set the club a challenge to improve its women’s program even more and aim for a higher number of girls being selected to play at the Eastern Ranges in the future.
“They set the record now at eight, which is remarkable but as a club, we want to extend that. If we can get 10 girls down there in a couple of years time or 12 that would be absolutely phenomenal,” Mr Thiele said.
With the normal football season approaching, Mr Thiele said he would like to invite boys, girls, men and women to try out football.
“We believe we’ve got a great program there to see people develop and be the best they can.”
