THE 2022 VFL Women’s season is almost here, so it is time to take a look at each of the competing teams and see where they sit as another season approaches. Today, Rookie Me Central runs a scope over Essendon, who made the preliminary final stage in 2021.

2021 was a pretty good season for Essendon in terms of results.

Although the Bombers lost their first match of the season to the Southern Saints, they then went on to win their next three matches in what was a campaign of ebbs and flows.

In the last month of the season, they lost to the Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne, before beating Williamstown and Darebin to round out the season.

This meant Essendon ultimately finished in fifth on the ladder. They finished equal with fourth-placed Casey in terms of wins, but percentage relegated them to fifth.

It saw the Bombers thrown up in an elimination final on the first weekend of the finals, which saw them defeat Casey in a nail-biter. They then lost to Collingwood in the semi final, but because of the way the top six works, their season was not done yet.

They then faced Geelong in a preliminary final, which unfortunately for Bombers fans resulted in a loss, and their season was done there.

Heading into 2022, Brendan Major remains coach but they have co-captains this time around. 2021 skipper Georgia Nanscawen has been joined in the role by veteran and former AFLW player Mia-Rae Clifford.

Major was pleased with how preseason went for his side.

“Preseason’s been really good,” he said. “We’ve had an influx of new players to the club which is really exciting and our old players have come back in really good nick, so it’s been exciting. There’s probably too many players to pinpoint one or two. Obviously Georgia Nanscawen, being a league B&F is exciting but the co-captain in Mia-Rae Clifford has come back in really, really good nick and has been training the house down.”

Major listed a number of the new recruits that will wear the red and black for the first time in 2022.

“Renee Tierney is going to play up forward, she’ll be really exciting. We’ve got Bella Ayre from Bendigo is going to come in, she’ll come in in the middle of the season. Jordan Zanchetta from Queensland, Sarah Ford from GWS, so we’ve got even Bella Clarke coming down from Darwin, (she) looks like a really exciting player.”

Despite the frustrations of how the season ultimately ended, Major was pleased with how the season went.

“I thought last year was really exciting,” he said. “The players started to get on field success that reflected how hard they were working off field. So, it was really to watch them as a group start to get the success they’d worked for. Obviously not quite getting to the end was frustrating, it was probably more frustrating that the no crowd and things like that for the prelim final didn’t create as big of a celebration as it probably deserved. So, lots of positives, lots of things to work on, it was a good year.”

Nanscawen echoed many of Major’s thoughts on how the season went.

“As a team the most important thing for us is growth, and over the three years of our being in the competition and playing we’ve certainly had that,” she said. “So to just miss out on the Grand Final, I think we were very proud of, obviously it was disappointing to not get there. So certainly this year that’s the obvious next step, is to make that Grand Final and just keep developing as a group which we’ve already seen is happening in our preseason.”

When asked about whether the imminent introduction of an Essendon AFLW side into the mix changes anything for them this VFLW season, Major shook his head and said the focus is all on VFLW.

“Ultimate goal is to win a premiership,” he said. “AFLW is an exciting time for the sport, it’s an exciting time for the club, the supporters, that’s fantastic, and creates a real buzz around the place but for us it’s about winning VFL games of football and it’s about developing footballers, putting our best foot forward every week. So we’ve got Bulldogs Round 1, that’s going to be a really difficult matchup for us so we’re just looking six days ahead.”

Nanscawen agreed.

“I mean it obviously adds another element to everything but the main focus is performing well as a team and keep developing and if we can make the Grand Final and go one step further this year that would be the ultimate goal,” she said. “But yeah, there’s certainly going to be a number of factors in play this year and I think that just adds to the excitement of it all.”

The Bombers had two practise matches this preseason, once against the Hawks and the other against Casey.

Speaking on the Casey match, both coach and captain were pleased with how the match went for their side and were pleased with how the side used the ball and their ball movement.

They will be able to put that into good practice this weekend when they come up against the Wester Bulldogs in Round 1.