THE Sandringham Dragons secured their fourth win of the 2022 NAB League Girls season on Monday, with plenty to like out of their 30-point drubbing of the Northern Knights. It was the Dragons’ midfield mix which set an ominous tone from the first ball-up, and Rookie Me Central analyst Declan Reeve was lucky enough to catch up with three of the region’s prime movers – Keely Coyne, Sofia Hurley, and Tayla Jones – after their Round 8 victory, all of whom he coached as juniors.

In the cordial Q&A, the trio gave their thoughts on their performance, discuss the things Sandringham has worked on after a couple of defeats, and what they will look to showcase in the back-end of the season.

Q&A

Declan Reeve (DR): Keely, Sofia, Tayla – how are you all feeling about your performance today?

Keely Coyne (KC): “Really good. It was a good overall team performance and I thought we all worked really hard.”
Tayla Jones (TJ): I thought we did alright, we got to put a lot of our skills to show today, we got to link up really well through the backs, mids and the forwards so that was good.”
Sofia Hurley (SH): “I think we did well because it was really hot at the start – I don’t know about you guys but I was dying at the start, so it was good to still come out hard.”

DR: You guys started the year really well but came up against two really good sides in the Eastern Ranges and Western Jets. Has there been anything specific that you as a team have worked on after those games?

TJ: “We’ve definitely worked on something we call starter’s gun – making sure we sprint out whenever there’s a stoppage so we can get forward. Obviously effort, and just making sure that we keep up out effort throughout the whole game because we’ve let a few good opportunities slide.”
SH: “Just consistency and effort, that’s been most of our drills and stuff like that at training. And like Tayla said, A (attack) to D (defence) transition, just running both ways.”

DR: Sofia, you’ve obviously spent a bit more time forward in the last couple of weeks than you usually would. Has that been a planned transition that you knew would happen at the start of the year, or maybe something that has come on the back of advice from AFL clubs and Metro coaches?

SH: “That was planned. At the start of the year I said I wanted to play some time forward if I could so that was planned. It’s been good, I’ve liked the forward transition.”

DR: Tayla, you’ve finally gotten your move to the inside. How do you feel you’ve performed with that change?

TJ: “Look, it’s taken a while to get used to it, obviously playing on the outside for about four years now. But I’ve loved it and Sofia and Keels have definitely made my transition a lot easier, just telling me where to stand and I think we’ve started linking up pretty well.”

DR: Keely, you’ve looked a lot more composed with the ball – not that you weren’t before, but it seems to have gone to another level. Has that been something you’ve worked on or something that’s come naturally?

KC: “Probably just naturally, just slowing down and assessing options I suppose.”

DR: For the three of you, do you have anything in particular you’d like to improve on in the last couple of games?

TJ: “Not rushing it. When we get on our bike and we get the ball moving, we do tend to turn around and try and run and get caught holding the ball, so we just need to come back, assess our options and hit up those kicks because we can hit targets and we’ve got some very talented forwards.”
SH: “I think the composure, but also just going at the same level of effort for the whole four quarters, which I reckon we’ve been getting better at.”
KC: “Yeah, just that consistency for the whole four quarters is probably one I’m working on.”

This coming Sunday, Coyne and Hurley will be among five Sandringham Dragons set to don the Big V and represent Vic Metro at the Under 18 National Championships. Meanwhile, the remaining Dragons also turn out on Sunday in a clash against Calder Cannons at Highgate Recreation Reserve.