AFTER a tough 2021 season, Yeronga South Brisbane will certainly be hoping to return to the heights of their premiership winning year of 2020.

However, this offseason certainly has not been easy for the Devils, with the recent floods affecting them particularly badly.

New coach Lexi Edwards said that before the floods a month ago, preseason was going very well for the Devils. They were getting good numbers and tearing up the track, then the floods hit and things became a lot harder.

“Our ground is right by the Brisbane River, so we’ve actually had all our clubrooms and all of our facilities flooded from the floods a months ago, and currently we still have no power at the ground,” Edwards said. “We haven’t been at our home ground since the 14th February, and we had an intra club on the 21st, so we haven’t been back there since.”

After winning the flag in 2020, the Devils slipped down the ladder in 2021 and missed the finals all together. Edwards gave an insight as to the issues that her side faced last year that might have caused the slide down the ladder.

“I think last year was a struggle for a lot of the girls,” she said. “Because we played in a Grand Final and won it in 2020, we didn’t finish until probably mid October, and trying to turn around with a short preseason. We actually lost half our premiership side from 2020 to 2021, so it was just about making sure that we have some stability with the players. We haven’t lost any of the players from last year to thus year, which is awesome we’ve been able to carry that through.

“We’ve tried to really work on our contested footy. I felt like last year that was probably one of our biggest weaknesses. Just trying to get the ball out of the traffic and trying to play the way we want to work, and using the girls weapons.”

There are a few new faces at the Devils this season.

Sarah and Courtney Browne have both come down from Toowoomba and were playing at Jindalee. They are defenders who can roll up to the wing.

Charlotte Taylor has come across from Wilston Grange, and will provide support to the midfield run of the Devils. Defender Georgia Hewitt has also come across from Victoria Point.

Although she’s hoping a few Yeronga players will have breakout years this year, Edwards thinks there is one particular Devil with some famous siblings that should have a great year this year.

“Hopefully there’s a few,” she said. “Adrienne Keeffe is ready for a breakout season. Our tall forward, this is her third year of playing footy. She’s actually the sister of Lachie Keefe from GWS and Jessy the ex-Lions AFLW player. This is her third year, she played QAFLW last year with me in the forward line, sort of a marking forward role there, and she’s been doing some extra training with the Lions Level 4 Academy as well, so she’s ready to go for a ripping season.”

The Devils had a few practice matches in the lead up to Round 1. Alongside an intra-club match, they also played against Aspley and Coorparoo.