A NEW year, a new-look West Adelaide side will enter the 2022 South Australian National Football League (SANFL) Women’s competition, but one thing that has not changed according to youngster Zoe Venning is the playing group’s positivity.

The Westies inside midfielder is one of many experiencing the first year of massive change with new and additional coaches, such as head coach Bruce Dawes replacing Mark Moody. A number of players have transitioned to AFL Women’s level, while others have sought other pastures. But at the same time, plenty of fresh faces have entered the program, and Venning is excited by what 2023 could bring.

“It’s good, it’s different,” Venning said. “I loved our other coach Moods, but it’s very different training structures, different vibe. He’s (Dawes) obviously bringing in different techniques for us to learn, and it’s also different with the development squad, we’ve got more coaches.

“There’s a bigger group of us now, so if you want to work one-on-one with the coaches it’s easier to do that. If you want to work on aspects of your game, which is good. I liked our old coach but I like the new stuff we’re doing now as well.”

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Despite West Adelaide going on an 11-game losing streak after celebrating a thrilling Round 1 win over eventual premiers North Adelaide, Venning said the players had not dropped their heads last season.

“What I loved was just like no one got negative, I still wanted to go to footy training, I still wanted to go play the games,” Venning said. “It’s not like every game I went ‘oh we’re going to lose’, I honestly thought we had a chance no matter who we verse and I think this year with some important ins back in, getting a bit more of that leadership between everyone, I think we’re set for a really good season and we haven’t lost our positivity since I’ve been at Westies.”

Venning said the key to a strong 2023 season was focusing on “elite habits”. A competitive onballer herself, the tough inside midfielder said she wanted the team to be competitive each and every week, improving as the season went on. She had noticed a chance at training over the preseason which leaves her optimistic about what the year could bring.

“I feel there’s such a shift in training, we don’t want to be the bottom team, we want to be ‘oh my God we’re versing Westies’ we want to be almost feared by other clubs,” Venning said. “We look at clubs we go ‘we don’t want to verse them’, we want to be that club and want to take on everyone so I think our mental state and changing how we feel is really shifted. Everyone’s speaking not as if we’re a bottom team, let’s try and win this team, let’s make finals and we’re back into that mentality that we had two seasons ago.”

West Adelaide will be buoyed by the return of top AFL Women’s draft prospect Lauren Young from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and and 2021 captain Bec Owen (maternity leave). Though Beatrice Devlyn (Woodville-West Torrens) is among those departing the club, the Bloods have been able to recruit some experience in Sturt’s Allani Dawes, Central District’s Paige Allan and former North Adelaide sharpshooter Kelly Barltrop. Perhaps the biggest coup of the lot was ex-Tiger and Magpie Iilish Ross who has relocated to the state.

On a more personal level, Venning said she hoped to continue to expand her game with the inside midfielder a strong contested ball-winner, but was looking to add more strings to her bow, such as hitting the scoreboard.

“My dad’s actually the midfield coach now at Westies which is weird. Well, not weird, he’s been my coach for a while,” Venning said. “It just depends what Bruce (Dawes) wants, I’ve also played high half-forward. I prefer playing as a midfielder but I like going up forward and try and kick some goals. I think I’ll be playing both those roles, maybe even on the outside of it as well, which is fun, we’ll see. I don’t really know yet, we haven’t talked about it much at the moment.”

“I’ve always got quite a lot of feedback on what I need to work on and what I need to do to get to the next level and it’s mainly just kicking, but being an attacking forward, scoring. Which good midfielders score goals, which is a motto I have for myself, is that I need to be getting on the scoreboard, so I’ve been practicing some forward entries and with our new forward structure at training we do a lot of that stuff, so I’ve been really working on crumbing and trying to kick goals, that’s my goal for this season coming up, getting on the scoreboard.”

Venning has not lost the belief that she could compete at the top level, and with an AFL Women’s Overage Draft coming up, followed by the annual AFL Women’s Draft at the end of the year, there are more chances than ever to reach the elite competition.

“For me it’s important to have goals, individually and as a team,” Venning said. “I have my team goals and then I have my individual goals and I think if I don’t push myself to want to push myself to the next level, I’m not going to get the best out of myself. Even if that’s not what’s happened the past two years, I still want to achieve that.

“A lot of my friends have gone to that next level and I want to be there with them, but I also want our team to grow, I’m quite Westies focus. I love the club and I want us to be back in that premiership side because that’s all when we play our best footy I feel, when we’re being successful.”

West Adelaide will be looking to win its first game in 12 months when it hosts Glenelg at Hisense Stadium on Saturday, February 18 from midday.