WESTERN Jets have an exciting group of bottom-agers to support their sole top-age Vic Metro hub member, with Admin and Operations Coordinator Amelia Fawcett pleased with the group’s preseason. In the final team preview for the competition, Fawcett discusses some of the players to watch and what to expect from the Jets in 2025.

PRESEASON

“The girls have obviously got a little bit of change ahead in the next few weeks. We carried the list that we started with in preseason with the girls. They’ve had some consistency with the staffing across coaching and support staff now. They’ve probably had one of the best preseasons that I’ve seen with them in my time at the Jets and they had their final practice match on Friday night and they finished with a pretty strong performance over Calder which I was pretty happy with and pretty happy to see.”

TOP-AGE VIC METRO HUB MEMBERS

Alex McBride-Loane
Defender/Ruck | 174cm | 03/04/2007

“Alex has probably been the strongest of that top-age group since her time in the Futures program. She’s obviously involved with Vic Metro.”

>> PROFILED: Vic Metro Girls summer hub

“A tall defender with an enormous vertical leap, McBride-Loane looms as the standout Western Jets top-ager this season, and the only one – alongside bottom-ager Boyd – in the Vic Metro hub. Able to clunk some huge grabs, McBride-Loane competed through the ruck against players 10cm taller thanks to her natural athleticism. Once she has the ball, McBride-Loane drives it down the ground to transition the ball quickly.” – Peter Williams

OTHERS TO WATCH

“Charli Sette who we scouted from Point Cook Centrals as a top-ager last year and is coming into the program as a 19-year-old for 2025. She spent the preseason with Williamstown VFLW side and has actually gotten a contract with Williamstown. She’ll play out the early part of the year with us as an over-ager and we’ll explore Metro opportunities and then VFLW opportunities for her. She’ll be one to watch. “Then Polly Conway would be another one, potential strong VFLW interest if she performs well across these early games.

BOTTOM-AGERS

“Kiara Boyd is in the Vic Metro again like Alex, has probably been that strong best player in her age group for a number of years. Probably competes a lot better than some of our top-age players. She’ll be the obvious ones to watch in the bottom-age group.

Piper Dixon is a bit like Kiara, has been the strongest in her age group across local football before she came to us as well in our program. There’s a little bit to work on which we’re working with her more closely both support and coaching staff to work on those RFIs for her, but she has some pretty showy football skills and good forward craft that we look to see her play in 2025. She’s currently got a broken finger so she won’t play in the early part of the season until that’s sorted.

“The other one to watch whose been involved in programs a little bit in the Futures Girls program is a player by the name of Jacinta Etetuati. She was involved in the Under 16s girls Vic Metro program and took some time away from football last year with us and went back and played local footballer. She’s of Pacific Islander descent and she was probably one of our best players in our practice match on Friday night. She’ll be another bottom-ager to track pretty closely we imagine for any opportunities that pop up for her. Comes from a pretty strong netball background like Kiara, so pretty good in the air and her athleticism is top notch.”

OVER-AGERS

“We’ve got four 19-year-olds, two of those have been players in our program for a couple of years so Hannah Brodie has been with us since her Future Girls program and Olivia Castello will come back for a second year and then we’ve got Charli and another girl in their first year in the program.”

SEASON EXPECTATIONS

“At the end of the day they’re going to have a new coach in probably two or three weeks time so it will look a lot different for them and I think for me the most important part for them is settling in with their new coach and understanding the gameplan of the new coach and new experiences and fresh ideas for the girls. Hopefully they can get a couple of strong performances that if they don’t get the win they’ve showed us what they’re capable.

“At the end of the day I’m not phased by the win-loss ratio, I would hope that we could have one drafted at the end of the year, fingers crossed and there might be a few others that pop up, but I think for our top-age group it’s the VFLW opportunities that we can try and explore for them and move them into further state pathway programs.”

ROUND 1

vs. Calder Cannons
Sunday April 6, 10:30am
Highgate Recreation Reserve

“Pretty confident we’ve got one of our best teams that we can field for the year going into Round 1. We’ve had a pretty tough run with injuries in the preseason for the girls program, but we’ve turned a corner with that. I expect a pretty good contest, obviously the Cannons are a pretty similar regional program to us in terms of participation rates and challenges. A lot of the girls know each other through local football, school or interleague programs, so their style of play in a lot of ways is very similar and they’re probably our biggest challenge across the year because it’s always a good contest against them, so that’s probably what to expect for this weekend.”