WITH an incredible eight players kicking three goals or more across Round 14, constructing a forwardline – let alone a full side – for our Coates Talent League Girls Team of the Week made for an incredibly difficult exercise. There were plenty of unlucky players to miss out, with Dandenong’s dominant win over Sandringham Dragons seeing the Stingrays pick up a league-high five representatives.

Outside the Stingrays, fellow winners Eastern Ranges, Murray Bushrangers and Greater Western Victoria (GWV) Rebels all recorded three, as losing sides Bendigo Pioneers, Gippsland Power and Tasmania Devils finished with two apiece. Winners Geelong Falcons and Western Jets were unlucky to just have the one, but showed the even spread across their respective teams.

The Jets’ representative was a pretty big one though, coming in the form of our Team of the Week captain, Piper Dixon. Playing at half-forward and roaming up the ground, she recorded a whopping 35 disposals, five marks, four tackles, seven clearances, nine inside 50s and kicked 1.2 in the win over Tasmania.

Devils midfielder Matilda Lange racked up 29 disposals and 10 clearances, also kicking a go-ahead goal early in the fourth term, as Team of the Week regular Ava Read found her place at full-back once more. Next to her was Bendigo Pioneers’ Issy Boulton who also helped herself to 35 touches, as well as eight rebound 50s in defeat to Murray Bushrangers. An opponent in Murray’s Rain Dodd was named in the other back pocket after providing run and carry for her side and kicking a nice goal to-boot.

Dodd was one of three Bushies in the side with Ellie Hall‘s 37 disposals enough to earn a spot on the wing as a league-high effort for Round 14. Though she played midfield and defence, Hall was only nudged out there due to some massive clearance players. The on-ball group wrote itself with Lange teaming up with Eastern’s Brylee Anderson (33 disposals, 12 tackles, 10 clearances and seven inside 50s) and Geelong’s Stella Huxtable (35 disposals, 13 clearances) to make it 33 clearances between the three centre square players.

The other Murray player in the team was Skylah McPherson who was lively with three goals from 19 touches and four tackles in attack. Also on the bench was Oakleigh’s sole representative in Isabelle Godfrey (24 touches off a wing), while Northern Knights were the other team with just one player in the side, that being midfielder-turned-defender Katelyn Busuttil (21 disposals, seven marks and four rebound 50s) at half-back.

Ranges winger Georgia Kavanagh was electric on the outside going forward in the win over Northern, while Mathilde Wilkinson booted three goals from 15 disposals, four clearances and three inside 50s. Also in attack is GWV Rebels tall Tilly Stringer (21 disposals, nine tackles, eight hitouts and three goals), while Dandenong Stingrays duo Evelyn Connolly (two goals from 20 touches, eight marks and six inside 50s) and Lillian Snow (two goals from 19 disposals, six marks, three clearances and four inside 50s) also made it into the front six.

Completing the attack is Gippsland Power’s Abby Hobson who slotted another three goals from 20 touches and five marks, while up the other end, National Academy member Ella Stoddart was named at half-back following her 24 disposals, four marks, six tackles and nine rebound 50s. In a win over the Power, GWV Rebels had an additional two players to Stringer in the squad, being ruck Kate Knight (!2 disposals, 27 hitouts, four clearances, six tackles and a goal) and damaging midfielder/forward Maggie Johnstone (16 disposals, three marks and 3.3).

Rounding out the squad are the remaining three bench players in Dandenong Stingrays forwards Alice Cunnington and Kiara Triep – who both booted three goals – and Bendigo Pioneers’ Lacey Nihill who caught the eye through her side’s loss to the Bushrangers. The three emergencies for Round 14 were Murray’s Sophia Green (31 disposals, three tackles and four clearances), GWV Rebels’ midfielder Scarlett O’Donnell (20 touches, six tackles, six clearances and six inside 50s) and Geelong skipper Georgia Tyrrell (24 disposals, 11 tackles, six clearances, three inside 50s and four rebound 50s).

2025 COATES TALENT LEAGUE GIRLS TEAM OF THE WEEK: ROUND 14

B: Rain Dodd (Murray Bushrangers) – Ava Read (Tasmania Devils) – Issy Boulton (Bendigo Pioneers)
HB: Scarlett Marsh (Dandenong Stingrays) – Ella Stoddart (Gippsland Power) – Katelyn Busuttil (Northern Knights)
C: Ellie Hall (Murray Bushrangers) – Brylee Anderson (Eastern Ranges) – Georgia Kavanagh (Eastern Ranges)
HF: Piper Dixon (Western Jets) (c) – Abby Hobson (Gippsland Power) – Lillian Snow (Dandenong Stingrays)
F: Evelyn Connolly (Dandenong Stingrays) – Tilly Stringer (GWV Rebels) – Mathilde Wilkinson (Eastern Ranges)
R: Kate Knight (GWV Rebels) – Stella Huxtable (Geelong Falcons) – Matilda Lange (Tasmania Devils)
INT: Alice Cunnington (Dandenong Stingrays) – Isabelle Godfrey (Oakleigh Chargers) – Maggie Johnstone (GWV Rebels) – Skylah McPherson (Murray Bushrangers) – Lacey Nihill (Bendigo Pioneers) – Kiara Triep (Dandenong Stingrays)

EMG: Sophia Green (Murray Bushrangers) – Scarlett O’Donnell (GWV Rebels) – Georgia Tyrrell (Geelong Falcons)