BOASTING five top-age members in the Vic Metro summer hub and a squad that has the potential to push the best sides in the competition as shown by efforts last season, Northern Knights is a sleeping giant. The 2019 premiers have some exciting and versatile talents, and head coach Allana Dickie could not be more impressed by her side’s preseason.

PRESEASON

“Really strong preseason, really pumped with where the Knights players are at. We do a Christmas challenge over the preseason break which brings them together from a connection point of view, but also their accountability to get the work done when they’re away from training and that sort of thing. The buy-in to Christmas challenge this year was pretty impressive.

“They’ve all come back in really good condition, we’ve got a lot less injuries than we have previous seasons which is promising. I think because we’ve had such a strong bottom-age group over the previous seasons, our top-end group is pretty strong this year. We’ve got six in the summer hub for Metro this year which is pretty exciting.”

TOP-AGE VIC METRO HUB MEMBERS

Olivia Gorman
Midfielder/Forward | 168cm | 25/10/2007

“Liv Gorman’s had a little bit of a shoulder injury at the moment, but she’s been super diligent with her approach to rehab. She had a really strong backend of last year, so she’s been working extremely hard to get back into full training. She was one who played wing for us the previous season mainly. Then at the backend of last year we put her inside and you can see that she’s very strong around the ball, great user of the ball as well. She’s someone that we’re excited to see not just play inside, but she’ll roll forward and again she might have times where she goes back again.”

Marlo Graham
Midfielder/Forward | 164cm | 15/11/2007

“One that leads by example through her actions so her training standards and she’s very competitive. She’s just a super competitor and doesn’t like to get beaten, so it’s really cool watching her train and the way she trains because that lifts the standards of others around her. Excited to see what she can do this year, she’s had a really strong preseason and in good shape. For her we’re going to play her across a few different positions to also highlight what she can do so she won’t just play inside, she’ll play forward. She might even go back or even on the wing at times as well so we’re just going to show her versatility by playing her in different positions.”

Phoebe Hargreaves
Midfielder/Forward | 161cm | 15/07/2007

“Phoebe obviously came through our Futures program, she was in our leadership group last year. She actually got announced as our captain for this season. Phoebe is a phenomenal leader the way she goes about it. When she can’t be on the track it’s quite impressive, but she’s diligent with her rehab and we’re excited when she’s back full training and playing that she’s going to be able to have an impact for us. She’s had a bit of a rocky road but she’s got the right attitude and she’s impacting off-field when she can’t on-field, so pretty excited to see her play through the midfield and forward for us this year.”

Isobella Hishongwa-Gibb
Ruck/Forward | 181cm | 27/07/2007

“Bella’s been exciting to watch coming into the program. She’s played predominantly ruck-forward, but another one we’re going to try and show what she can do. She’s very good at reading the flight of the ball and intercept marking, so instead of just going forward to rest, we’re actually going to throw her back as well. She’s been working on her ability to get down the line for the long down the line kick which we’ve seen progress in, but she’s been impressive in her growth in her ruck craft so being able to adapt to what other rucks are doing.”

Scarlett Johnson
Tall Forward | 175cm | 26/11/2007

“Scarlett is in the leadership group for the first time this year, which is really exciting. She was one of the leaders of our Christmas challenge groups and she’s a competitor. The way that she drove her group to maintain high standards over that Christmas break was pretty impressive, but she’s been working really hard. She played mainly as a forward for us last year but his year she’ll play forward, go on the wing as well and sometimes that will mean she’ll go back as well. She’s extremely strong in the air, so being able to show that she can not just mark the ball on the lead in the forward 50, but also take some really strong intercept marks as well.”

>> PROFILED: 2025 Vic Metro summer hub

OTHERS TO WATCH

“There’s probably one who was probably unfortunate to miss out on Metro was Olivia Jesser. She had a back stress fracture the previous season, so she had a couple of really good games last year, probably didn’t have as much consistency as she probably would have liked. She’s one that I think has the potential to get a trial for Metro and she played predominantly as a midfielder in her Futures year when she came up and played a few games.

“She played mid/forward and we just found she’s quite dangerous in front of goals. She played predominantly as a forward for us last year, but there will be times where she will chop in through the midfield but highlight her goal sense because she’s pretty dangerous in front of goals, so she’s definitely one to keep an eye-on.”

KPI’S FOR THE SEASON

“We tend to pick one focus for the week and our KPIs will link back to that focus. One of our themes is we want to be competitive. So in the contest we might have a KPI that links to what that looks like. “

STYLE OF PLAY

“The way we want to play when we have the ball in our hands, last year we played a lot of kick-mark game so control of the footy. This year we are going to add a bit to that so we want to have a bit more run off half-back. We should see a bit more fast playing, catching the opposition from a counter when we win the ball and use that. Then defensively our tackling and our pressure last year was one of our weapons which we’ll continue to do this year. We want to be known for our pressure and our ability to win the ball back nice and quickly so I think we’ve just got a well-rounded style.”

ROUND 1

vs. Oakleigh Chargers
Sunday April 6, 12:40pm
Highgate Recreation Reserve