{"id":76723,"date":"2021-02-23T18:58:29","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T08:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afl.draftcentral.localhost\/?p=76723"},"modified":"2021-02-23T20:56:27","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T10:56:27","slug":"finals-on-the-agenda-for-sturt-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2021\/02\/23\/finals-on-the-agenda-for-sturt-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Finals on the agenda for Sturt in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

WHILE South Australian National Football League (SANFL) Women’s has been a fantastic initiative for all eight SANFL clubs to be involved in, some sides have had more on-field success than others so far. In Sturt\u2019s three years playing in the SANFL Women\u2019s League, they are yet to make a finals appearance. Changing this record is high on the agenda of Sturt\u2019s senior women\u2019s coach Bruce Dawes<\/strong><\/em> in 2021, particularly following their capitulation after returning from the COVID-19 break last season.

\u201cPre-COVID, we were actually pretty happy with the way we were tracking,\u201d Dawes said. “We were 2-2 at that stage and felt the girls were making pretty good improvements. Having that break really interrupted us. Some girls chose not to come back post-COVID because work and different things changed for them, so after that we certainly didn\u2019t play the football we were hoping to play.\u201d

Sturt did not claim another victory for the 2020 season, concluding the year with two wins, seven losses, one draw and the lowest percentage in the competition, 25.04. This put them in sixth position, just one point ahead of bottom two clubs Woodville-West Torrens and Central District.

\u201cOverall, we were disappointed with the season, no doubt about it,\u201d Dawes said. \u201cYou always want to play finals, but I think we\u2019re moving in the right direction now.\u201d

Over the summer period, Dawes has put an emphasis on improving his players\u2019 fitness levels, along with some other key areas of SANFLW football.

\u201cPreseason\u2019s been really good, one thing we felt last year was that we weren’t as fit as we\u2019d like to have been, so there\u2019s certainly been a focus on fitness,\u201d Dawes said. \u201cAll of our GPS information is telling us that the girls have been working harder and their intensity is up, so that\u2019s been a real bonus for us. From there, it\u2019s just constant work on developing our skills and our game plan.\u201d

When asked about their game plan, Dawes said he wants to help his players to develop greater football IQ\u2019s and understand match situations when they are out in the heat of battle.

\u201cWe do a lot of work on our strategy type of stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to control the footy then get our timing right of when to go fast and when to go slow. That\u2019s what we\u2019re looking at trying to achieve this year.\u201d

As for Sturt\u2019s recruiting strategy this offseason, they have focused on bringing players into the SANFLW system rather than poaching from rival SANFLW clubs.

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone to the local clubs,\u201d Dawes said. \u201cWe were able to watch a few local games once our season had finished, and from that we were able to attract a few newer girls who are bit older and have played a little bit of football. A couple of girls from Uraidla, Molly Fletcher<\/strong> and Alisha Gepp<\/strong>, who have really added to our group. Another girl Jess Good<\/strong>, who played at Blackwood, is a tall ruckman that\u2019s come into the squad and been excellent for us. Chloe Forby<\/strong> came over from the Eagles, she\u2019s a little goer that plays small forward, she\u2019s added to the group as well.\u201d

At the Under 18 preseason testing day earlier this month, 2020 Club Champion Zoe Prowse<\/strong> revealed\u00a0that<\/a> she is planning to play as a midfielder for the Double Blues in 2021. This surprised some given her prowess and expertise as a ruck, but Dawes clarified their reasoning behind the move.

\u201cWe just want to try and develop Zoe\u2019s complete game,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s an outstanding athlete. Will she be a ruck at AFL level? She absolutely can be, no doubt, she has the athleticism to do it. But if we can add extra strings to her bow, where she could become a midfielder and then occasionally pinch hit in the ruck, that would really add to her talent as well.\u201d

As for Sturt players that fans should keep an eye on this season, Dawes had several names in mind.

\u201cA crowd favourite is Kate \u2018Buba\u2019 Harris<\/strong>\u2013 she\u2019s a hard-working half-forward that goes at everything, is intense and just loves the game, the group love her too, she’s outstanding,\u201d Dawes said. “Zoe Prowse, Alex Ballard<\/strong>, Georgia Swan<\/strong> and Hannah Prenzler<\/strong> are all in the State program, which is excellent for them. All of those girls have been really good.\u00a0A couple of left field ones [to keep an eye on]. New ruckman Jess Good<\/strong> is not a household name, but she\u2019ll be very handy for us. Maya Rigter<\/strong>, Isobel Kuiper<\/strong> and girls like that have always been consistent performers for us as well.\u201d

Although a finals berth is firmly on Dawes\u2019 mind, he knows this will be difficult to achieve in 2021 due to the strong competition in SANFLW.

\u201cOur goal is to play finals, no doubt about that,\u201d Dawes said. \u201cWe think we were on track last year before the wheels fell off a bit, but we really think the list we\u2019ve got now, the development the girls are putting in, and we\u2019re progressing to a stage where we think we can play finals. Things will have to go right for us to do that, it\u2019s a really tight competition that’s always constantly improving, so hopefully we’re improving a bit more than the other clubs.\u201d

Sturt\u2019s season begins on Saturday morning at X Convenience Oval when they take on Glenelg.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Picture credit:<\/strong> SANFL<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

For more SANFL Women’s news and analysis, follow Tom Cheesman on Twitter.<\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHILE South Australian National Football League (SANFL) Women’s has been a fantastic initiative for all eight SANFL clubs to be involved in, some sides have had more on-field success than others so far. In Sturt\u2019s three years playing in the SANFL Women\u2019s League, they are yet to make a finals appearance. Changing this record is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":72404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7638,3130,11604],"tags":[7761,15688,14581,7964,6332,8027,8230,4984,15687,7759],"class_list":["post-76723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sanflw","category-south-australia","category-sturt","tag-alex-ballard","tag-alisha-gepp","tag-bruce-dawes","tag-chloe-forby","tag-georgia-swan","tag-hannah-prenzler","tag-isobel-kuiper","tag-maya-rigter","tag-molly-fletcher","tag-zoe-prowse"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}