TIM’S POSITIVE GAME PLAN

GEELONG Amateur coach Tim McGrath says he will not send extra players into defence against North Geelong on Sunday, despite his club’s desire to be in Division 1 after the grading rounds.

The Magpies — who won last year’s AFL Goldfields premiership — are expected to be the benchmark in AFL Barwon’s first women’s competition, which kicks off on Sunday.

While Ammos’ season opener with the Pies will be used to grade the clubs before the 12-team competition is split in two, McGrath says his team will not play defensive footy. “I won’t do any of that,” he said. “We’re training our girls to play a good brand of footy. People are going to come and watch the women’s footy because they’re going to be intrigued by it.

“We want them to come along and watch and think, ‘Gee, isn’t this a good brand of footy’.

“We want to be able to play a game where we’ve got a chance to score, and score often, and that’s going to leave us open to get scored against too.”

McGrath believes female footballers should be taught “an old-school brand of footy”.

“Like they did in the ’90s — kick, mark, run past, take the game on and be able to defend a bit,” he said.

“Not tag and be negative and drop numbers behind the footy, because they don’t learn anything and it’s not pretty.

“People want to come and see good footy and, more importantly for the women, you want them to come back.”

— DAMIEN RACTLIFFE