Coach still open to surprises out of seniors

VFLW ROUND 1

GEELONG VFL Women’s coach Paul Hood says he would love to find the next Tom Stewart equivalent hidden in AFL Barwon’s senior women’s competition.

While the Cats finalised their VFLW list of 40 this week ahead of Sunday’s season opener against Melbourne Uni, Hood said there would still be opportunities for local stars to force their way into the squad.

Stewart capped a meteoric there is anyone starring regularly in the AFL Barwon comp, the first thing we’ll do is get them down to training and see how they go, and then there’s the opportunity to put them on,” Hood said.

“I really hope we can do that. From our point of view, if we’ve missed someone, if there’s someone out there that can add to the squad then that would be a really great thing.”

Hood admitted to making some tough calls over the offseason, forced to release some players that were staples in last year’s squad.

“It’s been a significant chal- lenge to let some players go,” he said.

“There have been some players that we let go in the last couple of weeks that acquitted themselves well over the summer, trained really hard and improved their games.

“But unfortunately in elite programs that scomes with the territory from time to time.

“What is fantastic now is we can see those players in the AFL Barwon competition, see how they’re going, measure them up with our players that return back to play there and as that continues to evolve, we’ll get a really good lie on who’s who in the zoo as far as that goes.

“We’ve got a list of 40 that we’re really pleased with, five youngsters as well and a couple of players from out of town that have come down, which is terrific.

“A bit of turnover, which means hopefully our group is getting stronger each year.”

Erin Hoare and Anna Teague have both committed to the Cats’ VFLW program, but are overseas at the moment, while Richelle Cranston is ready to kick off the new season.

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