Roos get the jump on more Tassie talents
NORTH Melbourne’s AFLW side continues to attract the cream of the Tassie crop with two more locals joining this week. Tasmanian football hall of famer and ex-Brisbane and Western Bulldogs player Trent Bartlett (pictured left) joins the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos as an assistant coach, while Jacqueline Liffiton (right) will be a high-performance co-ordinator at the club.
THE Tasmanian connection to North Melbourne’s AFLW side continues to become stronger with a Tasmanian football hall of famer set to join the club in a coaching role.
Former Brisbane and Western Bulldogs player Trent Bartlett will join the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos as an assistant coach.
It was also announced that Jacqueline Liffiton will join the AFLW side as its high-performance co-ordinator — an expansion of the role she holds at AFL Tasmania as senior women’s strength and conditioning coach.
As with many players, Bartlett and Liffiton will split their time between Melbourne and Tasmania with the former Clarence coach excited at his new opportunity.
“It’s a unique opportunity for the girls and to be able to have them still based in Tassie but be involved in an elite level environment at North Melbourne and compete in AFLW is really exciting,” Bartlett said.
“We will have satellite training in the North and South of the state and then bring those girls together once a week to train. Scott Gowans [senior coach] and other coaches will be coming down very regularly to be engaged with the group down here.”
After the signing of Jessie Williams last week, North has five Tasmanians on its AFLW list — Maddison Smith, Brittany Gibson, Daria Bannister, Emma Humphries and Williams — a clear sign of the upward progression of women’s football in the state.
“Women’s football was very much in the background when I started in Tasmania four or five years ago and now it’s something I see on par with the boys and on the way to getting that equal attention,” Liffiton said.
Bartlett said the club had put in place plans for several camps split between the two states over the pre-season as a way to incorporate the entire playing and coaching group together as one club with the venue of the Roos’ Tasmanian games still yet to be announced.
“North Hobart is probably a logical one in the South given the cricket season at Blundstone, but I think a game at either end of the state is fair,” Bartlett said.