By Tara Murray
Westbourne Grammarians are going from strength to strength with their women’s program in the Victorian Amateur Football Association.
After reforming a women’s side last season, the Grammarians have had some good growth as they step onto the field for season two of the new era.
Co-coach Ian Allan said they were thrilled with how everything was tracking.
“It’s going fantastic,” he said. “We’ve added over 20 new players and that’s where it starts from.
“The aim was to recruit some players after having an understanding from last year when everything was new to us.
“The aim was to get better this season and keep the core group together and recruit some players to have some more support around them..”
Allan thinks they have got a good balance with their side this season and have more than 50 players to go across their two sides.
He said they had good depth across both their sides, something they lacked at times last year.
While it’s the Grammarians second season in the competition, there has been a lot of change in the premier B competition.
At this stage there are five new teams.
“There were two up and two down,” he said of most of the new teams. “We still don’t have that full understanding of what teams we are against.
“We know a few of the teams and where we are at with them and where we are aiming to be at their level and beyond.
“The new teams motivate us and drive us to be competitive and even stronger in 2025.”
The Grammarians started the season with a win and loss.
Allan said they had been surprised how well the group had gelled together. He said they were on track for where they wanted to be.
“They’ve started to get the feel of each other on and off the field,” he said. “We got beaten by Old Brighton which was the division 1 premiers last year .
“We got beat but there were so many positives. We know where we were this time last year and where we are now.
“It’s amazing how much growth that we’ve had.”
As well as having some success on the field with improvement, the Grammarians have formed a partnership with Newport Power.
The Power’s junior girls will flow into the senior program at the Grammarians.
Allan said it was a great pathway that had been created by the two clubs.
“It’s really working well,” he said. “It gives those parents and players somewhere they know where they can play in the future.
“We have that vision of being a destination club in the west. It’s exciting for both clubs and strengths football in the west.”
