Old Collegians has been big on junior development this year and a 14-year-old got the opportunity to make her Warrnambool and District league A grade debut on Saturday.
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Coach Jess Toleman explained Warriors' goalie Bec Kavanagh came off with a knee niggle in the opening minutes of the 50-39 win against South Rovers at Davidson Oval.
She noted Kavanagh would likely return to court this Saturday.
It meant the Warriors needed someone to step up and goalie Hannah van de Camp - who normally plays 15 and under - came on court.
"We put her on for a few minutes and she held her own so we kept her on," Toleman said.
The teenager scored three goals and switched between goal attack and goal shooter.
The Warriors mentor said fellow goalie Chelsea Quinn and midcourter Jemmah Lynch offered great support to the youngster.
"They worked well as a unit to bring Hannah into the game," she said.
Van de Camp's debut came after Ziggy Wright - who also came up from 15 and under - made her senior debut about a month ago.
Toleman said the group was still striving for consistency with a clash against Kolora-Noorat in round eight.
Reigning premier Merrivale has a grand final rematch coming up with Nirranda after its 56-23 victory against Allansford.
Tigers coach Elisha Sobey took the opportunity to try some different combinations as defender Kelsey Perry (wisdom teeth) was out and Cloe Pulling wasn't feeling well and didn't play much of the game.
Sobey is expecting Perry to be right for round eight.
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Recruit Jess McKenzie saw more court time and thrived at wing defence.
"She played a full game and she was our best on court she was really good," Sobey said.
"We worked on a lot of things on Thursday night with her and she executed everything I asked her to do.
"So that was really nice to see and she's one who really wants to prove herself being at a new club as well."
Cats coach Bridget Foster felt her side had a solid third quarter after a slow start.
"We're taking a bit too long to get into the game but I felt that was probably our best one (quarter) - we were better at letting the ball go, our defensive pressure went up a bit," she said.
"Our conversion is probably killing us at the moment.
"But we're still hanging in there in terms of game play, we're not dropping our heads, we're just taking it week-by-week really."
In other matches, Nirranda defeated Dennington 61-14, Panmure smashed Russells Creek 62-16 and Timboon Demons scored a big 76-20 victory over Kolora-Noorat.
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