Koroit's inaugural female football team won't forget its history-making win on Sunday, April 14, in a hurry.
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The Saints' under 15 girls team hit the field for the first time in the Western Victoria Female Football League and marked the occasion with a 5.9 (39) to 1.0 (6) victory against South Warrnambool at Friendly Societies' Park.
It was a strong reward for the hard work and dedication of the players and volunteers in building the side from the ground up, according to mentor Damian Coolahan.
Coolahan coaches the side with Joe McLaren as his assistant.
"It was really good to see. Most of the girls are new to the game and yesterday was their first proper game of footy," he said.
"The best thing was they have been taking it on board from training and they were all really excited. They were chomping at the bit.
"After they won, they sang the song really loudly which was great for them."
The Saints, who announced Hannah Gleeson and Zoe Dobson as co-captains before the match, slowly got the game on their terms with Coolahan singling out the "tackling pressure" from all the players.
He said their skills would continue to improve as they understood the game more.
"The tackling pressure was great and I'm lucky to have Joey McLaren, he's got great knowledge of the game," he said.
"Girls footy can get congested at times so the main focus is to try and get the ball out in the open with handballs.
"For us, the main objective first hand is to keep building on what they've learnt and introduce a few ways to play. It's basic footy at the moment and teaching the fundamentals.
"Once they improve they'll pick up other skills."
Coolahan said seeing the enthusiasm and interest in building the club's first female football team made it worth it.
"For me, I'm originally a Terang boy and moved to Koroit 18 months ago and I took on the coaching role, so from the start it was a wait and see kind of thing," he said.
"But we had 20 players yesterday with three under 12 girls. All the girls have been really keen with their training and you could see how excited they were."
Nick Creely
Sports reporter with The Standard
Sports reporter with The Standard
