THIRTY-FIVE local women footballers had the chance to get up close and personal with players from the Richmond Victorian Football League Women’s (VFLW) team last week, when the Murray Bushrangers Football Club held their latest Next Generation Academy.
Murray Bushrangers female talent operations coordinator, Briana Cossar said, “The sessions are based on fundamental skills and drills with the aim of the program to further help develop the girls as players and young adults and to have fun. We have two more sessions that we will run this year, with the next two being held in the September school holidays for the current group of registered girls.
“Murray Bushrangers TAC Cup Girls coaches, Tim Madden, Jorja Daniel and Dean Walton have volunteered their time and expertise for the program. We are lucky to have such quality people involved to allow the girls to participate and learn the basic skills required to reach the highest level.
“The Richmond players in attendance at the academy were Lauren Tesoriero, who was drafted to Collingwood for the inaugural AFL Women’s (AFLW) season and played two seasons with Collingwood as well as Ella Ross who was drafted to GWS Giants and played the first AFLW season. They are both currently playing VFLW with Richmond.
“With the AFLW still in its infancy, it’s such an exciting time to be part of female football and for girls to now have the opportunity to participate should they choose to do so. It’s great to see so many girls involved at the junior level now and the growth across all female football, in general, has been phenomenal.”
