Sport
19 February, 2024
South girls make Rebels
SOUTH Warrnambool footballers Maggie Johnstone, Scarlett O’Donnell, Grace Schrama and Oliva Wolter have been named in the GWV Rebels under 18s Girls Squad.
The squad of 38 girls, for the 2024 Coates Talent League season, was announced yesterday (Thursday) by head coach Sally Riley.
“We are really excited to have arrived at our final list of 38 players,” Riley said.
“These girls have worked really hard in the preseason and have shown great growth and development in their skills.
“It’s so wonderful to see young women from across our Rebels region perform well at training and during trial games and now they have a real opportunity to take their football to the next level.”
Riley added that there were “many” young footballers who would now face a variety of obstacles across the season, but she believed they would relish every challenge and represent the GWV Rebels jumper with great pride.
“Outside of Ballarat we have had three satellite programs in the southwest, Warrnambool and Horsham regions, where girls have been under the watchful eye of some of our very experienced coaches,” Riley said.
“It’s wonderful to see that we have seven girls in our program for the very first time, they missed out on our 16s program, have gone back to local community football and really put their heads down and worked hard on their skill development,” she said.
“That’s the most pleasing thing about our girls, their willingness to learn, seek honest feedback and keep improving. The other exciting part of our squad is that two of our girls Tansy Seymour and Lucy Eales were a part of our development squad last year, didn’t miss a training in 2023 and have now made their way onto our playing list.”
The girls will soon come together as a full squad once a week in Ballarat, be part of the Coates Talent League testing day and a practice match against Geelong before round one under lights at GMHBA stadium against the Geelong Falcons in the annual Easter Thursday clash on April 28.