Tara Murray
Gisborne is already making steps forward to get its women’s side back on the park for next season.
The Bulldogs had to withdraw their women’s side from the Essendon District Football League season due to a lack of players.
The Bulldogs have announced that Bernadette Marantelli will oversee the women’s football coaching program and take on the senior coaching role in 2025.
Marantelli started playing in 1983 and played in nine premierships and won two league best and fairest and several club best and fairests.
She also represented Victoria as a player and coach and also umpired in the Western Region Football League as a boundary umpire.
“Bernie’s coaching portfolio includes time at the Scorpions, Melbourne Uni and St Albans and the Victorian state side, as well as spending a year mentoring at Williamstown VFL [Victorian Football League].
“More recently, Bernie coached Strathmore senior women’s division 1 EDFL for three years building up to the 2022 finals and a premiership win that resulted in their promotion to premier division in the EDFL.
“Bernie is looking forward to becoming a part of the Gisborne community and beginning a journey with the senior women’s football squad.”
Marantelli said she had thought she’d retired from coaching after her time at Strathmore but was excited by the challenge at the Bulldogs.
She said a conversation with Bulldogs’ Shannon McFerran got the wheels turning.
“I had last year of and this year off as well,” she said. “Shannon, I knew from St Albans days, lured me out of retirement,” Marantelli said.
“It’s [Gisborne] is 20 minutes from me and I’m going into traffic. I’ve been impressed with the club so far with the conversations that we’ve had. There’s a bit more of a country feel and they are keen to get women’s footy back up and running.”
Having coached against Gisborne, Marantelli has a good idea of the club and some of the players they’ve had the last few years.
She said their first step was speaking to the players who were keen to play this season, some who have since gone to other clubs.
“There were some that wanted to get some fitness and skills up and moved to Macedon,” she said.
“I’ll meet up with some of the senior players and some of the leadership group. We’ll get some of the stalwart girls together, see who is coming back and who we can invite and put some recruitment strategies in place.”
Marantelli said they would also look at the under-18 program and see which players were coming up next season.
She said at this stage they were keen to return to the EDFL competition.
Marantelli is under no illusion there is plenty of work to be done.
“I’ve got a good support group around me,” she said. “We want to get everyone on the same page and move forward from there.”
