By Tara Murray
It will be a new-looking Western Warriors outfit in the Victorian Netball League championship this season.
The Warriors had a solid first season in the competition, but are keen to go further this season.
Coach Kim Bailey said they were really happy with where things were at.
“We have a lot of new combinations so it’s been about getting everyone familiar with each other,” she said.
“It’s been really great and there’s been some different combinations. The midcourt is really strong and we can run different combinations.”
The Warriors made a couple of big moves early on, signing Tayla Honey and Poppy Douglass from the Casey Demons.
Shannon Freeman has also come across. Bailey said they were excited to see Freeman in the coming weeks at training.
Honey will play a big role in the midcourt alongside Australian under-21 player and Melbourne Vixens training partner Ruby Shannon.
“We can run Ruby at wing attack and Tayla in the centre next to Poppy,” Bailey said. “We’ve got Sarah Croft, who can play all three positions, and Simona into wing attack as well.
“Tayla can play in wing defence. There’s lots of different combinations and we’re trying them out.”
In goals, Kim Borger is back and will play a big role again.
Douglass will play as a goaler having switched between goals and midcourt at the Demons, while Rebecca Hicks and Abbey Ellis round out the goalers.
Hicks has been a dominant shooter in the Ballarat Netball League, and brings something different.
“A couple of times we’ve run the combination of Kim at goal attack and Bec in shooter,” Bailey said.
“It’s really exciting and it gives us something different we didn’t have last season. We have a lot more variety than last year.”
The fourth goaler is Abbey Ellis, who Bailey said was a bit of an x-factor.
Ellis is currently playing with the Townsville Fire in the WNBL. Last week she was named the league’s Betty Watson breakout player of the year.
In defence, Eliza Gollant has stepped up from under-23s joining Elly Randall, Jasmine Fraser and Freeman in defence.
One thing that Bailey is hoping will make things easier is the connection that many of the group already have.
Bailey coaches seven of the squad in the Sunbury Lions in the Ballarat league.
In the under-23 side, the Warriors have had some turnover but have retained key players Ella Closter, Shaid Sasalu, Leona Hristovska and Brydi Hutchinson.
Bailey said they were excited to see what Grace Hay can do, while Eva Ryan was another exciting prospect.
She said they were excited for what both sides could do this season.
“We were really competitive in champ last year but we would fall away for the last few minutes,” she said.
‘We’ve worked on making sure under fatigue that we keep going. There were good signs at the end of last season.
“We’ll see what we can do in the under-23s as well.”
The Warriors start their season against the City West Falcons.
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