A young Great Southern Football League Women’s eyeing return to country championships top division

Great Southern women’s coach Collin Pass believes his side will be buoyed by its youthful flavour as they gun for promotion back to the Nutrien Ag Solutions Country Football Championships division one. After being relegated from the top flight last season, Great Southern will contend in division two at the annual tournament held in Mandurah on Thursday and Friday. The stacked Great Southern Football League Women’s side will be without star key forward Narelle Humphries and reigning best and fairest medal winner Grace Dempster who pulled out due to work commitments and last year’s captain Tiarna Delli-Benedetti. However Pass, a premiership-winning coach for Royals in the GSFLW, insisted his side is well-equipped with plenty of exciting young talent in their bid to win the division two title. “This year going into division division two, we’re obviously not happy with dropping down but we want to make a statement this year that we believe we deserve to be in the top division,” Pass said. “Our aim is obviously to go up there and win the grand final, we’ve got a really good group of young, exciting footballers that will definitely benefit from the experience of carnival football going forward. “There’s been lots of lots of interest from the younger group this year, which is exciting.” Sharks midfielder Abbi Ballard will captain the side and will be supported by Denmark on-baller Sophie Coates and North Albany’s Kirstie Cooper as vice-captains. Lions’ prolific rebounding defender Nardia Humphries and GSFLW runner-up best and fairest Kathryn Slattery are among the players Pass is bullish on ahead of the tournament. “Nardia Humphries is running off a half-back flank, after her runner-up best and fairest last year, it’s something we’re going to utilise to the best of our ability,” he said. “Kat Slattery is going to be huge for us so I think having that seniority in those couple of players will definitely help us as well. “We’ve got young Taiah Curtis, who’s an exciting young player, and young Poet Smargiassi from North Albany getting a run in the carnival at 16 years of age is also exciting. “We will be bolstered by Megan Green being able to play.” Great Southern begin their campaign against North Pilbara on Thursday before tackling Esperance later in the day and their qualifying game on Friday morning is against Goldfields before the top two sides play in the grand final. “Absolutely (we will benefit from dropping to division two),” Pass said. “I think coming up against the likes of South West, they are obviously where we all aspire to be, but they’re just a league above us. “But dropping back into division two should give us a really good chance to have a have a crack at teams around us and just gain that carnival experience that we will only grow and benefit from.” GSFLW senior squad Abbi Ballard (c), Marlee Ashton, Kiahn Perry, Taiah Curtis, Jasmin Kennedy, Jeanette Gordon, Emma Gooderson (Albany), Claire McIntyre, Kathryn Slattery, Chelsea Geddes, Meg Slattery (Railways), Megan Green, Nardia Humphries, Krystal Prunster, Joslyn Pass, Elizabeth Alderson (Royals), Emma Henderson, Sophie Coates (vc), (Denmark), Kirstie Cooper (vc), Poet Smargiassi, Charlotte Clayton and Pippa Wilson (North Albany).