WITH THE AFLW pre-season officially kicking off, some lines can expect a bit of a shake up in terms of personnel after the changes that have occurred over the off-season.
Rising Star Mimi Hill has no doubts about what the midfield can achieve this year, noting that the group has the drive and the talent to bring a strong effort into season seven.
“I think going into next season, we really want to bring that contest and defence that we brought to the last few games from the get-go,” Hill said.
“We dropped off at the start in those areas so I think if we can drive those strategies from the start and train it over pre-season, hopefully we can go in with that same mentality.”
On the flip side, Maddy Guerin is excited to have a full pre-season training in the midfield, after some interrupted pre-season campaigns in the past.
Trying to cement her spot in a tough group, Guerin is looking forward to putting in the hard yards with some talented teammates.
“I hope I can take that confidence [from last year] into the pre-season and have my first pre-season in the midfield group so I can hopefully cement my spot in there,” Guerin said.
“I can’t wait to work with those other young guns coming through like Keeley [Sherar], Mimi [Hill], Abbie [McKay] and Lucy [McEvoy].
"We’re a tight knit group and I’m keen to get to work with them.”
Guerin is also looking forward to taking on a leadership role among the Club, coming into her sixth season of AFLW, having started her career with Melbourne in the second year of the AFLW competition.
Now at the senior end of a younger group, Guerin is looking forward to taking the next step and leading by example for her younger teammates.
“I think we’ve got quite a young group and I’m on the older end of that younger group, so I think I've got a bit of experience to share and try and bring the younger players along with me now that I have been around for a little bit,” Guerin said.
“We’ve got great leaders around, June [O’Dea], Kez [Peterson], Gab [Pound], Darce [Vescio], all of those players provide great leadership and give us a licence to lead as well: we’ve got a good balance of leadership across the side.”
As for the backend of the 2022 season, Hill acknowledged that the Game Changers were playing their best football at that stage and can hopefully carry on that momentum, skill and class into the start of season seven.
With pre-season up and running, Hill is confident that the Blues can put in a good block to start the season off on the best possible note.
“We definitely finished off playing how we wanted to play so we’ve got that blueprint now, we just need to execute that in our whole season and hopefully we can get a good block in,” Hill said.
“We’re in a pretty good spot injury wise and whatnot, we’ve had a nice break and we’re in a really good spot to head into a good pre-season.”
