Werribee Devils Youth League Women 2017 season preview

The Werribee Devils Youth League Women fell just short of the top-of-the-tree in 2016, losing the Grand Final to Altona by nine points, 66-57.

Over the off-season they lost four players, all of whom were big contributors in the 2016 campaign: Tegan Hindle, Teaghan Doyle (Hume City), Charlotte Lord (Werribee D1W) and Alex Moss (injury), who is staying on as an assistant coach. Jacinta Paul will also be returning as an assistant coach.

Filling the gaps are new players Maeghan Ridder, Darcy Alfred, Tori Kalos and Shae Beckworth.

2017 Youth League One Women roster:

#4 Maeghan Ridder

#7 Steph Pyke

#9 Taylah Lea (captain)

#10 Hayley Jones

#11 Darcy Alfred

#14 Eliza Herne

#20 Tori Kalos

#21 Natasha Curraro

#24 Jenna Thomas

#25 Rachel Miller

#43 Shae Beckworth

#54 Lauren Tipper

As part of their 2017 preparation, the Youth League Women competed in the Big V preseason tournament. They walked away with losses against Corio Bay and McKinnon, and finished with a win against Chelsea.

On March 15th the Werribee Devils held their season launch which gave all four coaches the opportunity to introduce their players and talk about the season ahead. This is what head coach Elisha Hogan had to say:

The preseason hasn’t quite gone to plan as much as we wanted it to. We’ve played six games together, we’ve got four new girls into the team who are still trying to find their feet in the team. So we’re learning some adjustments at the moment. Considering we’ve come up against some Champ teams and some Youth Champ teams, we’ve had some really good basketball that we’ve played.

We went into the preseason tournament and our first game did not go to plan. To the girls credit they got a little bit better against McKinnon. Then the last game we played, we won. So we see that as a very good stepping stone leading into Game 1 on Saturday night against Camberwell. And you know, that’s when it all really matters, is the start of the season. So we’re going to work hard at training tomorrow night and we’re going to fix some things. And we will get them fixed. And I’m excited to see how we go.    

The Youth League One Women division has expanded from eight to ten teams in 2017. Altona has moved up to Victorian Youth Champ Women, and three other teams have joined the YLW1 action: Chelsea Gulls, Keilor Thunder (both up from YL2) and Geelong Supercats (down from VYCW). The other teams remaining from 2016 are: Camberwell Dragons, Coburg Giants, Corio Bay Stingrays, Craigieburn Eagles, McKinnon Cougars and Warrandyte Venom.