While the NTFA season will see no football played before at least May 31, teams are still mentally preparing for their shots at glory.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In the sixth of a series of previews on the NTFA's women's competition, The Examiner looks at Evandale, the 2018 TWL North premiers, who are hungry for more success.
Coach: Dwayne Beeton
Captain: Narine Maurangi
2019 finish: Third - seven wins and three losses. Defeated by South Launceston in preliminary final.
Ins: Courtney Stanley (Launceston), Selina Herring, Emma Groves, Kelly Jackson, Chloe Fellows, Hayley Marshall, Sami Niejalke, Hannah Coleman, Alera Heyward.
Outs: "We've lost four or five really good senior players that have been there for a while so we've lost a few players," Beeton said.
"The two main losses were two former best-and-fairest winners in Courtney Sharman and Ella Rigby."
Other outs include Kate Bowland, Jocelyn Gee, Jacqueline Hodgkinson (all Meander Valley Suns), Chelsea Filgate and Aimee Rudling (both Bridgenorth).
OTHER PREVIEWS
Who's impressed: "Marlie Lukic was super fit. Courtney Stanley from Launceston, she's very fit as well and we have a lot of youth there, relying on our leg speed and a few old heads as well.
"We've got Narine, who is our captain, and then the likes of Kia Rogers, who is a very good player and been around a long time, so they'll guide the kids.
Coach says: "We tried to do a pretty heavy lot of recruiting but unfortunately, we lost a few along the way so this year we look a lot different.
"We are more versatile, we are a lot more fitter and have gone with a pretty good leadership group in Narine Maurangi, who is our key forward, Marlie Lukic and Georgia Rowley.
"Our strength will be heavily reliant on our midfield, which we've got a lot of youth to run through the midfield, whereas last year we lacked a bit of leg speed, so we've picked up that a fair bit.
"Narine kicks a lot of goals, so if we get the ball in there quickly, we might worry a few sides but who knows.
"We had a good pre-season, we had four months at it but now we are in limbo at the minute so we aren't quite sure where we are going to stand.
"We've left the girls on their own accord as we aren't a professional competition like Launceston and North; they are still pretty hard at it still but we've just let it lay back until we know what we are doing.
"We've just started touching base with the group now and letting them know what's going on - maybe we will be going in groups of 10 from next week so we will have our mids, backs and forwards.
"Hopefully our midfield will be Stanley, Rogers, [Kartley] Broad, [Grace] Gee, [Janaha] Beeton, [Courtney] Grice, [Makayla] White, [Annmaree] Bayliss, [Madison] Brand, so if we can keep them in a good rotation, we should be fairly fit."
Subscriptions are available here.
Sign up to our Sport email here.