By JARROD POTTER
CRANBOURNE has received its premiership promotion in the biggest possible way for 2016.
The Eagles will be part of a newly announced top-tier women’s state league competition in parallel with the Victorian Football League (VFL).
AFL Victoria had expressed interest in promoting the top four VWFL Division 1 clubs – Cranbourne, Knox, Seaford and Geelong (previously North Geelong) – into the VWFL Premier competition throughout this year, but took promotion a step further by announcing the state league for next season.
The four clubs will join 2015’s VWFL Premier clubs – Darebin Falcons, Diamond Creek, Eastern Devils, Melbourne Uni, St Kilda and VU Western Spurs – to form the new yet-to-be-named league.
It completes an amazing return to the top of the league for many players who were involved with the now defunct Berwick VWFL Premier team, which folded at the start of 2014 and merged with Cranbourne.
Cranbourne coach Kris Smith was thrilled to gain promotion to the state competition and believes his young side can match it with the best on offer around Victoria.
“It’s exciting – from the moment we made the grand final we set in stone that regardless of what was happening we were fully committed to taking this footy club to the top level,” Smith said.
“Now that we’ve gone up, we don’t just want to be pretenders – we want to be contenders and we think we deserve to be there.
“Cranbourne is a serious team and deserves to be in this state league.”
Smith knows the road will be tough to match pace in the state league, but with the side’s young stars only getting better and a great catchment area with the South East Juniors and other surrounding leagues to recruit from, the Eagles can only get better with age.
“We’ll probably get some floggings in the first year or two of being up there – but with the age of our list, 20 year olds mostly, the next two-to-five years we really want to make our mark in this league,” Smith said. “With (state league) clubs not all in each other’s pockets – we’re in a certain pocket in Cranbourne that if Youth Girls are playing locally, we can say if you want to play top level Youth Girls and continue onto top level senior footy, you can play here.”
While a premiership is a fantastic achievement to look back on, Smith knows the tempo has to go up in 2016 if the Eagles stand a chance in the new league.
“I’ve enjoyed this year – it’s been a lot of fun, but we’ve got to get more serious,” Smith said.
“Everything goes up, we’ve got to take our game to the next level and everything on and off the field has to improve.
“We started pre-season training on Wednesday – it was good and we’ll build a nice fitness base now and go hammer and tong to be a genuine threat in this league.”
Cranbourne will retain its VWFL affiliation through its reserves team, and the club is even pushing for a third team, making the pathway from VWFL to women’s state league another avenue for improving female football ahead of the highly awaited 2017 AFL Women’s competition.
Having already featured in a double-header with the Casey Scorpions this year too, the links between Cranbourne’s state women’s team and the VFL have already been explored and should benefit further from Friday’s announcement.
The 10-team competition will run in conjunction with the VFL and not alter the current set-up of the VWFL’s divisional structure.
For more information on joining Cranbourne Women’s Football Club, contact the team via its Facebook Page “Cranbourne Youth Girls and Women’s Football Club” or its website www.cranbournefc.com.au
