By JARROD POTTER
WOMEN’S VFL – ROUND 1
THERE was no warm welcome waiting for Cranbourne in its inaugural Women’s VFL clash.
Darebin – the competition’s long-time heavyweight – was too much of everything for Cranbourne on Sunday afternoon and stole the show with a whopping 197-point triumph.
The Eagles were outmatched at ground level, in the air and in all facets of possession – no great surprise considering the Falcons’ might over the last 10 years though.
On the short-and-narrow AH Capp Reserve, Darebin played the corridor too well and gave its forwards ease of opportunity as Western Bulldogs tandem Darcy Vescio (eight goals) and Katie Brennan (six goals) lapped it up.
Marlee Tatham kicked Cranbourne’s solitary goal of the afternoon in the second term, but Darebin found the sticks much more to slam on 31 of its own, including nine-goals-four in the final term.
But despite the horribly lopsided scoreline – the sad thing is the Eagles played pretty well.
They tackled strongly, went in head-first for any contested possession and generally performed near enough to the best of their ability – at least as strong as when they held aloft the Division 1 premiership.
Alicia Heins returned from her long-term knee injury and held her own through the midfield, while Hayley Wildes, Bianca Jakobsson and Tess McEvoy got enough of the pill too.
But such is the gulf that Darebin has built between itself and the rest of the established Premier sides, let alone the promoted VWFL four including Cranbourne, that any side facing them is set for a hiding.
Where the Eagles will fall in the VFL pecking order is yet to be determined despite the outcome, as coach Kris Smith believes anyone would’ve copped a pasting by this Darebin line-up.
“We don’t look at the scoreboard after that – if we panicked after then first loss we shouldn’t be up at this level,” Smith said. “I think Darebin playing against Diamond Creek today would’ve destroyed them and that’s last year’s grand finalist.
“Time will tell, but as I told them after the game we don’t look at the scoreboard result, we take away what we’ve learned from today and improve on that.”
Pressure and our tackling were good, but we turned the ball over too much,” Smith said. “We were minus every quarter by a lot and when we turned it over, they were so efficient and that’s what killed us, so their extra number was always there.
Cranbourne heads out to Seaford on Sunday and Smith believes the two former VWFL Division 1 sides will be hungry to turn around the form and put a win on the board.
“We’ve got to back up from that and I’m pretty sure they (Seaford) got flogged today as well, so they’ll be in a similar boat as us,” Smith said. “Both teams looking to turn their fortunes around and as long as we can get in the right frame of mine, we can come back bigger and stronger and knock them off hopefully.”
WOMEN’S VFL
DAREBIN 8.6 15.11 22.16 31.20 (206)
CRANBOURNE 0.0 1.2 1.3 1.3 (9)
DAREBIN Goals: D. Vescio 8, K. Brennan 6, L. Pearce 3, L. Arnell 3, J. Lange 3, G. Hammond 3, E. O’Dea 2, S. Simpson, K. Tyndall, D. Pearce. Best: K. Paxman, D. Pearce, D. Vescio, E. O’Dea, K. Brennan, L. Pearce. CRANBOURNE Goals: M. Tatham. Best: H. Wildes, M. Tatham, A. Johnson, T. McEvoy, L. Olsen, S. Binder.
