WOMENS SENIOR REVIEW – BELGRAVE

By Alyce Collett

After strong pre – season form, Belgrave’s season did not go the way they would have liked or hoped for. 

The season opener could not have gone much better for the Magpies, comfortably defeating Upwey Tecoma by 40 points. Things came crashing back to Earth the following week though, beaten by Healesville by 26 points, and then they lost to Monbulk the week after that. They got back on the winners list in round four, defeating Thornton-Eildon. They then lost four games in a row, to Healesville, Upwey Tecoma, Yarra Junction and Monbulk. 

The second half of the season did not get off to a great start, comfortably beaten by Healesville before losing narrowly to Yarra Junction. They were comfortably beaten by Thornton – Eildon before getting a default win after Upwey Tecoma. The Magpies lost to Monbulk in round 13, before they finished their season on a high, with a win against Thornton – Eildon.

In the end, Belgrave finished fifth on the ladder, only half a game behind fourth placed Thornton – Eildon. 

Early on in the season, scoring was an issue. They only kicked a score larger than 30 once in the first half of the season and went scoreless in at least one quarter most weeks. 

Things on the scoring front did not get much better in the second half of the season. In the remaining six games, Belgrave were able to make a double figure score most weeks, but with opposition scores of 44, 36, 62, 39 and 10, most weeks their score was nowhere near enough. 

One thing that will annoy the Magpies is that they were in contention for finals until the final round, where no matter what happened with the results, they would still fall at least half a game short of the top four. If they had been able to snatch one more win from somewhere, things could have been different come the end of the season.

On an individual note, Belgrave’s top goalkicker was Jessica Weisgerber, who kicked 11 goals this season. The highest individual game tally was Weisgerber and Chelsea Carnell’s three goals each against Upwey Tecoma all the way back in Round One.