SUNRAYSIA’S female footballers can be pushed to develop their roles by having more opportunities to play with the best, says Loz Lowerson, following Friday night’s interleague match with Broken Hill.
Lowerson, who was named best on ground in Sunraysia’s 10-point win at Mildura Sporting Precinct, said the match highlighted how there was room for the region’s top-performing women’s football players to develop.
“Being the best players in the team every week and now coming to a team where (they were) all … playing in the same team, it definitely is more of a challenge to develop your role and find out what kind of footballer you are,” Lowerson said.
“It gives a lot of players an opportunity to play at a higher level and … find out their potential.”
Broken Hill flew out of the gates to take a seven-point quarter-time lead, but Sunraysia adjusted in the second quarter to take a five-point half-time lead before adding two second half goals to win 5.2.32 to 2.3.15.
Lowerson said Sunraysia coach Jason Wilkie had “hammered” into the side the need to play with emotion and said the team played with intensity to represent their teammates from the Sunraysia Women’s Football League who were not present.
“For me, (my emotion) was my teammates who had missed out,” Lowerson said. “My co-captain at Werrimull just missed out. But she stuck around the team and was doing the running for the team.
“I basically played for her.”
Lowerson said she had “freedom” to play behind the ball, remaining within a kick to mop up any exit kicks from Sunraysia’s forward line to create repeat entries.
It was an important role as Sunraysia restricted Broken Hill’s attack, and Wilkie said Lowerson had a positive impact on the game through her attacking play.
“She risks everything,” Wilkie said. “She puts her body on the line. She creeps up on her opponent a little bit and is attacking.”
Wilkie said another standout performer was defender Emma Bosworth, who had fended off many Broken Hill attacking forays, especially in the first quarter.
He said he was happy with the buy-in of the team and said the team played with pride, building “a pathway” for girls in the district to see they could do more and play football against other leagues.
Both Wilkie and Lowerson said they hoped to be involved in any future interleague fixture and said there had been positive discussion among the group that a match in Broken Hill could follow in 2023.
