Young Dees stronger this season

COACH: Sharon Watson

ARRIVALS: Ellie Vincent

DEPARTURES: Alannah Morello

“EXCITEMENT” is the main phrase coming out of Mildura during pre-season with the young Demons keen to make a stamp on the competition again.

The girls in red and blue impressed many in 2022 to finish second behind only the undefeated Wentworth, however, they were bundled out of finals in straight sets.

Coach Sharon Watson believes her side, led by Horkings Medal winner Jess McNamara and a host of talented youngsters, has improved since that time and is ready to roll in 2023.

“We always worry about our own style of play but I think having a young team last year we just got out-muscled and out-positioned during the finals by older and more experienced opponents,” she said.

“It has been something we’ve been working on over the pre-season so hopefully when we front up to teams this year I don’t think we’ll be taking a backwards step.”

Alannah Morello is the only departure after relocating to Adelaide, but the Demons have welcomed versatile shooter Ellie Vincent to play in attack with McDonald and Ava Zadow.

Fitness isn’t likely to be an issue for Mildura either with pre-season running since December.

“Pre-season has been excellent,” Watson said.

“We were on the track in December and then back into it in early January. The girls have been putting in the hard yards.

“It’s really exciting, it is still a very young squad but our numbers across the board have been really strong which hopefully might take some of that extra pressure off.

“The fact we have better numbers this year means we won’t be as reliant on some of our Under 17 girls playing multiple games each week like we did.”

Mildura has the round 1 bye and will start their season against Merbein on April 29.