The development of teenagers like Lisa Cloke will play a major role if the Casey Comets are to play finals in the Women’s Premier League this season. 19982By Marc McGowan
THE Casey Comets’ transformation is complete.
The club’s once veteran-laden Women’s Premier League squad lost bucketloads of experience before last season. And the Comets will be missing more this year with established members Rachel Lamb (Ashburton), who was considered for a spot in the Melbourne Victory side, and Leigh Terek (Sandringham) leaving for potentially greener pastures. But there is a genuine buzz at Comets Stadium due to the returns of National Training Centre star Alex Gummer and Shuanna Murray and newcomers Nicola Prins and Laura Croft.
Coach Debbie Nichols believes their arrivals will more than cover Lamb’s and Terek’s departures.
“Our numbers are really good – we actually probably have too many, which is probably the first time I’ve said that,” she said.
“I think deep down they (Lamb and Terek) wanted to play finals football in their twilight years and they probably believed they couldn’t do that here.
“Our recruits (Gummer, Murray, Prins and Croft) will be first-team players.
“We’ve also picked up a couple of new players for the reserves side … we haven’t got a weak spot even in the reserves, so they’ll be putting big pressure on the seniors.”
Casey missed the finals for the second straight season in 2008 after once being a perennial contender.
Nichols was hesitant to predict a return to the club’s former glory, but expects to better its seventh-placed finish from last year.
“You don’t want to put that pressure on them and say ‘we can play finals’, but after we play six rounds we might be able to make a call,” she said.
“At the moment, our aim is to finish better than we did last year – that’s our number-one aim.”
The Comets will sport a more attacking 4-4-2 formation this season – a direct response to their on-going goalscoring woes – with Prins partnering teenager Talia Silivestros up front.
“We’ve been working really hard on getting our defensive stuff right with the 4-4-2 and then the good thing is we can be a better attacking force with that formation,” Nichols said.
“We might sacrifice a bit defensively because we still did not concede a load of goals last year.
“We were still quite competitive in the goals conceded, but we just don’t score enough goals and hopefully we can improve on that this season.”
Nichols is forecasting big seasons from speedy midfielder Lisa Cloke, Gummer, Silivestros and Prins, while highlighting the importance of old-stagers Jeni Black, Melissa Atherton and Vanessa Hellar.
Emma Bracken will continue her role in front of the goals and Nichols has put the onus on teenager April Huijbregsen to assume the back-up job from herself.
Casey has won three and drawn another of its five pre-season practice matches, including a 3-0 triumph over powerhouse club Box Hill on the weekend.
Livewire Marcie Algeria will be the only senior regular missing when the competition kicks off next week after suffering a knee injury in the pre-season.
The Comets take on Ashburton in round one at Darebin International Sports Centre next Wednesday night at 8pm. They will then back up at Reservoir’s Connor Reserve against Preston on Sunday from 1pm.
“Ashburton is one of the early season favourites for the league, so it will be interesting to see how we go,” Nichols said.
