Comets hold heads high

By Marc McGowan
THERE is no doubt that 2009 was the year that could have been for the Casey Comets’ Women’s Premier League side.
Their two-year finals’ drought looked over when they surged to the top of the table with four rounds to go, but a poor run home saw them finish in fifth spot.
Critics tipped the Comets to be the easybeats this season after losing stalwarts Leigh Terek (Sandringham) and Rachel Lamb (Ashburton) in the off-season, but they undervalued the club’s talented recruits.
Teenage sensations Alex Gummer, who returned to the club after a season in the National Training Centre, Laura Croft and Nicola Prins headed the additions.
Ashburton officials courted Gummer for almost two months before she agreed to be part of Casey’s rebuilding efforts.
Another returnee, Shuanna Murray, and Berwick City signing Natalie Mitchell also helped further stiffen the defence.
But Prins was the star of the show.
The Comets have lacked a strikeforce since goal-scoring machine Sarah Fitzgerald left the club two years ago.
Prins joined Casey from Berwick Regional Churches Club and made the easiest of transitions on her way to scoring 14 goals for the year – fourth-most in the competition.
Comets speedster Lisa Cloke, in her new role out wide, enjoyed an outstanding season, while midfielders Melissa Atherton and Jeni Black were their usual reliable selves.
Casey coach Debbie Nichols also felt stopper Vanessa Hellar played her best two games in the final two weeks once she was relieved of the co-captaincy duties with Atherton.
Cloke’s injury-enforced absence late in the season played a major role in Casey’s demise.
Injury also ruined much of number-one goalkeeper Emma Bracken’s year, but she was sensational down the stretch.
Bracken remains the Comets’ best option in the net, with teenager April Huijbregsen proving she is not quite ready for the mantle.
Nichols was satisfied with the season as a whole, but expects her team to take another step forward in 2010.
“If you said to me at the start of the year that we’d finish fifth out of 10 teams, I would have been rapt,” she said. “But from the position we were in, and the opportunity we had, what could have been a great season was only a very good season. I want the girls to believe that as well and not settle for ‘we did really well and that’s good enough’.”
Casey makes its annual trip to Port Macquarie for the Tracie McGovern Cup – an event it has won in three of the last four years – from 2 to 5 October.
The Comets will renew acquaintances with South Melbourne there and are confident of emerging victorious again.
Nichols is also predicting Cloke to poll the most votes at the club in next Tuesday’s Football Federation Victoria Gold Medal Night.
She expects young forward Lana Bonnet and veteran Linda Restrepo to challenge for first-team spots next season.