By Callum Ludwig
The Outer East Women’s Football Finals Series gets underway on Sunday 31 July and Seville’s Senior Women’s side is excited for their first crack at the finals.
The women’s competition is split in a conference-style, where the nine competing sides played each other in a home-and-away season before splitting into their conferences come finals time. Seville is in Conference Two.
Coach Geordie Scott said he and the team are excited and nervous heading into the finals.
“It’s been a very good development year and we will see what happens,” he said.
“The girls by the end of this will have 15 to 25 games under their belt, so we are starting to get some experience around.”
There are four sides in Conference Two with Seville: Belgrave, Monbulk and Thornton-Eildon. Belgrave and Monbulk will face each other as the highest-placed Conference Two sides on the overall ladder, and Seville will play Thornton-Eildon at 1.30pm in Healesville.
Mr Scott said his side’s strengths lie in their fitness.
“Overall, we are generally a fit side. That’ll be the thing that helps us out at Healesville, we should be able to run out the game,” he said.
“If we can keep running all day and Thornton can’t, that might get us over the line. We’ve been pretty even with them this year, we’ve won one and they won one, so it’ll be a good contest.”
The winner of Seville’s clash will face the loser of Belgrave and Monbulk before the winner of that game faces the initial winner in the Grand Final.
Mr Scott said the side had just hoped to get a win this year.
“We’ve achieved that so anything else has been a bonus, and we are happy to have been a part of it,” he said.
“We are a developing side, while some like Belgrave have been playing for seven or eight years, and it’s only our first.”
Seville formed a conjoined side with Woori Yallock in the cut-short 2021 season, before becoming a standalone team in 2022.
Mr Scott said having a full season for the side this year has been massive.
“I think mentally this year has been a real release for the players, a lot of the women work casual or part-time jobs and lockdown bit them in the backside financially, while this year has given them some real freedom,” he said.
“It was a lot easier this year, even though we got hit with the Covid stick a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t field a side, as everyone has. Everybody has battled for it this year, and the sun will rise again tomorrow win, lose or draw, I’ll still be very proud of them.”
Madi Ward might well be the X-Factor for Seville in the game, having featured in their best players seven times this season and having kicked seven goals, each the most of any Seville player.
