Island girls at gather round

Last weekend, the Youth Girls made the trek to Morwell for the Female Football Gippsland gather round. All teams from both divisions and several women's teams came together at the Morwell Recreation Reserve to play their games.

After a group warmup from the Gippsland Power coaches and players, the 13 island girls who could make the game lined up against Woodside.

On a smaller ground than usual the girls found it hard to find the space they needed to play their running game. Captain Jade Ricardo led from the front, breaking free to drive the girls into attack,

however with a number of girls from Woodside filling in for Phillip Island in the forward line, it proved hard to get a score on the board.

Eventually Jade broke through with a great running goal to get the island girls on the board.

Two new players for the team playing their first game. Scarlett Rees and Mia Ward didn't look out of place and got right into the action.

Brinkley Nicolaci moved into the centre after half time and was working hard alongside Tess Ricardo, Lily "Elbow" Bow and Miki Leary. The girls continued to work hard in defence with Sadie Davies and Tahlia Jessup growing in confidence each week, while Lily O'Loughlin gave great run out of defence.

Lily "Elbow" Bow took a strong mark just outside 50 and went back to slot a beautiful long-range goal to get the girls up and about.

Kyra Carton was working hard on the wing, and Macy Stubbs and Georgia Niven shared the role in the ruck. Kyra was able to slot another goal for the island.

Woodside scored early in the final quarter as the island girls started to tire.

No bench and only 13 players started to have an impact on the girls' energy levels, leading Woodside to add another couple of late goals to make the margin larger than the game was.

Scores: Woodside 8.12.60 def Phillip Island 3.1.19.

Best: Tess Ricardo (Gather Round Medal), Jade Ricardo, Lily "Elbow" Bow, Lily O'Loughlin, Miki Leary, Brinkley Nicolaci and Tahlia Jessup.

Goals: Kyra Carton, Lily "Elbow" Bow and Jade Ricardo.