NT Thunder has named two debutants and made a number of changes for its important Round 4 game of the 2019 VFLW season.
Billie Byers and Jade de Melo will pull on the Territory guernsey for their debut, while Sally Riley and Nikki Gore return for their first game of the 2019 season when the team takes on Collingwood at Victoria Park on Saturday.
Nineteen-year-old Byers is from the Eastside Football Club in Katherine and played in their premiership in 2018 in the Big Rivers League. She has also had NTFL experience, playing 17 games for the Palmerston Magpies in the 2018/19 TIO NTFL season, helping her team reach the semi-finals. A talented junior that has previously played for the NT Thunder Academy, she is a solid defender that loves the contest and can use the ball well by feet.
De Melo moved to Darwin after relocating from Western Australia where she played two AFLW games for Fremantle in 2018. She was a key part of the Waratah premiership campaign in the 2018/19 NTFL season and is known for her strong marking ability in the forward line.
Assistant Coach Ricky Nolan will once again take the reins, with Head Coach Heidi Thompson on Under 18 Academy duties in Adelaide, and said the higher level of football would be a good test for both debutants.
“Although De Melo has AFLW experience, it will be both players’ first taste of VFLW and playing in Melbourne will be a great experience for their football development, so the opportunity is theirs to grab with both hands,” he said.
Sally Riley needs no introduction to fans as one of the Territory’s best footballers of the last three years after winning a premiership with the Adelaide Crows in the inaugural AFLW season. More recently she has switched clubs signing with the Gold Coast Suns for the 2020 AFLW season.
Nineteen-year-old Gore played two games for NT Thunder in 2018 and was drafted to the Adelaide Crows for the 2019 season managing to play one game at AFLW level. She is a skilled utility who likes to roam through the midfield.
Tahlia Holtze also returns to the team after missing a week after sustaining a concussion in Round 1 against Hawthorn and used the extra week of the bye to recover, along with Riley’s new Gold Coast Suns teammate Jasmyn Hewett who has recovered from a sore ankle.
Vice-captain Angela Foley and Crows pair Marijana Rajcic and Deni Varnhagen round out in the ins to replace injured players Tayla Thorn, who sustained stitches to her forehead in a trial match for the Gold Coast Suns last weekend, and Kylie Duggan with a hamstring strain and Ailish Considine with back soreness.
Anne Hatchard, Samantha Hoogeveen-Hill, Kristy Irvine, Danielle Ponter, Katelyn Rosenzweig and Machaelia Roberts also go out of the team due to availability and rotations.
Nolan said the team was raring to go after the bye and were planning on continuing their good start to the season.
“We have a number of changes this week but the strength of this team is that they are there to do a job and just get on with it. It is something that impressed me right from the beginning in Round 1 and continues to do so each week at training.
“Collingwood is coming off two good wins against Geelong and Hawthorn, so we’re expecting them to be highly competitive on their home turf, however, we believe our girls have enough talent to match them and we know we can win at Victoria Park after doing so last season.
“We get experience back in the team in Ange Foley, Deni Varnhagen and Marijana Rajcic who love to run the ball out of the backline and deliver to the likes of Amy Chittick, Jordy Hickey and Michelle Ellis in our forward line supported by our gutsy mids.
“We have created some good momentum in the opening rounds and we’re keen to keep building on that against a quality opposition in Collingwood,” he said.
VFLW Round 4
Collingwood vs NT Thunder
2:00pm AEST, Saturday 1 June
Victoria Park, Melbourne
B: Ebony Miller, Marijana Rajcic, Alicia Stanley
HB: Lisa Roberts, Lateesha Jeffrey (c), Angela Foley
C: Deni Varnhagen, Hannah Martin, Katie Streader
HF: Sally Riley, Amy Chittick, Jordann Hickey
F: Jade de Melo, Michelle Ellis, Nikki Gore
FOLL: Jasmyn Hewett, Janet Baird, Morgan Johnston
INT: Charlie Deegan*, Aishling Sheridan, Tahlia Holtze, Sharona Bishop, Billie Byers
EMERGENCY: Gemma Cusack
IN: Billie Byers, Jade de Melo, Angela Foley, Nikki Gore, Jasmyn Hewett, Tahlia Holtze, Marijana Rajcic, Sally Riley, Deni Varnhagen
OUT: Ailish Considine (back), Kylie Duggan (hamstring), Anne Hatchard (rotation), Samantha Hoogeveen-Hill (unavailable), Kristy Irvine (unavailable), Danielle Ponter (unavailable), Machaelia Roberts (virus), Katelyn Rosenzweig (rotation), Tayla Thorn (forehead stitches)
NEW: Billie Byers, Jade De Melo
* Indicates 23rd player