Shepparton United claims NCWL pre-season cup

By Rodney Woods

Mar 2, 2021

Shepparton United is the champion of the Northern Country Women’s League pre-season cup, despite the fact it won't even enter the competition until 2022.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

On Sunday, eight teams battled it out at Rumbulara Football Netball Club for pre-season glory, with United knocking off Echuca in the grand final.

In its four matches, United kept Eaglehawk, Wangaratta, Nathalia and Echuca scoreless as it put on totals of 19, 17, 11 and 30 in the respective matches.

“Due to us never playing at the women's level and using this as a stepping stone to enter the 2022 season, the players now know the level of skill, fitness and strength required to play in the women's competition,” United coach Dean Walton said.

Despite eight players meeting the rest of their teammates for the first time on the day, Walton was impressed by the teamwork shown by players he hopes to recruit for next year's season.

“They played as a team, ran hard, played really solid contested footy, enjoyed the camaraderie and made new friends,” he said.

“Our players played in positions all around the ground.

“It is important to not pigeon hole a player to a position and we were fortunate to have no injuries.”

The next step for the club will be recruiting mid-year so it is ready to go in 2022.

“We will sit back and observe the 2021 season and start recruiting and planning for 2022 in June-July this year,” Walton said.

“We learnt a great deal.

“Our grand final opponent, Echuca, is a team we will watch closely throughout 2021 as they are very organised and have really good structures in place.”

Northern Country Women's League administrator Sam Wood said the competition was a great way to start the season's momentum.

“The AtWork Cup has really provided the opportunity for a lot of sides to gain momentum for the Northern Country Women's League season to commence in two weeks’ time,” Wood said.

“It was great to see so many people out enjoying the return of competitive female football to the region, the feedback has been overwhelming about the event with many sides already looking forward to next year's AtWork Australia Cup.

“Congratulations to Dean Walton and the Shepparton United girls for their impressive performance in the carnival and we look forward to hopefully having them a part of the NCWL in the future.”