Goulburn Murray Women’s and Girls League primed and ready for Sunday’s interleague carnival

On Sunday, the GMWGL will take to Bendigo’s Mercy Junortoun Sporting Precinct for the annual interleague carnival, meeting the North East Border Female Football League and Central Victoria Football League at the oval.

With a fresh injection of teams and rebrand of the GMWGL this season, interleague co-coach Kate Chapman said there was a degree of confidence in taking refreshed and revamped squads into battle.

“We’ve got a pretty good line-up actually,” she said.

“Last year we had to put a team together pretty quickly but this year we’ve had about six weeks to get everything together, get all the teams involved and have a few hit-outs together.”

The senior women’s interleague squad features heavy representation from Shepparton United and Tatura, while newly-formed clubs Barooga and Mansfield have three players put forward for Sunday.

Among the youth girls’ ranks is a bevy of United talents, with five out of the six clubs represented in the squad.

No Shepparton Swans players were named in the initial squad.

The carnival’s structure sees both GMWGL sides play two pool games in a lightning round format, with the first and second-ranked teams progressing to the grand final.

Chapman, who is also the Barooga coach, said the league’s expansion had bolstered interleague possibilities tenfold.

“These new teams haven’t necessarily drawn on existing pools of players; they’re all new or back into football,” she said.

“In Barooga for the senior football, three women have made the interleague squad and from Mansfield I think we’ve got two or three as well. It’s adding to the strength and flexibility we can offer.

“We’ve had a couple of players that haven’t been able to make it.

“Our region spans (a wide area); one of our ladies is coming from Deniliquin and we’ve got a few Mansfield girls, so not all of those guys have been able to make the sessions but we’re pretty confident they’ll just fit in seamlessly with everyone.”

Last year, the NCWL’s under-18 contingent won the Mooroopna-hosted carnival by running out 15-point winners over North-East Border, while the senior women’s squad bowed out in the round robin stage.

Chapman did not feature in the 2023 edition, and though she doesn’t have extensive intel on Sunday’s opposition, she’s backing her girls in all the way.

“I follow a few of their Facebook pages and try and keep an eye on things,” she said with a chuckle.

“But to be honest, I was only involved in a training session last season for interleague; I didn’t actually get over there to watch the carnival.

“I’ve heard Central Vic is very, very strong, but do you know what? We’re going out there to give it our all, so we’ll see what happens when we get there.”