By JULIA MONTESANO
KEILOR Park is hoping to give its players a memorable inaugural season in the EDFL Women’s competition.
The Devils have a side of keen women who want to grasp the opportunity to play football with both hands.
Coach Brent Cooper is enjoying coaching the women and highlights why he was drawn to coaching a female side over a male side.
“One of the reasons I was drawn to coaching a women's team over an established guys team is that all the girls are new to it and they want to learn,” Cooper told essendondfl.com.au.
“They're all really, really eager to improve and learn and be the best they can be.” Cooper said
Player skill development falls into Cooper’s expectations for the season, where he hopes that players can continue to learn and develop a love for the game.
“There's three or four girls who have really wanted to play football their whole lives and finally get the opportunity to do that, so it's about giving them their opportunity,” he said.
“This season is just about showing these girls what being part of a football club can mean (and) can do for them.
“Being able to go there on the weekends, play a game, have some fun and a bit of escape from real life.”
Wins and losses come second at Keilor Park, as the club hopes that the fun side of footy can speak for itself and attract more players as the years go on.
“To be honest, it's got nothing to do with wins and losses for this season because I have no idea how good all the other teams are.” Cooper admitted.
“I've really got no idea of the standard so to me, what it's about is trying to achieve something personally in terms of starting up a team from scratch and getting them to game day to play out the season.
“It's not about ‘you've got to win this many games’… it's not about that.
“It's about creating an environment that girls want to come and play and teaching them and having them all want to come back.
“That's what we're focused on at the minute and the wins and losses will take care of themselves.”
The inaugural EDFL Women’s season has barely even commenced, but Brent Cooper and Keilor Park already see a bright future for the growth of female football at the club.
“If we paint Keilor Park as a fun place to play footy this year by having the girls playing there and having fun, whether we win no games or whether we win all our games, we then put ourselves in a position next year where people go ‘hey, it's really fun to play there’,” he said.
“We then start getting more girls to come, we actually start to attract better players and we start to become a better team.”
If you would like to play for the Devils in 2018, please contact Keilor Park coach, Brent Cooper on 0429 677 605.
