Georgie Rankin, Georgie Prespakis, Claudia Gunjaca, Zali Friswell during the 'On Country' experience.

New Cat Chantel Emonson provides us with a rundown of what our women’s team got up to on their pre-season camp last weekend.

Saturday

Training 

It was a typical day out at Deakin. Blowing a gale one minute, sunshine the next. We experienced all four seasons in one day. 

Saturday is our main footy session for the week where we focus on game style and full ground drills. These sessions allow all lines (forwards, mids and backs) to practice the areas they have been working on during the week and then try and implement them into our game style.

It was a nice start to the weekend to have a valuable session on the track before we headed away for camp.

01:59

On Country Experience

As part of the club’s Reconciliation Action Plan we partook in an ‘On Country’ experience where we visited three different sites of significance to the Wadawurrung people and culture in the Geelong region.

Corrina Eccles, a Wadawurrung woman and Traditional Owner, ran us through the history of each the landmarks and what it represented to local Aboriginal people. It was really good to learn about their culture, their stories and their history. 

I think this is only the beginning of what we are learning and it’s awesome what’s been put into place so far.

Travel and values session

I was in the car with Clauds (Claudia Gunjaca) and Liv (Fuller). I would not recommend sitting in the back seat when travelling down the Great Ocean Road. Luckily for me it was only a short drive. 

When we arrived in Lorne we checked into our accommodation and then headed to the conference room where we had our team values session. 

There were some great discussions amongst the group and I really enjoyed hearing all the different ideas and perspectives.

We put into place some important stepping stones in establishing our culture and how we can implement these actions as a team, not only on the field but off the field as well, which is equally as important. 

Dinner and free time

It was nice to socialise with the girls and talk about things other than footy. 

It’s probably something that we’ve all been starved of over the past 12 to 18 months so it was really enjoyable to just sit down, relax and get to know my teammates a bit better.

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Sunday

Beach recovery

There’s no better way to start the day than with a beach session. Nothing beats the sand between your toes and jumping into the water. 

It wasn’t the warmest spring day in Lorne, but the water wasn’t too bad and a few of the girls went for a swim.

Anula, our strength and conditioning coach, also took us through some stretches just to get our mobility going and then we went for a walk to get a morning coffee.

Education session

Emily Shears from the Female Athlete Network came and spoke to us after breakfast.

The women’s health session was very valuable and Emily spoke really well. She’s got a wealth of knowledge and has a background in women’s sport as well so she was really relatable. 

I think it’s probably a topic that’s not spoken about enough in women’s sport.  It’s something that everyone goes through but everyone experiences it differently, and it’s an important conversation for all involved so that we can support each other to perform to their best. 

It was a start of what could be a really promising way moving forward in terms of supporting women in sport. Not only I guess in our team, but in general as well.

Goodbyes

The women’s health session was the final component of the camp and afterwards we said our goodbyes.

The camp was really just a great opportunity to get away as a team before we start to get into the business end of the pre-season. 

It was a nice opportunity to get to know the girls a little bit more and establish a plan of where we want to get to and how we’re going to get there, which I think will help us with our training sessions moving forward. 

It’s an exciting time and I'm looking forward to getting back out there and then playing games.