Southern league: Lyndale players Shaneece Stratton and Maddison Lawrence signs VFLW contracts

Five players from Southern league club Lyndale could be on VWFL lists in 2022, with two already having put pen to paper.

New Seagull: Maddison Lawrence in possession for the Pumas.

Lyndale Football Netball Club started a women’s team in 2018.

Three years on, the Pumas could have five of their players on VFLW lists next year.

Two have already signed at Williamstown, another is likely to snare a contract with the Southern Saints and two others are training with Casey Demons.

Coach Adrian Gration said the club couldn’t be prouder of the players.

“Give them credit. They’ve worked really hard to get to this point,’’ he said.

“It’s great for the club. People will look at what we’re doing and think, ‘They’re doing something right with their women’s footy’.’’

He said it should bring recognition to the club and competition.

“Hopefully people see the commitment Lyndale has to women’s football and see that the eyes of VFLW/AFLW recruiters are actually going to be on our club,’’ Gration said.

“Maybe they’re saying, ‘Well, who are the ones to keep an eye on for next year?’

“I reckon I’ve got three or four other girls who could step up to VFLW.’’

Williamstown, which runs a stand-alone VFLW team, has locked in Lyndale’s 2021 Southern league Division 1 best and fairest Shaneece Stratton and Maddison Lawrence.

Division 1 best and fairest Shaneece Stratton.

Both were named in the team of the year and will list Lyndale as their home club.

Gration said Lawrence played off the half back line, read the play “exceptionally well’’ and was a leader on the ground.

Stratton came through youth girls football at Cranbourne, won a string of best and fairests along the way, and was on the Dandenong Stingrays’ books in the NAB League Girls.

“She’s got all the skills – her hands, her feet, her marking are at the elite level – and I think she’ll go far,’’ Gration said.

“She’s been knocking on the door for some time. She’s a smallish player and I think her height has been the factor holding her back. But obviously Williamstown, to their credit, have seen past that and taken her on board.’’

Chanelle Slater is training with Southern Saints and is expected to make their list.

She joined Lyndale from Mordialloc in Division 2 and topped the league goalkicking with 46, enough to be named at full-forward in the team of the year.

Slater had been a midfielder at Mordi.

“She absolutely tore them apart out of full forward,’’ Gration said.

Lyndale women's coach Adrain Gration.

Chelsie Selleck has been invited to train with Casey Demons after a sparkling first season of football.

“When you’ve been around footy for a while … the second you throw someone a footy, you can tell by the way they hold it, you know if they’re going to be good, and I just knew straight off the bat that this girl had untapped talent,’’ the coach said of Selleck.

“We played her on the ball all year and she was tremendous. She wants to learn and every week she would learn more and more. By the time the end of the season came around she was a gun.’’

Teammate Kiana Te Huia, 18, is also at Casey and another success story at Lyndale.

Keen to step up from third division football at Pakenham, she had an injury setback early in the season but finished it strongly.

“A quicker player across the field you will never see in your lifetime,’’ Gration said. “She’s an absolute jet. She can kick a ball 40, 45m, reads the play well, is always up and about.’’

He predicted Te Huia could play in the AFLW in two years.

Gration said with a laugh that he was torn about the prospect of five of his players joining VFLW.

He said he was thrilled they were progressing through the ranks “but as a coach you go, ‘Well, there’s goes my midfield, there goes my forward line’.’’

“You always want to see your players going to the next level,’’ he said.

“It will leave some big holes to fill but I’ve already started to recruit again and hopefully the players coming in can take their spots.’’

Lyndale won the Division 2 premiership in 2019 and introduced a second team in 2021.

The firsts competed in Division 1 and had won seven matches and lost two when the season was abandoned.

President Ed McLean said he was proud of what the female section had achieved in three years.