Horse trainer Rebecca Waymouth enjoying being part of Rosebud’s winning run in the VWFL

HORSE  trainer Rebecca Waymouth reckons she backed a winner when she joined Rosebud’s new women’s footy team a few months ago.

Horse trainer Rebecca Waymouth with last-start Geelong winner God’s Shadow at her Boneo stables. Picture: Tanya Fry.

HORSE  trainer Rebecca Waymouth reckons she backed a winner when she joined Rosebud’s new women’s footy team a few months ago.

The Buds have started like Black Caviar — they’re unbeaten after four games — and Waymouth, a key player in the midfield, is having a ball.

“Really enjoying it,” she said. “We’ve picked up the basics, we’re refining our skills and getting better as a team.”

Rosebud’s hot start in the East Division of the VWFL is one of the best stories in Victorian football this season.

The Buds have only one player who had played previously. That’s Tahnee Schulz, the captain.

All the rest are rookies, first-timers.

Yet they’ve gelled quickly, fuelled by enthusiasm, and well-guided by their coach Renee Dunn, an 18-season veteran.

As for team chemistry, the Buds have it in bundles.

Rebecca Waymouth gets a kick for Rosebud in the VWFL.

Waymouth said it was back in summer that she spotted an ad on Facebook calling for players for a new Rosebud’s women’s team, and thought, ‘why not?’.

At her first training session she knew no one, but had fun.

Now she’s got a bunch of great mates.

“It’s been a great way to meet a wide range of women,’’ Waymouth said.

“Our youngest player is 18, our oldest is 46. We’ve got students, we’ve got mothers, single mothers, women who are high up in business — a really wide range of people. And it’s great that one interest — football — has brought us all together.

“We’ve actually become quite good friends and knitted together well as a team.”

Waymouth is from a famous­ racing family and is an accomplished trainer in her own right. The Healesville Cup is among her recent wins. You sense she gets just as big a kick from playing in a Buds win as finding her way to the winner’s stall on race day.

Dunn admitted Rosebud’s winning run had exceeded her expectations.

The Buds’ rate of improvement was underlined by its Round 4 win over Ajax, the same team it lost to by 80 points in a pre-season practice game a couple of months earlier.

“It’s like they flicked a switch and lifted. To see the way they gel together as a team is really good. They are doing exceptionally well, they should all be very proud,’’ Dunn said.