St Mary’s Women’s Premier League coach Paul Magher reveals the secrets to his team’s eight consecutive wins
What was initially planned to be a development year is fast becoming a premiership-contending season for a club in the Women’s Premier League.
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What was initially thought to be a development year for St Mary’s Women’s Premier League team is swiftly becoming, perhaps, a premiership-contending campaign.
While the Saints started the pre-season well, snapping up premiership players Jemma Iacono and Tikesa Docherty-Cole from Darwin Buffettes, they struggled for numbers.
New coach Paul Magher, who arrived in the Territory in late September from Queensland, said they had eight registered players just weeks before Round 1.
“We had single-figure registrations two weeks before the first game, we couldn’t organise a scratch match because we didn’t have numbers,” Magher, who felt season 2022-23 would be all about development, said.
And enjoyment levels quickly dissolved after a 0-3 start to the season, marked by 116 and 107-point smashings to WPL heavyweights Waratah and PINT respectively.
“They kicked five goals before we even touched the ball,” he said of the Queenants’ smashing at DXC Arena.
“We were all hot and bothered and unhappy and exhausted.
“Every time they came off ... they didn’t want to go back on.”
However, the landscape has dramatically changed over the past two months as the Saints have won eight in a row, bookended by a 25-point victory over the then undefeated PINT — aided by the return of junior and dual AFLW premiership player Danielle Ponter.
The club also now has more than 70 players registered across its two senior teams.
“We’ve got two car loads which come up from Katherine every week.”
Alongside Iacono and Docherty-Cole, a key addition has undoubtedly been Alkamilya’s Kaitlyn Armstrong, who has kicked 22 goals from six matches.
The Saints’ defence has also tightened significantly, keeping every side to five goals or less over the past five rounds.
“Each time we won another game we became stronger,” he said, despite losing co-captain Shakira Stevens to a knee injury in Round 8.
“I wasn’t shocked at all in relation to the PINT game.
“They are a good bunch and they’re switched on, they’re dragging each other along.
“There’s buy in. They want to learn.
“Hard work gets results ... nothing happens sitting on the couch.”
He said the Saints quickly became a destination for female footballers, with seemingly new faces at every training session.
“I was getting a lot of phone calls, players wanting to come,” he said.
“They didn’t want to come off (in games). And the smiles were back on their faces.”
Magher said he had pushed a “team first” ethos, that his charges were “privileged” to be playing for a proud and extremely successful club.
Magher said his team began to build serious belief after a Round 7 win against Nightcliff, an outfit they hadn’t beaten for several seasons.
“We just attacked the ball totally differently,” he said.
“The way we played that day was the way we really wanted to play.”
Then, they knocked off last year’s premiers in the Darwin Buffettes, after an impressive training session where “hardly a footy hit the ground”.
However, Magher was reluctant to point out players who have excelled.
“I’m loathe to individualise,” he said.
“I could throw a blanket over the best players every week.”
Deontae Greenoff named Round 11 Rising Star nomination
The NT News Rising Star rewards the best and brightest young talent in the NTFL from Territory juniors to interstate imports.
The award is in its 26th year and carries a $500 prize for the winner, announced at the end of the season.
Previous winners include AFLW player and former St Mary’s junior J’Noemi Anderson and Waratah’s Annabel Kievit.
Read below to see the nominees from every round of the season.
ROUND 11 – DEONTAE GREENOFF (NIGHTCLIFF)
A teenage Territory export has proven to be a double threat already, both in front of the goals and the camera.
Darwin’s Deontae Greenoff, 17, moved to South Australia early last year to attend Loreto College in Adelaide’s leafy inner east, after receiving a Smith Family scholarship.
The move has paid off already with the budding footballer recruited by Norwood in the SANFLW, a few weeks ago.
“I nearly started crying,” Greenoff told the NT News.
“That’s probably my biggest achievement within the sport so far.”
It followed two productive seasons with Hectorville in the Adelaide Football League, after being invited down to train by fellow Territorian, Loreto student and Southern Districts player Tayla Waterbury.
Very much a social butterfly, Greenoff said it wasn’t difficult to adjust to life in South Australia, and she could see the bigger picture: “If I didn’t go I wouldn’t have an opportunity with Norwood.”
Other avenues have also emerged through the north-south transition, including a spot of part time modelling with Country Road and Oodie.
It all started after attending a scholarship meeting, where the mother of a student approached her after the event.
“She just looked at me and said: ‘You’re gorgeous’,” she said.
“From then I got a call from a lady in Adelaide from a modelling agency.
“I got a contract from there.”
However, her football game has continued to grow with a Rising Star nomination for Round 11 in the Women’s Premier League; her second goal, moments before the final siren, sealed a one-point win over Top End heavyweights Waratah.
In just her fourth WPL match, Greenoff took a mark in the goalsquare at Gardens Oval after a kick from Maighan Fogas.
“I just hoped for the best and leaped and it then just landed in my hands,” she said.
“The girls really got around me … they all jumped on me as they knew we’d won by a point.”
Greenoff said her skills has been helped along through a decade-long friendship with St Kilda recruit and Territorian J’Noemi Anderson.
“We’ve been friends for a very long time,” Greenoff, who is also a keen netballer and singer, said.
“She always helps me out.”
In fact Greenoff left the Tigers – where her father Gavin and grandfather John turned out – to play a premiership-winning 2018/19 season alongside Anderson for St Mary’s before she moved to Melbourne for school.
Nightcliff coach Shannon Millar said Greenoff had strong fundamental skills and was a handy mark.
“She also has a great attitude, is positive and willing to learn,” Millar said.
Southern Districts’ Bella Clarke draws on inspiration from late cousin
The loss of a beloved cousin to sepsis continues to provide the motivation for Territory football export Bella Clarke to tackle her dreams head-on, more than five years after his tragic passing.
Darwin’s Thomas Snell died at the age of 13 in July, 2017 after contracting the life-threatening condition while on a rugby tour in Queensland.
Snell was essentially like a brother to Clarke, whose footballing trajectory has been consistently upwards ever since winning a Women’s Premier League flag with Southern Districts in 2019-20.
In fact, football has taken her to many parts of the country, from Katherine with the Camels, to South Fremantle and Wilston Grange in the QAFLW.
Snell’s own sporting legacy, however, will be honoured at Freds Pass on Saturday for the annual “T for Thomas” round, where NTFL ladder leaders Southern Districts take on Palmerston, while raising awareness for sepsis.
In short, Snell remains a huge presence in Clarke’s life despite his passing.
“You get asked who your idol is a lot, and 100 per cent Thomas is,” Clarke said.
“He was always in the backyard practising his skills, whether it be cricket rugby or AFL.
“So he could be the best of the best.”
She also admired his leadership, determination and overall positive attitude, using his legacy as “motivation to keep going”.
She’s had to call on it in recent days, too.
Clarke, a former NT representative team captain, suffered an AC injury after returning to the WPL in Round 8 against PINT.
While she’s remaining upbeat, it’s likely to keep her sidelined for around two months.
It has capped off a year of highs and lows — marked by a relocation to Melbourne, despite initial misgivings about the place, to play with Essendon’s VFLW team.
“I adapted really well to the Melbourne life, I’m now a bit of a coffee snob,” she said with a laugh.
“I still think I’m an NT girl at heart.”
She would play 10 games for the Dons in her debut season, culminating in a title-winning game in July where they kept the Southern Saints goalless, winning 6.6 (42) to 0.7 (7).
Playing in defence, it was a big step up for Clarke, in terms of training loads – twice as regularly she was used to at Freds Pass – and the skills needed to flourish at a higher level.
“It was such a huge jump,” she said.
“It was very much a developmental stage for me. I tried not to put too much pressure on myself.
“(But) it was pretty much what I needed at the time,
“It’s improved my skills so much, it’s crazy. I think I did what I wanted to do (this year).”
She also learned to trust the club’s medical staff, to understand they had her best interests at heart and to not overdo things.
Clarke had essentially ignored their warnings, early on, to slow down, but she went “all-in” on the track, eventually pulling a quad three weeks in.
“I didn’t really listen to them. I think I was a bit ignorant in that regard,” she said.
But the hard work paid off when she was added to Essendon’s AFLW train-on list, involving weekly sessions and weekend scrimmages.
However, next year she wants to get out of her comfort zone of the backline and try other positions.
Clarke also has designs on possibly getting drafted by a WA-based club, following in the footsteps of her famous great uncle and East Fremantle footballer Jack Clarke.
“I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself but that’s the goal,” she said.
“I don’t think it matters to me, but the AFLW love a background story.
“I’m not tied to any state, I just want to play footy, I don’t mind where I’m at.”
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