St Mary’s women’s development coaching director Jarred Ilett says future bright for NTFL outfit

NEW St Mary’s women's development coaching director Jarred Ilett believes it is a great time to begin his role with the amount of talented young players coming through the ranks. And the NT News can reveal some AFLW stars are helping those future stars along at pre-season training.

New St Mary’s women’s development coaching director Jarred Ilett believes he has plenty of talented young players he can work with in the 2020-21 NTFL season. Picture: HELEN ORR

IT is now the ideal time to be overseeing the impressive depth of women’s talent at St Mary’s.

That is the opinion of the club’s new women's development coaching director, Jarred Ilett.

The former head coach and Saints champion is excited about his new role, particularly given the Green Machine’s under-18 team made the grand final, and its under-15 team finished fourth on the ladder both last season.

“I think the club is in a pretty good spot,” Ilett told the NT News.

“We’ve got some talent under-18 players coming through – J’Noemi Anderson, Jaimie Bryant, Charli Simmonds and Roslyn Starr are all ones to watch.”

St Mary’s captain Shannon Rioli says Maurice Rioli Jr’s humility – like his late great father – is his best asset ahead of AFL Combine

St Mary’s coach Anthony Vallejo says quality players want to come to the NTFL powerhouse, despite last year’s financial difficulties

St Mary’s NTFL recruit from Nightcliff with VFL Development League experience, Josh O’Brien, says injury hell is now forgotten

You would indeed think Saints are ready to vastly improve on their six wins and eighth-placed finish in 2019-20.

Particularly when the NT News can reveal St Kilda AFLW players Isabella Shannon and Olivia Vesely are in pre-season training with the club, and their Saints teammate Claudia Whitfort is expected to join them when she completes her COVID quarantine in two weeks.

The club has also secured the services of VFLW pair Ashlea Melnikas and Megan Williamson, who play alongside Saints’ Isabelle Porter at Williamstown.

Jaylene Boundry brings good experience to the many promising young players coming through at St Mary’s. Picture: JUSTIN KENNEDY

“We are really excited to have these quality players at St Mary’s to show our promising juniors a higher level of footy,” Ilett said.

Ilett will assist Saints' head coach Danielle Chisholm wherever he can.

“On game day I’ll help with stuff like warm-ups, how we structure up and rotations,” he said.

“I had the head coach role here previously, and this will come with a different focus where I’ll be looking at our emerging talent coming through, but I'm excited about it.”

Ilett has been impressed with the amount of people he's been overseeing at pre-season training sessions, and the collective effort his more experienced players are putting in.

“There’s always a clash with other sports like netball, soccer and rugby league at this time of year, but we had good numbers at training last Wednesday,” he said.

“We know there’s still a lot of work to do, but the pleasing thing has been the attitude they’ve all been showing.

“They’re all super competitive and keen to work hard.

“Aaliyah Bailey is two years out of our under-18s and she's been super impressive on the track, Jaylene Boundry brings plenty of experience and Chinette Grant comes out of our under-18s and has a bright future.”

Ilett is also keen to build stronger connections with playing talent on the Tiwi Islands.

“We’re keen to see that blossom in the under-18 space, and we had Laelia Dunn play for us last season. She’s based over there,” he said.