Congratulations to the Fitzroy-ACU Womens 1 team who have made the semi-finals of the Division 3 competition in just their second season in the Victorian Womens Football League.

It would be great to see a big Fitzroy crowd this Sunday 7 August from 12pm at Bill Lawry Oval, Westgarth Street, Northcote to cheer on the Roy Girls as they take on the SKOB Saints.

Coach John Marshall saysplaying their first final is a fitting reward for the hard work of the club and the girls to build a football team from scratch.

But it has been a challenge to keep the excitement under wraps and focus on each game, having secured the finals spot several weeks ago.

Their opponents, the SKOB Saints, in just their first season, beat Fitzroy-ACU last weekend by 9 points, so the teams have had a good look at each others recent form.

SKOBS are a bigger bodied fast team with good skills,John said.

They work on closing down the game which was very effective last Saturday against our smaller players trying to work the ball into space. It will be good to have another crack at them back-to-back. We know how they set up and where we need to improve to be competitive against them.

Last week we had several players who had not played a lot of football in the last month who needed to be tested in game conditions and there will be a couple of players coming up from the Womens 2 team to provide some better match-ups./p>

John said this is always the toughest week for a coach having to tell some of the girls they will miss out on playing their first Finals game. I have had to do that task in the past and it doesnt get any easier, no matter how many times you have to do it. It is a real test of the players character in the way they handle the disappointment and put their effort into supporting their team any way they can on the day./p>

John said he wants the team to focus on doing the simple things well this week. The most important thing I would like the players to do is to get some good nightssleep between now and Sunday. For the game the focus will be on the process of moving the ball quickly, to play the type of Risky Roy Girl Footy that is our trademark and build some scoreboard pressure early./p>

A real measure of progress this season has been the success of the Womens 2 team under Jo Hogan. They only missed out on playing finals by 2 points and won more games than the Roy Girls did in 2015. A real indicator of the depth in the playing group is that 35 players have played in the Womens 1 team this season, most of those for two or more games.

This season everyone has had to step up and take on more responsibility for themselves and their teammates. The bigger group means a more diverse set of reasons for players wanting to play the best team game in the world, and challenge their coaches and the Leadership Group to find ways to help them improve and grow as footballers and people.

Some training nights it seems like there are over 40 different learning processes taking place out on Ramsden Street Oval, and two of those are the coaches. The girls have become real students of the game, asking thoughtful questions, and challenging each other to improve their game sense and skills at every opportunity,John said.
Please note that for all finals there is an entry fee. For this game the fee is $5 for adults, no concession, and children under 14 free. Also no dogs or alcohol are allowed to be brought into the ground - you will be refused entry if you bring a dog (other than guide and seeing eye dogs).

The winner of Sundays game plays the loser of the Gippsland v AJAX game and the loser is eliminated. Go Roy Girls!