Last weekend our Women's Reserves team - current reigning premiers of VAFA's Premier B Women's Reserves - defeated second-placed Mazenod Old Collegians to book their place in the 2023 finals series. With our Senior women having sewn up a finals berth a few weeks earlier, the Ressies win meant that, for the first time in the history of our Women's football programme, both Seniors and Reserves have qualified for finals in the same year.
So as both Women's teams head towards the finals, we note that today marks the seventh anniversary of the very first match ever played by an Ashes' Women's team.
At Frearson Oval on a cold late winter's Friday night - 26th August 2016 - seventeen young women took the field to represent the Monash University Blues Football Club.
Coached by the man who would go on to coach the Monash Women's Senior squad for the next five seasons - Ian Mills - and assisted by an exceptional young Men's player in Daniel Easson, the team that night included a few names that would soon have lengthy associations with our Club: Grace Mills (left in the bottom picture) - who would go on to captain the Senior team and be our equal first player to reach the 50 game milestone; Molly McFarlane (right in the bottom picture) - who captained the Reserves team to our first ever premiership last season and who is currently the leading goal kicker in the history of our women's programme and current equal games leader; Jacqui Allitt and Maddison Whyte - both of whom went on to play for the Club for the next three seasons. Best on ground that night for us was Ange Gogos who only a few months after this match would be signed by the Western Bulldogs as a free agent for the first season of AFLW football and then went on to play a key role in that team's premiership-winning 2018 AFLW season.
The team from West Brunswick, who were also working towards becoming an inaugural competitor in the first ever season of VAFA Women's footy (2017), ventured out to Monash to provide us with our first ever opponent in this exhibition match and, in blustery conditions (is anyone surprised?) fought hard from start to finish but the night ended with a win for the Mighty Blues.
Our team that night was made up of Rachael Tynan, Keira Unmack, Molly Sexton, Tilly Gleeson, Angelica Gogos, Maddison Whyte, Lillie Callow, Olivia Boylan, Grace Mills, Amy Yates, Steph Bolan, Emily Lyall-Green, Molly McFarlane and Jacqui Allitt with Tanille Amiet, Jamie Byrne and Emilie Richter joining us on the night, on loan from Swinburne Uni (all in the top picture which also includes runner, Bridie Chesterfield, and coach, Ian Mills).
Jacqui Dreher, Sophie Fitzgerald, India Gillings, Meg Lambie, Kiah O'Brien and Alanah D'Aquino had trained with us in the weeks leading up to the match but were unfortunately not available to play on that Friday night.
The final score was Monash Blues 3.2.20 versus West Brunswick 2.5.17 with goals to McFarlane (2) and Gogos and Gogos, Mills, Boylan, Allitt, Yates and Sexton all being named in our best.
...and this is where the journey started.
