Brisbane Lions Captain Emma Zielke believes the key to another successful season for the Lions’ AFL Women’s team will be ‘sharing the load’.
The Lions finished the home and away season undefeated before succumbing by six-points to Adelaide in a Grand Final nail bitter at Metricon Stadium in March.
Zielke was one of nine Lions who recommitted to the Club yesterday.
“We had a really big focus on team mentality and sharing the load,” said Zielke.
“If we have that same mentality and culture that we brought last year to the squad we’ll be successful again.
“Sharing a load means we don’t rely on many players – everyone needs to play their role within the team. We can look forward to that again next year.”
The 29-year-old said she was buoyed by not only the Lions’ local talent but in particular their interstate players recommitting to the Club.
“It’s obviously great to have the Queensland girls re-sign with us, but to have the three interstate girls with Sabs (Sabrina Frederick-Traub), Woosh (Jess Wuetschner) and Gibbo (Brittany Gibson), that’s a great win for our Club and I’m really excited for them to be playing.
“After the trade period has finished we’ll know our core group of players. We’ll then get stuck into it and really hope that we can bring the excitement that we did this year.”
The Queensland under 18 state women’s team will take on New South Wales this Friday May 19, in their first game of the 2017 NAB AFL Women’s Under-18 Championships.
Brittany Gibson and Sam Virgo are assistant coaches for the under 18s team and Zielke is confident of the depth of talent within the group.
“We have a lot of up and coming talent coming through to the draft,” said Zielke.
“They’ll bring another element to the game. They’re really exciting and skilful. I’m looking forward to them being on our list during the draft.”
