The Bendigo Thunder Women’s Football Club has started the new season with a bang, claiming a 146-point victory over Strathfieldsaye in round one of the Central Victoria Football League Women.
The Thunder held Strathfieldsaye scoreless for the entire game while booting 22 goals of their own as they won 22.14 (146) to 0.0 (0).
Britney Mueck kicked nine goals for the Thunder, while Jessica Kennedy, Abbey Barber, Shae Murphy and Georgia Gordon were also among Bendigo’s best.
Phoebe Cuttriss is in her third season with the Thunder and said the win was a fantastic way to start the season.
“It’s an awesome way to start things off and it’s really exciting,” Cuttriss said.
“There’s a really good feeling at the club at the moment, so that scoreline and heaps of girls getting a couple of goals makes it really exciting.
“We moved the ball out of the centre really well and going forward we had a couple of key targets that we hit up regularly.
“They were really tough and really hard at the footy, but we showed some really great skills and had some unreal passages of play. All the stuff we’d put into practice at training all came off and we were really happy.
“It’s hard to tell what the rest of the season is going to look like but hopefully if that’s anything to go off then I think we are setting ourselves up for a really good year.”
The win caps off a huge week for Cuttriss, who was named as Bendigo’s captain.
Cuttriss will lead the side alongside vice-captains Hannah Perry and Shae Murphy. The leadership group was voted on by the Thunder players.
“I was in a fair bit of shock, I really did not expect it. It is very nice to have that come from my teammates,” Cuttriss said.
“I was very excited and very honoured to say, yes, I would do it.”
This will be the first time Cuttriss has captained a side and she said she was very much looking forward to the experience.
“Our team is pretty special this year, so it’s very exciting,” she said.
“I was pretty nervous actually going into Sunday, I wasn’t really sure what the game was going to be like, but once I was out there I was all right.
“It is just really exciting. We have an affiliation with the Whitehills junior girls team and we have a lot of young girls around the club at the moment, so it’s showing them the ropes and showing them what senior women’s footy is about.
“We have a few girls that have never played before so it’s really exciting to be able to lead them as well.”
Bendigo will be hoping to make it two wins from two when it hits the road to take on Kerang at Riverside Park this Sunday.