For the girl’s bottom age under 18 talent Hannah Loughnan was again named, along with fellow top-age talent Maddie Ibrahim and, for the first time her younger sister Abbey. Talented sister trio Jazmine, Latoya and Crystal Holdsworth were also chosen.
The girls are part of a squad of 51 talented players from around the North East and Goulburn Valley regions to don the black, yellow and purple for the 2024 season.
The group is made up of girls eligible for either of the under-16 and under-18 sides, set to kick off their respective seasons in March and April.
Murray Bushrangers girls’ coach Emma Mackie was rapt with the team that’s been pulled together to contest the 2024 Coates Talent League season.
“The coaches and myself have been really impressed with the talent that we’ve got across the board,” Mackie said.
“We’ll have a really great squad this year and I think you’ll see we will be more competitive against some of the other Coates Talent League teams across Victoria.
“But I think what we’ll see is some really great individuals come out, have some strong performances and hopefully at the end of the year, we can get a couple of them drafted.
“The program’s still building and developing and hopefully, we can continue to strengthen it this year.”
In the Under 18 boys’ local Ryder Stevens and Ben Kennedy join a strong squad of 41 players with Bushrangers talent lead Mick Wilson outlining a fairly rigourous screening process unearthed some of the best talents the region has to offer.
“Back in July and August we asked for nominations from the clubs and, off the back of players coming in and doing athletic testing and intra-club games, we chose a pre-season squad,” Wilson said.
“We moved into pre-season, which consisted of six weeks before Christmas and then another couple of weeks after Christmas.
“Over the Christmas break, players were given a program to do a five-week block of both athletic and skill-based activities.
“Then we came back, had a trial game and some more testing and off the back of that, we’ve chosen a squad of about 40 players (for the boys), but that also includes some players based in Melbourne at private school.”
In the Under 16s boys’ squad, Yarrawonga’s Mitch Tyson and Sam Trembath were chosen alongside Mulwala talent Oliver Watson.
The Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort remains a major supporter of the Murray Bushrangers program.
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