Dubbo coach to lead AFL Central West team

Originally published in the Dubbo Photo News

Local Australian rules football coach Peter Martinoli has been selected to coach the 2022 Central West women’s representative team.

The Dubbo Demon’s senior women’s head coach will lead the team in their 2022 representative campaign, building a team from players across the region.

It is Martinoli’s first time taking on the top job and he is excited about what he can bring to the position.

“There’s a bit of nervous energy but I think I’ve got a lot to offer. The position sort of formally starts when you’re getting the team together and such, so we’re getting that rolling ASAP. There’s only six or seven weeks before the game so every week matters.”

Applications for the coaching position opened earlier this year and closed sooner than in previous seasons.

“They went live earlier this year to try and get a bit more training and team bonding and building in.

“That came about based on feedback the players had last year.”

The AFL Central West competition includes just four clubs, based in Dubbo, Orange, and Bathurst, but attracts players from across the region. Martinoli said he wants to showcase the Australian rules talent found deep in league territory.

“I just want to really showcase what the Central West AFL has to offer and to help show that there is a pathway from juniors to seniors. Footy doesn't have to end once you turn 18. Particularly for the youth girls, there is future for them if they want to keep playing and, you know, there's higher levels if they want to keep playing as well.

“[I want] to really showcase what's going on in different regions other than Sydney, other than Melbourne because there's more to footy than just metro footy.”

In recent years the Central West women’s team has seen a huge pull from Bathurst, and he hopes having a coach from elsewhere in the region might attract new players too.

“I think there's more to the AFL in the Central West, there’s this deep breadth of players across the Central West, who probably haven't had the opportunity to step forward and step into that. So hopefully I can encourage a few more players that, you know, might have been a bit too scared before or too anxious about it to come in, to have a go.”

Martinoli said he’s watched the quality of Australian rules football in the Central West explode over the past three years, with clubs attracting better staff and players year on year.

“Over the past three years the competition is setting a higher standard each year. Covid-19 obviously had a bit of an impact on that in the last couple of seasons, but the brand of footy just keeps attracting higher quality players.”

That attraction is best proved by the recent signing of ex-St Kilda player Lenny Hayes at the Bathurst Giants.

“It’s always exciting to see [football] getting recognition further out west, it’s just really important. There’s a lot of people that might not know that AFL is in Dubbo, so hopefully part of this role might make Dubbo realise that there's another sport here to get behind and encourage more players to come try,” he said.

The announcement comes off the back of an impressive win for the Demon’s women’s side against the Bathurst Bushrangers last weekend.

Travelling with just 13 players the team battled an 18-player strong Bushies, leaving with a 6.9.45 – 2.2.14 win.

Martinoli said though fatigue started to set in during the fourth quarter, he couldn’t complain about the team’s effort.

“I was always confident that as long as we were competitive, our best 12 or 13, we're going to be better than their best 13 on field.

“We got started early, got a few goals early and it set us up for the rest of the day. Fatigue definitely started to show towards the end of the game, but we just we started playing a bit smarter and resting behind the ball instead of trying to chase the ball everywhere and slow the game down wherever we could to allow ourselves to have that 10-second breather and then go again.”

Though rain held out for the Saturday game, wet weather throughout the week left the field dense and muddy.

“The oval definitely held up better than probably expected. There are still a few muddy spots but for the most part the ground had dried off all the surface water and just where water had soaked in was some muddy spots, particularly the two forward lines of two 50m arcs.”

Martinoli called out Lauren Hazel as his best on, saying she settled into a new role well on the ground.

“Lauren Hazel playing a different role to what she's normally played did an outstanding job, always supplying the ball to her fellow forwards or the midfielders running through and getting great team goals.”

Leadership member Bec Wilde also returned to the team for the first time this year.

“It's definitely exciting to have Bec back, and she brought a bit of stability to our midfield. She's always just consistent at her job. You know week in, week out she's just going to do that job and she does it without disappointing.”

Unfortunately for the Demons both men’s teams went down this weekend, unable to get a leg up across the muddy field.

Tier two men’s went down 4.6.30 to Bushies 10.3.63 while the one’s faced a disappointing 4.5.29 to 11.21.87 loss.

The Demons are back on the road this week, heading to Orange on Saturday to face the Tigers in their first rematch of the season.