Gridiron –
The Central Coast Sharks are gearing up for another bumper season in the Gridiron NSW Women’s Competition and are already off to a solid start, with one win and one loss under their belts.
The Bateau Bay based club are the Coast’s only gridiron offering and have been giving locals a pathway to experience American football for the better part of a decade, but in a strange twist of fate, their fledgling women’s outfit is now their only competitive team, with their Colts and Men’s falling short on player numbers.
Sharks’ President, Luke Smidmore, said that this was a direct result of the pandemic, which has had a profound impact on virtually every aspect of the club’s operations this year.
“Aside from not having our usual teams, the big issue for us was getting preseason underway without any of the logistical things we’d normally do.
“We couldn’t do our usual fundraiser, couldn’t get out in the community to raise awareness or recruit players and that hurt us in the sponsor department, so really, all preseason was just about training in a Covid-safe way.
“It was turn up, check in and go.
“The ‘community’ aspect of community sport was lacking,” Smidmore said.
Thankfully, despite this only being their second season, the Sharks’ Women are a ragtag mix of seasoned veterans and promising recruits and Smidmore is confident that they’ll go far this year.
“When the women started last year, it was mainly fresh recruits with a handful of veterans who lived on the Coast but travelled to play for Sydney teams, so they were more competitive than people expected them to be.
“Most have returned this year, so we’re optimistic of their chances.”
With a championship title every club’s goal, the Sharks are well on their way, with the Central Coast outfit currently sitting in second on the leader board as of Round 4.
So far this season it’s been one extreme to the other, with their first hit out a hard to swallow 30-nil loss against competition leaders, UNSW Raiders, which they bounced back from in spectacular fashion with a 28-nil win over the UTS Giants.
Looking to stay in the winners’ circle, Smidmore said the Sharks would continue to hone their form in the lead up to their Round 5 clash with the Sydney University Lions on November 7.
“The Lions have an excellent reputation in the comp, but the Sharks have found their momentum so ultimately, it’ll boil down to who’s better on the day.”
Dilon Luke