Norwood name exciting trio as Leadership Group

By Joseph Marciano

NORWOOD has unveiled its SANFLW leadership group for the upcoming 2021 season, with Captain Alison Ferrall to head up a three-player group.

Ferrall will be joined in the leadership group by once again Vice-Captain Sophie Armitstead and the incoming Elisha Gallagher.

Gallagher will join the leadership group for the first time after spending the past four seasons at the Norwood Football Club. Voted as Deputy Vice-Captain, Gallagher’s contribution, dedication, and leadership both on and off the field is highly regarded by her teammates and coaches.

The 26-year-old has notched up 25 games in three seasons for Norwood and will look to put her best foot forward as now a senior leader of the football club.

Continuing Captain Ferrall said she cannot wait to lead the team again in 2021 and believes Sophie and Elisha are fantastic individuals who will no doubt help improve the side this season.

“I’m very excited to be named captain again,” said Ferrall.

“I consider it very special to be part of this group of players, this program and this club, and then to be selected to help lead this group is something I’m very humbled by.

“Elisha is passionate on and off the field and you can always hear her encouraging and pushing all of us. She has a willingness to learn and always strive to be the best she can be.

“Sophie leads by example in her performance and preparation and the girls really look up to her.

“The three of us want to encourage our group to all be leaders in their own way, and we believe that will help us to continue to move forward as a team and have a positive impact in our performances.”

Incoming Coach Mat Creeper believes the three women chosen to lead Norwood are the best three to take the team forward in 2021.

“It’s a slightly different group in terms of structure,” said Creeper.

“We’ve trimmed it back a little bit not having a huge amount of personnel responsible for leading the team.

“We have Ali returning as Captain, Sophie returning as Vice-Captain and then we’ve injected Elisha Gallagher into the mix as Deputy Vice-Captain.

“We think they are the three-best people at this time to take us forward and bring a number of different characteristics that complement our group.

Creeper went onto to identify the strengths of each leader and what the team and fans can expect from them in 2021.

“My expectation is that they lead the group in right manner and direction,” Creeper said.

“We’ve had little chats with them about how we want to go about our footy and obviously they need to instil the key ethos of what we’re trying to achieve.

“When they are out on the field, they are the leaders and as coaches we can’t do what we might want to do, they need to drive it and action it.

“We have given them advice on the way which we would like them to lead, and we expect that both on and off the field.

“We talk a lot about behaviours, being professional, being united and being respectful which are some of our key areas of focus.

“We want our leaders to uphold that and if anyone goes outside those boundaries, they need to be held accountable.

“So far our leaders have been excellent and doing are fantastic job leading from the front and we have no doubt that they will continue to do so throughout the whole of 2021.”