You can't put a price on experience but you quickly learn its value. As the AFL Southern NSW Women's competition gets set for expansion, North Wagga are a case study in development and growth.
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The Saints, now back in training for only their second season, have discovered what a difference 12 months make.
"Probably the biggest thing that blew me away at our first training was that I'd forgotten how much the girls had learnt - the players that played last year," North Wagga women's coach, Nathan Dowdle said.
"So it was really pleasing that we've kicked off at a quite high level already, compared to last year when we really had to break it down to very basics, like learning to handball."
Saints qualified for a grand final in their first season, however the competition was cancelled just before the big dance thanks to COVID-19. He was thrilled with last year's improvement.
"I went into it sort of saying, 'This is a game that I love and I want to show you my passion for it.' And I really thought they took that on board," Dowdle said.
"It's been fantastic. The last game we had at Gumly (that booked their grand final spot against Charles Sturt University), the most pleasing thing from a coaching point of view was that everything we worked on came together and they played a real team game... to see that fall into place, I thought that was success for the girls."
Sarah Harmer has been the driving force behind North Wagga's women's team. Last year, they went in just hoping to be competitive but she says the disappointment of missing their shot at a title will be a big motivator.
"Being that we missed the grand final last year, we're excited. We've got about 12 new girls and we're going to build a whole new team and hope to bring what we brought last year," Harmer said.
"I think we had quite low standards (last year) but we're going to have those higher goals and push ourselves. I think this year we'll have a lot more who have played, whether at school or in a comp in their home town, so I think we'll have that bit more quality. And the ones that aren't (experienced), they're picking it up super-fast."
Saints lose league best-and-fairest Jordy Barrett and Abbey Platt but have ruck-forward Skye Davey back from a season in the strong Canberra league, where she kicked five goals in her first game for Tuggeranong.
