Kicking to glory

By Lachlan Ellis

A sharpshooter has won the BFLW leading goalkicker award, the second year in a row, kicking a whopping 51 goals across 13 games.

Kim Bessell from Darley Football Club’s Women’s side missed just one game in the 2022 home and away season, kicking seven goals on three separate occasions, and eight in the Round 9 derby against Bacchus Marsh.

Her tally of 51 goals put her well ahead of Redan’s second place Jess Bokma (38 goals) and Sebastopol’s third place Katelene Cook (32 goals), but Ms Bessell is modest about the achievement, stating it wouldn’t have been possible without her team.

“It was pretty exciting…it was good to win it this year, seeing as last year a lot of games got cancelled with COVID. It was reassurance that maybe last year I did deserve to win it,” Ms Bessell told the Moorabool News.

“But I honestly couldn’t have kicked all those goals if I didn’t have such a great bunch of girls on my team. I’m finishing off their good work really…it’s been a really good season for us, it’s really exciting playing in the team, seeing where we’ve come from. I played in the first year, we were getting beaten by over 200 points some games.

“We’ve really built up a strong team…it’s a credit to the coach, the assistant coach, and the girls for really putting in the effort.”

Kicking almost four goals on average throughout the home and away season, Ms Bessell would no doubt be an inspiration to many young female footballers – to them, she says to “keep following your dreams”.

The Darley Women’s team lost to Redan 64 to 22 in the qualifying final on Sunday 14 August, but capitalised on their second chance in the semi final against Bacchus Marsh, winning 117 to 6.

They will face Sebastopol in the preliminary final at 12:45 pm on Sunday 28 August, with the winner of that match to face minor premiers Redan in the Grand Final.

Ms Bessell is hopeful the Devils can beat the Burra and make it to their first ever Grand Final.

“Even just to make it to the Grand Final would be amazing, we’ve never played in one. We’ve proven before we can beat Redan when we’re at our best…if we’re on song we can win, during the day it’s anyone’s game really. It’s a really exciting season for us this year,” she said.

“Our goal is to make it to the big dance, but we’re taking it one game at a time. I couldn’t put into words what it’d mean for us to win the flag…Redan’s always been the top team, everyone’s always striving to beat Redan.”