Wangaratta women lock in three coaches to lead team in 2021

The reigning AWFA cup champions will be guided by Shankar Menon and Satiago Ferreyra Bas, who have both relocated to the region from Melbourne, while Amy Fuller has retained her role as fitness coach and will complement the new additions.

Menon has more than a decade of coaching experience under the belt in India and Australia and is excited to take on his first senior women's role.

"One of the good things about the club is it's very organised in terms of giving opportunities to people," he said.

"The good thing about the club, especially the women's team is they have a good bond among themselves.

"It's one of the things I encourage all of my teams to have because you need to have that off-field bond to be a strong unit on the pitch.

"When you're defending champions, there's added pressure.

"It's one thing to get to the top, but to stay there is very difficult."

Menon's key message to the group has been to maintain discipline on and off the field.

"If you're not in the team or the starting 11 on a particular match day, I want the players to come and support the team," he said.

"I've made those things clear with the girls because you want that strong bond off the pitch and not just while they are playing."

ALSO IN SPORT:

The Devils finished third in the league in 2019, but toppled league champions St Pats in the cup final.

Argentinian Ferreyra Bas doesn't believe the side has lost its hunger to compete despite a long layoff.

"The girls have been looking good and have improved a lot since we started training," he said.

"We're very keen to get the girls on the field and show what they can do.

"We have a great bunch of players and I'm sure we'll be contenders.

"It's great for the girls to show that kind of commitment, it's what you need."

Fuller has had her work cut out on the fitness side due to no football being played after round one in 2020.

"Maybe one or two kept fit, but every single girl, including myself, was definitely in need of improving fitness," she said.

"With the three coaches, we're kind of splitting up the sessions, so I get them for maybe 20 minutes and run some pretty hard agility circuits."

Fuller lost her father in October last year, who was one of the team's biggest supporters, but in a touching tribute, a host of players have returned to the club to honour his memory.

"He would be absolutely stoked to know people like 'Rizz' (Caity Rizzo) are coming back for him," Fuller said.

"It's really special."

Former representative player Beth Cope has been among the standouts on the track.

"We've been training twice a week, but we're maybe looking at Saturdays as well and trying to follow it up with some social stuff," she said.

"It's been hard with the weather stinking hot and the next minute it's raining."