Trust in depth, lower grades more vital than ever?

For Cobden coach Sophie Hinkley, it's definitely a factor. The Bombers are confident they can transition players seamlessly through the grades due to similar tactical and coaching setups through the club.

"Across the board really, with all our teams, we try to make sure we have consistent structures and gameplans," Hinkley said.

"We feel as though those things are consistent across our open and division one grades so people should be able to step up when needed.

"We also have a strong under 17 team - Nadine McNamara coaches them - and she does a lot of work with them based on what we do in the open team for that very reason of having that consistency and giving them that confidence to step up because we are really prioritising giving our juniors those opportunities as well.

"We think having those consistent messages as teams, even if we're not training together all the time (is important)."

Hinkley said while the club was running separate squads in 2022 - it had a combined open and division one list in 2021 - it felt consistency and understanding was at an all-time high. "We mainly did the squad like that last year because Jess Wheadon was laying open and coaching division one, but this year she's playing and coaching in div one," she said.

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