SWFL women’s: Busselton women’s coach Rob Witten says his side will need whole team effort to win grand final

Busselton women’s coach Rob Witten says his side cannot leave the burden of winning the grand final to a few individuals and will need a whole team effort to claim the premiership. The Magpies boast some of the competition’s best players, including midfielder Katie-Jayne Grieve, veteran Rennie Meadmore and defender Dianna Evans. But Witten said he was stoked with his side’s depth and believed some of their under-the-radar talent would be their key to success on the big stage. “That’s the only way we can win this, as a team. Individuals aren’t going to win it for us, and it’s the same for (Bunbury),” he said. “I think we’re pretty even everywhere. Our bottom five girls probably get a game in most sides. A lot of them are young, but they’re all good quality and play good footy and play their role. I’m pretty happy with everyone. “Everyone’s trained really hard and each and every girl’s put in a big effort.” The clash will be a rematch of last year’s season decider, where the Magpies failed to cap off a dominant season by suffering a heartbreaking loss to the Bulldogs. But Witten, who took on the job at the start of this year, said he would not look to draw on the past in preparing his side for the game. “Nothing’s ever been discussed about last year,” he said. “We have a bit of a motto, we have no control over yesterday but we have a little bit over tomorrow. “They won fair and square last year, that’s their part. We’re not after any redemption but we’re certainly keen to win. “They’re pretty excited ... hopefully it’s going to be a good day and a really, really good game of footy.” Witten said he had put more stock into his side’s semifinal and preliminary final victories over South Bunbury and Harvey than their first qualifying final against Bunbury, when they suffered a record-breaking 70-point defeat. “(The first qualifying final) was just a forget game. They blew us out of the water, but that happens sometimes,” he said. “We’ve played pretty well since, we had a really good, tough one against South Bunbury and then we really showed a bit of class on Sunday against Harvey. “We’ll just play our very best and hopefully it works.”