Clare and Georgia Smith will be coaching the Hawkettes in 2025.
“The Hawkettes are looking pretty good this year. It’s probably one of the best preseasons that we’ve had.”
Georgia Smith, alongside sister Clare, affectionately called the ‘twinnies’ have been dealing opposition sides plenty of losses over the last 9-10 years. Starting out as teenagers and representing the region and going on to represent much higher honours, the Smith ladies have set the benchmark high when it comes to league tag in the area. Not just in their fitness and skill set, but their mental and physical toughness, which has seen them play injured and still get the win.
Georgia said, “We have been training since the first week of February and we’ve got quite a few new girls. Our numbers are about 18 at the moment.”
“We’ve got a few new girls coming across from Young, friends of friends, which is really good.”
“The training that we have had we hooked into the fitness and we have started getting into our ball work now with everyone showing up.
“We have the majority of our team coming back from last year as well. We are still trying to lock down Kate and Emma to play again.”
“It’s been pretty good. It’s been a little bit different on myself and Clare having to run the trainings while trying to participate in it at the same time and it is something that we are adjusting to.”
“The girls have been really good about it and they have made it an easy job to start with and I think as the comp starts to approach more we will probably feel a little bit of pressure.”
“The first game is the weekend of ANZAC, so we still have a few weeks of training which we need and will be good for us too.”
“We have Binalong straight up and that won’t be an easy game for us to start the comp with.
“Last year they gave us a bit of a run for our money.”
Clare and Georgia are co-coaching and it has been really good for them in 2025.
Georgia said, “We have Jason on the side always offering his help to support us and that is always nice to know he is there and then with Kate, if she’s not there playing with us, she is there to help us as well, which is nice to have that extra support too.”
The ‘twinnies’ have plenty of experience and not much rattles their determination to perform at a high level.
“I think coming back from the experience that we’ve given over the years which is playing in Canberra and recently representing Australia and New Zealand under really good coaches, probably some of the best coaches that Australia has and in the world, we are offloading those skills on top of what Jason has been teaching us over the years.”
“We are trying to stick to our structure that we’ve built from the last ten years with Jason while also adding in some new concepts to the game which is more Oz Tag style of footy as well and just adding that on top of each other.”
“We’ve got a young girl, Tamsyn Ritchie, who has come across from Boorowa, as they don’t look like they are fielding a side, and Clare has a girl who has just started work with her this year, Taylor, and she has played for Gundagai before and she has come across and she’s quite handy too. They are going to be very handy ball players for us.”
“I think in terms of our training and with coming off the back of having Eliza returning, Jess and Lib and Josie and the Emms girls, comes in really handy as well as mine and Clare’s idea of having 18 players and running a bench it’s going to be a little bit tougher than previous years because we’ve had lower numbers.
“I think our training at the moment is around building that confidence and getting the girls amongst every single position so we have that option on game day to pick anyone off the bench to play in any position whether it’s on the wing or in the middle as well.”
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