By Jonty Ralphsmith
Dandenong prospect Jemma Ramsdale started the season as a shutdown defender with leadership and toughness underpinning her game.
The Rays captain finished it with those attributes embedded in her conscience and with newfound intercepting and rebounding flair.
At the midway point of the season, Ramsdale’s hopes of reaching the next level were teetering.
Her start to the season was solid, without banging the door down; putting a high currency on her national championships.
Ramsdale needed to prove that the confidence with which she flew for marks and relentlessly tussled with her opponent at training could translate consistently into games.
“She added lots of strings to her bow this year and rounded out her game and became almost a complete footballer,” Stingrays coach Josh Moore said.
After a poor game against Queensland to start the championships, Ramsdale was out of the side for the second outing.
“When I got dropped I reached out to (Vic Country coach) Mel Hickey and (Vic Country backline coach) Sally Riley and they gave me stuff to work on,” Ramsdale said.
“It was pretty much around backing myself in.
“They know I can win my one-on-ones and that I’m a strong player, so they were saying ‘don’t be scared of the ball, don’t hesitate, just go when you see it and back your spacing and aggressiveness to smash packs and take marks’.”
Watching the second game on the sidelines was tough, particularly given it was the only game Vic Country played in Victoria.
Ramsdale, however, spent the unwanted sabbatical training well and watching extra vision of the first half of her season to drill down into the different decisions she could make on-field going forward.
The game in Perth was the start of the rest of her season; she showed a side of herself that recruiters had yet to see.
“That WA game, she was, in my eyes, best on ground,” Moore said.
She pushed her name up recruiters’ boards and was subsequently given jobs on highly-regarded goal kickers Georgia Clark and Chantal Mason, keeping Clark to 1.1 and three marks and Mason scoreless with just two marks.
“I feel like when I get matched up, I get matched up on one of the best players on the field,” Ramsdale noted.
“I got matched up on some of the best girls, so the ball pretty much comes to me which I really like, it brings me into the games more.
“That’s when I played some of my good games, whereas at the start of the year, I didn’t have that responsibility.
“I think I should’ve been the person to do that because when I did do that, I feel like I did a good job and helped the team out a lot.
“When I had a role on someone, that was my job for the whole day – I don’t care if I get 10 touches, if (coach) Josh (Moore) wants me to be on this girl and shut her down, then I will.
“Yeah, it’s good to have some personal goals, but I would rather 22 girls be happy than just me be happy.”
Those games reinforced that she retained a defend-first mindset amid a groundswell of confidence to peel off.
She completed those assignments essentially while being a music conductor on-field, positioning members of her proverbial band to play in-sync when the ball came into defensive 50.
“It’s hard for me not to think about leadership and character with Jemma because I think her leadership and character is as good as any I’ve seen come through the Stingrays in the last five or six years,” Moore said.
“She’s a great person who sacrifices her own game for the good of the team and her teammates.
“She’ll leave a pretty big hole in our program.”
Moore highlights that Ramsdale’s attitude following her omission precipitated her form rise.
“We had a chat about her missing out on the (Vic Country vs) Vic Metro game and she was really flat and down and she had every right to feel disappointed, but after 24 hours you have to move on quickly and use it as motivation and a driving force to get back to playing your best footy.”
Ramsdale has nominated for the national draft with Perth a probable destination, Fremantle and West Coast both having expressed interest, alongside Sydney.
