Sport
10 April, 2026
Lions appoint leaders
THE Corangamite Lions have announced the 2026 on-field leaders for their senior women’s team, with Andrei O’Connor elevated to co-captain alongside 2025 captain Lenise Mantell.
“Andrei has just kept improving to where we now think she’s an on-field leader anyway,” Lions women’s coach Jamie Norton said.
“Lenise is such a great leader and was pretty happy to try and have a co-captain, so I think it’s all worked very well together.”
O’Connor was best and fairest for the team in 2025 and the golden boot award with eight goals, with Mantell runner-up best and fairest, and kicked seven goals.
The Lions’ women finished eighth out of nine last season with three wins, two draws and 10 losses, with Norton expecting a much improved performance in 2026.
Pre-season practice matches have seen the Lions women in sensational form, with a 10-0 win over a south west Victorian representative team and a 17-0 win over the Colac Otway Rovers; Mantell bagging five and six goals in those two games.
“They’ve had some massive wins, you don’t have wins like that unless you stay structured and disciplined.
“That game against Colac Otway, they just stayed so structured and so disciplined throughout the whole game, kept piling the goals on, it was just a credit to the girls and the work that they put in really.”
The Lions kick off their season on April 19 with an away game against Ballarat North.
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