Words: Michael Flynn
Image: Patrick Kearney/Football Queensland

The Gap FC Women coach Rob Askew says his Grand Final winning team need new challenges and is calling for a national finals series.

Gators stormed to their fourth major trophy in two years on Sunday with a 4-2 come-from-behind win over Olympic FC Women at Walton Bridge Reserve.

The title concluded a perfect season for the club - posting 22 straight wins in 2016 to dominate Queensland’s top level of women’s club football.

Askew said he is a big believer in the PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues concept and hopes it continues to be refined and grow in coming seasons, including the introduction of play-off to determine a national champion.

“I’d love to go down and play some of the other states and see where we stand there,” Askew explained.

“That’s something that could give us a bit of a challenge and, hopefully, Football Queensland can help to make that happen.”

“It happens in the men’s football and there was an impressive crowd of people (at the Grand Final), so there’s definitely a big future for women’s football if we can get the same opportunities.”

With his side the undisputed powerhouse of women’s football in the state, Askew said constantly setting new benchmarks was crucial to his side’s returns.

“We’ve had this period of dominance and we’ve been winning pretty much everything but the risk is that we get demotivated by that.”

“We need to look constantly for new challenges and there are new challenges because now we have gone through undefeated and next year there’s a great attraction of can we do a three-peat.”

One challenge the Gators mastermind had to overcome this year was a significant turnover in players from last year’s squad.

He cited the influence of inspirational midfield duo Ruth Blackburn and Megan Price – who both scored in the Grand Final – as crucial to blooding his latest recruits.

“We lost a lot of very important players in the off-season. Mature players in their twenties and some of them had been at the club since they were juniors.”

“I think a lot of credit has to go to Megan and Ruth for making sure we integrated the new players and they understand what our football is all about.”

“When you come to this club then you are going to play The Gap way and the girls responded to it.”

However, in a worrying statement for Gators’ PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues Women’s opponents, Askew suggested this current side has yet to peak.

“I would have to say this team is not there yet. We have about 25 to 30 per cent more improvement as they understand what we are all about,” he concluded.