The NSW team touched down in Perth late Tuesday night and have been thinking AFL from the minute we landed.
We had a tough game yesterday against the NT girls who were very strong and physical across the ground. Captain Trish Muller inspired the team in the sheds, playing a clip from Any Given Sunday, which encouraged the Blues to always give that bit extra - the extra inch between taking a mark and just falling short, the extra inch that gets you to the contest, instead of watching the play happen. This pumped us up to go out keen to show that the NSW girls were here to play.
The words TEAM and 110% were written on our hands and referred to throughout the game to remind of us what we here to do - and that was play for the girls around us, run hard for the contest and back up and encourage our teammates at all times.
The game was a hard fought contest and at half time, the scores were close and Coach Jason King was begging us all to take it out even harder in the next quarter - to stand up and take the game on. The premiership quarter saw the girls do just that - grit, determination and and running in packs proved the key to some great plays from the backline, straight down the wing to a strong target from the forwards.
This quarter demoralised the opposition, who lost a little of their spark, which proved vital to the NSW win. All in all, a super game for the Blues in their first match of the Championships.
3-2-1 votes went to Trish Muller, Roxy McGee and Una McKay.
In our game today, we took the highway down to East Freemantle to take on South Australia who had a convincing win yesterday againt the WA host team, winning by over 50 points.
We started off with a warm up with the sun beaming down before hitting the sheds for a pre game chat. Coach Jason King reminded us to leave everything we had on the field - to be a champion team rather than a team full of champions. The ten minutes in the sheds saw the rain start to come down and conditions for the first 20 minutes were slippery, with little marking opportunities available.
The SA girls got off to a quick start though, kicking two goals in the first ten minutes, with a late fight back by the Blues getting us a goal just before the hooter. After some encouraging words, the Blues came out hard but SA had another goal on the board within five minutes of play. The rest of the quarter was a great battle, but SA took the lead into the main break.
The half time talk was all about getting in front of your player and being accountable at all times. Missing was the running in packs from the day before - which was quickly addressed by the team.
The third quarter was encouraging and close, with some good passages of play from the ruck which brought NSW back into the contest - it was undoubtedly our best quarter of the game - but we were still trailing on the scoreboard.
The fourth quarter really was make or break stuff, with the team so keen to play with intensity. With about two minutes to go from full time, we got a major score on the board which levelled up the game at 33 all. Unfortunately, it seemed we got in just a little bit too early and perhaps exhausted too much energy locking the ball down there for the goal. From the next ruck, the SA girls got the ball out and down to their forward line to convert for a six pointer which in the end, we just couldn't claw back.
End score: South Australia 6.3.39 NSW 5.4.34
3-2-1 votes went to Una McKay, Cherie Harmer with a tie for third between Jemma Still and Kate Fitzsimmons.
Overall, it was a good learning experience of what we need to do to make the GF on Saturday. From here, we need to beat WA2 on Saturday. They beat the Northern Territory team this afternoon - which now leaves NT out of the running for the Grand Final.
Rest day tomorrow will see the team travel down to Cottlesloe for an early morning swim and recovery session, followed by a wander around Fremantle with a light training session in the late afternoon.
Thanks to everyone who has sent messages and emails to wish us good luck - it means a lot to the team and we're keen to do SWAFL proud.
Signing off from Perth - with the next update to come through on Saturday afternoon.
Cheers,
Jem
(SWAFL President and knackered NSW player)
Ed: Unlucky girls, as Jem said basically the winner of Saturday's match NSW vs WA 2 will play South Australia in the Division 2 grand final on Sunday. Goal scorers were Cassi Bell with 2 goals and single goals to Marie Keating, Roxy McGee and Kate Fitzsimons. In other news Victoria steam-rolled the hosts 15.10.100 to 0.4.4 putting them in the grand final. WA is most likely to finish second in Division 1 and replay the Big V in front of a large Subiaco crowd before the West Coast vs Geelong match.
Last Modified on 04/06/2009 21:25