Well it was a warm Saturday morning as the sun rose at WEST HQ for the NRL WA Women’s League Tag team. A quick team breakfast, with strapping and a meeting where Coach Terrell let all the ladies know the expectations of the day.
Then it was into the Buses and take the short trip over to St Mary’s Leagues Stadium, With tunes blaring and the ladies in a good mood, expectations of the day were moderate. Could we compete with the best of the best league tag players from around the NSW Competitions?
Photo – Warren Gannon Photography
We knew the assignment and up first it was going to be tough, taking on one of the tournament heavyweights in the Central Coast off the bat. During the warm up the ladies seemed a little tense. This was a quickfire tournament, where the games would be 8 minute halves, with a quick switchover at half time. Something the girls were not familiar with. But before the ladies took the field, they had a couple of surprise guests. WA first graders Riley Bradley, Phil Saunderson and Brodie Dunn made an appearance and wished the girls good luck, on their way to their own SG Ball trial for the weekend.
Onto business though, and the WA ladies were slow out of the blocks, with the Central Coast ladies controlling the tempo from the outset and swinging the ball around with abandon in a new style that the WA crew hadn’t seen much of in the past. They score two quick fire tries to lead 8-0 before WA had even touched the ball and just like that it was half time.
Warmed up and ready now, WA got into stride and struck quickly in the second half. With the game on a knifes edge, WA had all the momentum and went searching for the big blow that would get them at least a draw, but alas it wasn’t to be and the girls went down 8-4 and had a bit to think about before their next game in an hour.
Next up was a must win game against the St George Dragons girls, and again the WA girls were really slow out of the blocks. A few errors allowed the Dragons to get repeat sets on the Wests line, and they spread to their right hand edge for a nice try. A beautiful conversion made it 6-0, which is a big lead in this format and they held it till the halftime whistle.
After halftime, again it was like WA woke up, and they controlled the tempo and scored a quick try through winger Teana Jenkins on the left edge. With the try right in the corner, WA chose not to take the conversion, to save time and at 4-6 all seconds would be precious. And it proved to be prophetic, with Tamika Millard dotting down on that same edge in the dying stages. With the siren sounding in the background, WA had escaped with a close win and put themselves in contentions for the playoffs.
It was now photo time for the ladies, and we wandered over as a team to where it was setup opposite field 1, where Warren Gannon Photography was waiting. With recent rivals St George in front of us, the girls took the chance to get themselves together, and also try figure out who was taller than who. Claudia Wood was surprised how short everyone else was, which put her to the back of the line, while Britney Grimes took her spot at the front of the line without so much as a glance.
Lunch was next with St Mary’s Leagues club taking care of the ladies over the course of the weekend. But after all the fun and games, the big assignment was at hand with tournament favourites Canberra Region Raiders up next, and with an hour delay, the heat sapped the energy of the ladies in the lead up to the game. And again we started off very slow and the Raiders duly punished us and put the game to bed at halftime, leading 18-0 and leaving no way back for the WA girls.
Coach Terrell’s brief message. “Don’t let them have their way, defend everything and earn some pride back”. And the WA girls seemed to come to life in the second half. Creating some opportunities of their own, while they couldn’t get over the line, they held the Raiders to a scoreless second half and at 18-0 earnt themselves a place in the finals on for and against.
Now it was business time and as we transferred from Field 2 to Field 1 for the finals, and the chance to play in front of friends and family on BAR TV, we eagerly awaited our finals opponent. And it was a familiar name, as we entered our Elimination Final against NSW Outback, someone we knew well from playing a full game the night before. With some time before our game kicked off, the ladies kept their spirits high and bodies warm with some line dancing featuring some of your favourites, including the nutbush.
With the finals looming, the ladies warmed up and it was stressed to them to get a big start. With this format its almost impossible to chase the game and the NSW Outback team were a confidence side who seemed to grow as the games went on.
This time, Western Australia started on fire. All energy, speed and finesse, they struck with two first half tries to lead 10-0 at the interval, and the message was simple. Score first in the second half and we will win this one. And again Millard stepped up and put on a beautiful solo try from past halfway, as she darted down the blindside, beat two defenders and out paced the fullback to score. And while NSW Outback scored two tries late, as we knew they would, it wasn’t enough as WA hung on and secured a spot in the Preliminary Final.
In front of the ladies way, and a grand final berth was their pool foe, the Canberra Raiders. And the talk was they would run over us, and get to yet another league tag grand final for them. They were confident, and we had just been told we would be playing back to back fixtures, playing Canberra straight after beating NSWRL Outback. A lot was against the ladies from the West.
But we exploded out of the blocks, scoring a try in the opening set, and shocking the crowd and the Canberra side into uncharacteristic mistakes. A key theme from the team all weekend had been their ability to adjust and learn from their games. With a different style of refereeing that we aren’t used to, the ladies finally took the game to their opponents. And at 4-0 and halftime looming, we looked like we would have a dream half. But you need to play the whole half, and with no time left, the Raiders swept the ball to their left side and ran 70 metres to tie the game up and at 4-4 at halftime it was a bitter pill for the ladies.
Photo – Warren Gannon Photography
With 8 minutes possibly left for the tournament, the ladies left nothing in the tank as they traded blows with the tournament heavy weights. Big performances on both sides of the ball from Grace Smith, Millard and Loundes showed how desperate the girls were to win this one. Aimee-Rose Wood sustained a broken nose and continued to stay on the field in the fight. But alas it wasn’t to be, with the Raiders again finding the try line and kicking the conversion in the dying stages, the WA ladies settled for a semi final and top 4 finish.
A great tournament from the team from the West, showing we can match it with the best from NSWRL, compliments came from other sides who were surprised by the calibre of our ladies. With one more day left, and this time a full game against the scary good side from Canberra, the Women’s League Tag team still wanted to put on a show and represent their state with pride.
