Tigers hunting down the title
WRITE off Edge Hill at your peril.
The Tigers are doing the hunting this Premier Women’s season and they’re quite happy going under the radar on the run home.
Scoring goals is clearly not a problem for the defending premiers after putting 15 past Marlin Coast on Saturday night and all of them could count come the last round in the attempt to round up Innisfail and Leichhardt.
Edge Hill for once is not considered the lead contender in the title race but one of the more experienced players, Tamara Ortiz, said the team welcomed the underdog tag.
“If you look at the ladder there’s only two points between first to second to third to fourth so it’s still really close and if people are saying that it’s probably good for us because we prefer to be underdogs,” she said.
“We’re incredibly happy with where we’re at. When we came into this season we would have been happy with top four so it’s good to be in a position to chase down the leaders.”
The latest win featured another huge game from Siobhan Macken, who scored five goals, in what is proving an outstanding comeback to the game after a health battle.
The Tigers’ Premier Men could learn a thing or two from their female counterparts after paying the price for missing their best winning opportunity of the season.
An undermanned Marlin Coast nabbed a 1-0 win and Edge Hill coach Rob Wales said while defence had been (Melling 45’) d Marlin Coast 1 Edge Hill 0 Stratford 4 (Courtenay 55’ 58’, Rusch 45’, Sabbadin 90’) d Leichhardt 0 much improved, attack was proving more difficult.
“The effort was there, but we’re just lacking a bit of polish. We had our opportunities and they got a chance in the box and they put it away,” he said.
Rangers coach Stuart Veall told the Cairns Post he was “happy to personally hand Edge Hill the wooden spoon” after supposedly “stupid negative comments” towards his side.
Wales was not interested in a slanging match but was adamant there were still plenty of opportunities to lift themselves off the bottom of the ladder.