Fillies ready to tackle Brisbane competition

Toowoomba women to taste a slice of rugby league history

‘‘ WE HAVE AN EXCITING SEASON AHEAD OF US AND WE’VE GOT EXCELLENT NUMBERS. DAVID MACCOLL

RUGBY LEAGUE: They’re eager to show they are A-grade material and are ready to take on some of Queensland’s best.

A band of girls is set to make Toowoomba sport history this weekend when they become the first females to represent the city in a women’s A-grade rugby league competition.

The celebratory moment arrives at 11.30 Sunday morning when the Toowoomba Valleys Fillies take on Souths Logan in their season-opening South East Queensland club competition match at Herb Steinort Oval.

The historic occasion is one of the curtain raisers to the TRL round one match between Valleys and Souths.

The Fillies 2018 A-grade kick-off follows on the heels of the Fillies B-grade outfit’s debut on Saturday against Sunnybank at Sunnybank.

The new Toowoomba Valleys Fillies club takes over from the former Western Mustangs Fillies and Toowoomba Fillies who competed in the SEQ B Division competition.

The Western Fillies fell one game short of an unbeaten season and a third-straight premiership last year when they were beaten 12-0 in the grand final by Carina.

David MacColl takes over this season as the Fillies’ head coach and has 46 players lined up ready to tackle the 2018 season.

“We have an exciting season ahead of us and we’ve got excellent numbers to start with and they are growing,” MacColl said.

“The current growth in women’s sport and in our case rugby league is pretty amazing.

“The Fillies will be creating a bit of history this year with their step to the big league, but the interest in female rugby league goes all the way down to to Toowoomba’s under 12, 14, 16 and 18 teams who all play in the Brisbane competition.”

The competition is made of teams from the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Toowoomba and Ipswich.

The Souths Logan team includes Jillaroo representative Steph Hancock.

“We’ve been training since before Christmas and in our first trial we finished in a 16-all draw with Burleigh Bears,” MacColl said.

“The girls are keen to go and we’re all looking forward to the competition ahead.”

Photo: Kevin Farmer READY TO RUN: Looking forward to running out for the Toowoomba Valleys Fillies against Souths Logan on Sunday are (from left) Amber Mutch, Lauren Weribone, Amy Rae and Emily Young.