Minor premiers out to secure finals spot
FOOTBALL: Willowburn (women) and USQ dominated the Toowoomba Football League regular season.
Both teams comfortably claimed their respective minor premierships, however coaches Matt Proctor (USQ) and Steve Pennells are adamant they will take nothing for granted.
“We’ve achieved nothing yet,” Proctor said.
“We won the minor premiership, which we celebrated, but there’s still more to be done.
“Finals are a completely different game and we want to keep winning.”
USQ face Willowburn tomorrow with first place in the premier men’s grand final the prize for the winner.
Willowburn took the honours 2-1 last time the rivals met – a result Proctor hopes his side can rectify.
“It was hard game, the rain made it hard to play well,” Proctor said.
“We still played some good football but we were punished for two mistakes and that cost us.”
The return of Colin Ball and Brendan Wilmot should help USQ against the Magpies who finished the season in second place.
“We’ve had a few injuries of late but everyone is fit and ready now,” Proctor said.
“Having Colin (Ball) and Brendan (Wilmot) back is good - they bring a lot of experience to the side.”
The addition of the two senior players may also help address USQ’s consistency issues.
“We’ve talked about how we can’t afford to have fade-outs in these games,” Proctor said.
“We need to be switched on, playing at our best from whistle to whistle.”
At Commonwealth Oval it’s been business as usual for the Willowburn women.
“We’ve got everyone back on deck expect for Courtney Morris who has an injury,” Pennells said.
“We had a strong training session with the men the other and we worked on tightening up our defence.”
Willowburn beat Rockville in their last match but Pennells raised a number of issues postmatch – issues his team re- sponded well to.
“Shannon (Tyrell) and Kiama (Gray) responded really well to what I said post-match,” he said.
“The team’s ready and I have full confidence in all my squad.”
And a win for the Magpies would be welcome but is not essential.
“I think it’s important you win and go straight through,” Pennells said.
“If you win you can go away, train and focus fully on the final.
“But it’s not the end of the world if you don’t.”
GAME DAY: Matches will be played at West Wanderers and Commonwealth all Sunday from 9am at both grounds. Willowburn play Rockville at Commonwealth Oval at 9am. USQ play Willowburn at the same venue from 3pm.