Saints chase second title in a row against hopeful Hawks
CAIRNS Saints will be out to attain immortality this weekend, as they chase a perfect season and a second straight AFL Cairns Women’s premiership flag.
Standing between them and perfection is the Manunda Hawks; a side that’s come as close as any to unseating the seemingly untouchable Saints.
Undefeated Saints walloped their competition in the regular season, kicking an astonishing 1074 points and allowing just 171 across 15 games. Their lowest-scoring game? A 36-point performance against the Hawks in June in which the Saints eked out a nailbiting one-point win.
City captain Freya Reilly said with a lot of the team’s 2020 roster returning, hopes for a successful premiership defence were high.
“It’s the game that really matters,” she said.
“We’ve been working hard the last few weeks … we’re very excited to play on Saturday.
“It was a big year last year in winning the first premiership under (Chris) Novy.
“It’s going to be a massive thing for us if we can go backto-back.”
The Saints have relied on the speed of their midfield all season, which includes the talented trio of Jo Butland medallist Poppy Boltz, 2020 grand final best-on-ground winner Akayla Peterson and Tiarna Ahwang.
“We’re quite a running team so that’s the key to winning for us – playing our game plan, making sure we come out 100 per cent,” Reilly said.
It will be the opposite for the mature Hawks, who will rely on their ability to slow down the high-flying Saints and control the tempo of the game.
“When we slow it down and play our own game, we’re pretty deadly,” Hawks captain Mel Kelly said. “We’re just going to hold our structure and see if we can take it to the Saints, shutting down their run.”
As for an upset, Kelly would like nothing more than to take the flag on home soil at Cazalys Stadium.
“We’re going to give it our best try and we’re really looking forward to it,” she said.