Rebel kicking goals after forward shift

A CHANCE move into the forward line has unlocked a lethal edge to former junior Fury player Monika Anderson.

The Rebels strike weapon had played her entire junior football in the defensive third before coach Scott Reid asked her to move up on goal last season.

“I actually asked him if he was being serious at first,” Anderson said. “But he kept pushing, he said ‘I think you can do it’.

“I love it. There is more freedom playing up front, you can be more creative. You don’t have to be as careful as you do in the backline, you can try new things.”

It has proved a triumphant move for the Rebels with the fleet footed Anderson topping the North Queensland Football women’s premier league goalscoring ranks for the past two seasons.

While her 15 goals this season, three ahead of the next best in Brothers’ Nicola Klink, pales in comparison with the 34 she scored last season, it has still been a staunch effort from the 20-year-old after starting the season on the back foot.

Appendicitis surgery on the eve of the North Queensland Football season meant the striker missed all of her side’s Covid-affected preseason as well as the opening round.

But as soon as she was given the all-clear to run again she wasted little time to get back on goal.

“It definitely feels a lot harder this year, getting back into it because I had such a long time off,” she said.

“The first game of the season was six weeks after my surgery – the minute I could start running again I was out there.”

Anderson will have a chance to cement herself as the tournament’s golden boot this weekend when Rebels take on a desperate Saints Eagles Souths. While the yellow and greens have already sewn up third spot on the league ladder and an elimination finals berth, SES are fighting with a hungry Wulguru side for the last spot in next week’s semi-finals.

Anderson said her side would go out with plenty of confidence with nothing to lose and plenty to gain.

“We have been a very up and down team this season, we have lacked the consistency on the field and that is our goal for this weekend,” she said.

“We want to keep playing the best we can play for the whole game, too many times we have slipped off late.

“I think it is a really even competition in that way. Every team has those games where they should win it but just don’t. We know we can match it with every team, even (competition frontrunners) Brothers, we have drawn with them and lost the other game 2-1.

“We just need to go into the finals with momentum and anything can happen.”

Brothers striker Klink (12) will not have a chance to improve on her goal scoring tally before the regular season ends as the reiging premiers enjoy a week’s rest on the bye.

Saints Eagles Souths forward Rachel Mcmahon, Brothers’ Brierlee Eaton and MA Olympic’s Tegan Cox are tied for third on nine goals.

Cox will have a chance to add to her tally when her side hosts the dangerous Warriors at their Burt St grounds this afternoon.