Tenacious Tigers hungry for victory
Trenaman out but team confident
DESPITE losing one of their stars for the rest of the season the tenacious Tassie Tigers will look to continue their blistering start to the WNCL campaign in Canberra over the coming days with back to back clashes with the ACT Meteors on Thursday and Saturday.
After claiming their maiden WNCL title last season the Tigers’ title defence has started with a bang and following a commanding pair of wins over fellow top side Queensland have now won five of their opening six matches to firmly establish themselves as the team to beat again this season.
But while the Tigers are firing on all cylinders, if they’re to repeat as WNCL champions they’ll have to do it without star opener Rachel Trenaman who has been ruled out for the rest of the season following a knee injury sustained against Queensland.
Tigers batter Emma Thompson, who recently returned to the side following maternity leave taken throughout the 2021-22 season, said Trenaman would be missed but believes the Tigers have the depth to cover the 21year-old.
“We’ve got a lot of a batters that have batted in all positions all throughout the order so people will adapt to what they need to do and what their new role is depending on where they get placed,” she said.
“We’ve got plenty of depth amongst our squad and she will be missed for sure, she’s an exceptional batter, but I think we can cover that pretty well.”
After their impressive display against the Fire, Tassie will now take on the bottomplaced Meteors who are winless in their opening six matches.
Despite their contrasting win-loss records, Thompson said there’d be no complacency against the ACT.
“It doesn’t change what we do,” she said. “We go by the same plans and processes whether we are facing the top of the ladder or the bottom of the ladder and having four really convincing wins in the last four matches certainly gives us confidence that what we are doing is working.”
After being part of the Tassie squad for over a decade, Thompson missed out on the Tigers’ maiden WNCL title due to maternity leave and said there was no doubt that was spurring her on this season.
“I’ve played cricket for Tassie now for 11 or 12 seasons and to go without winning when they won the first premiership hurts a bit,” the 32-year-old said. “I wouldn’t change that for having this little one [her daughter], but it just meant I wanted to get back and experience it with them all the second time around.”
Thompson said there was added confidence among the group following last season’s record-breaking title.
“I think there is [added confidence], but I think it’s from a point of the girls have learnt how to win from any position,” she said.
“It’s not so much a cockiness of we’ve beaten everyone, it’s more a case of we know we can win even if seems like we are behind in a match we can still come back.
“It’s that never-say-die attitude that’s given everyone the belief that success is possible.”
The Tigers and the Meteors will get under way at 10am on Thursday.