THUNDER STRIKES
Territory women flog Mouncey’s Falcons in VFLW debut
IT WAS fitting that the best on ground – Crows champion Chelsea Randall – made history by booting the NT Thunder’s first goal in the VFLW, on the way to a 54-point Round 1 thrashing away to Darebin yesterday.
Randall kicked the major by showcasing her renowned power, bursting through the Falcons’ midfield.
The Territory team was never headed, piling on five first-quarter goals and taking a 25-point lead into the break.
“The girls were excited to make history before the game, so now we can relax a little bit and enjoy the win,” Thunder coach Tim Weatherald told the NT News. “Chelsea leads by example. “She normally plays in the halfback flank, but we’ve got her in the midfield, which is exciting because her workrate is so high.
“You always see her putting in those second, third and fourth efforts with her tackle pressure and it lifts the team.”
Weatherald was most impressed with his side’s collec- tive tackle pressure in a win that has already given the Thunder genuine VFLW premiership-contender status in its inaugural season.
“We spoke before the game about our tackle pressure and I told them 40 tackles was our goal,” he said.
“We nearly came up with 60 in total.”
Apart from Adelaide’s 2018 club champion Randall, Weatherald had no shortage of impressive performers.
“Chelsea was the standout and Marijana Rajcic plays halfback at the Crows.
“She was up forward for us and kicked two goals.
“Jordann Hickey from Alice Springs also contributed really well up forward, Emma Swanson was very good and our captain Ange Foley played four sound quarters.”
Weatherald said there was some nervous energy in his playing group before the opening bounce.
“It was a bit of the unknown going into this game,” he said. “But this sort of performance is the reward after six weeks of everyone pushing each other at training.”