The Bull Sharks showed they are ready to defend their QAFLW premiership with a strong victory over vanquished grand final foes Aspley in Saturday’s trial at The Canal.
The men’s QFA side also produced an encouraging performance in a step-up in opposition against QAFL powerhouse Labrador.
Although official scores weren’t kept, the girls won convincingly while the men went down by about six goals.
QAFLW
Women’s head coach and Director of AFL Andy Lovell has tinkered with his side considerably over the off-season to build greater depth in preparation for the inevitable periods when a large contingent of the squad is unavailable due to representative duties.
Several premiership players were used in new positions while a host of other established guns sat out the match which gave an opportunity to several reserves players to test themselves at the higher level.
Lovell was thrilled with the way Jasmyn Davidson and Sally Evans performed playing in defence for the first time and also listed Charlie Adamson, Abbey Bevan and Tahlia Meyer as standouts.
Lovell already has a huge hole to fill with premiership star Ava Usher ruled out for the season after rupturing her ACL at training with the Gold Coast Suns.
The new-look line-up may have explained a slow start but once the cobwebs were banished, the Bull Sharks showed with their crisp ball movement they will again be the team to beat for the QAFLW flag.
“We started slowly and we were reactive and sloppy on transition in the first quarter,” Lovell said.
“But after that we really got going and used the ball well
off half back to attack the corridor which resulted in some quality entries which we were able to score from.’’
Lovell said the repeated entries into the attacking 50 were created by a sound defensive set-up that had been drilled into the squad over pre-season.
The final weeks of pre-season will concentrate on embedding compliance to the stoppage structure.
QFA
Lovell was also pleased with the way the men took the fight to the Tigers who are expected to challenge for this year’s QAFL premiership.
“The boys competed very strongly, they matched it with their more fancied opposition in and around stoppages and were able to win their fair share of the footy,” he said.
“They also defended on slow play very well and the shape was good.’’
He said the side discovered that at the higher level, skill errors under pressure were quickly punished but the players would be encouraged to continue to look for attacking options.
Players with QAFL and VFL experience, Liam Viney and Ollie Burrows-Cheng, were among the best players while Hayden Carthew-Zimmer, Matt Smith and Sam Bowen also played well.