The Central Coast Roosters have marked their premiership intentions in the Harvey Norman Women’s Premiership after downing the Cronulla Sharks 22-6 at Cronulla High School this afternoon.
Roosters centre Jayme Fressard got the away side off to scoring early in the encounter and half Mel Howard converted to take her side to a 6-0 lead.
Harvey Norman NSW Women’s Under-18s Origin super star Caitlan Johnston crashed her way over the line for the Roosters’ second try of the afternoon with a strong run and Howard slotted the extras to give them a handy 12-0 lead.
Jillaroo Keeley Davis hit back from dummy half for the Sharks and Harvey Norman NSW Women’s Origin representative Maddie Studdon converted to get her side back into the contest.
“We had to defend our own line quite a few times and the girls just kept working for each other and Cronulla were throwing plenty at us and the girls just kept turning up and repelling them from our line, so that was the most pleasing thing,” Central Coast coach John Strange said.
Six minutes later, Fressard bagged her second try of the afternoon and Howard continued her successful run with the boot to extend the Roosters lead to 12 points.
New Mounties recruit and Roosters centre Brydie Parker added to her 2020 try scoring tally as she scored another consecutive try for the away side to notch a 22-6 win.
“It was a whole team effort, we had Isabelle Kelly pull out last night and we had to make some changes this morning and the girls that we changed around were really impressive,” Strange said.
“I had to put Brydie Parker from centre to fullback and she was brilliant in that role in her first game at fullback and Jayme Fressard moved from right out to left centre and she got player’s player off the girls.”
“We’re playing the style of footy I wanted to play with the girls and we said from the start we’re going to move it around and play some enjoyable footy with the ball and that’s the style they’re playing.
“They’re having fun, we’re all having fun together, I’m enjoying coaching them because they’re a great bunch of girls to coach.
“They turn up every training early to do extras, they’re always smiling, even when the sessions are really hard they really seem to enjoy it, so it’s a pleasure for me and its easy for me because of their attitude.”
Central Coast have a huge match-up against the North Sydney Bears next week at home at Morry Breen Oval and Strange and his side have marked it as a must-win.
“We’re one point on top of the ladder now so we did what we had to do today to put ourselves in a position to win the minor premiership and that’s the first goal for our group of girls - to win the minor premiership,” Strange said.
“We know we have to win, it’s in our hands, we have to beat the Bears and they’ve been playing some good footy over the last couple of weeks so we certainly won’t be taking them lightly.”
Other matches:
North Sydney Bears 32 def. South Sydney Rabbitohs 0
Wests Tigers v Wentworthville Magpies
Please click here for full Harvey Norman Women’s Premiership draw / results
