Bush and Tassie Tiggers at Southern Regional Championships, Hobart, March 2007
Bush, March 2007
2007 marked the first year that Tasmania had a women's team. In past few years there have been a few Tassie girls who have played for mainland teams but this was our first full blooded Tassie team. Our first tournament together was Regionals hosted here in Hobart over at Wentworth Park.
Our first game was against Team Box another new team out of Victoria. We managed to stay even with them for the first 4 points. Then they called a time out after which they pulled away to win the game 6-15. Our next game was against Ishtar (Vic) again we held our own but in the end lost 6-11. Our last game of the day was against Indies. We ended on a high beating them in a very close game 9-6. The next morning we had the last of our round robin games against Honey (Vic). We tried our best to get on top but Honey was very determined to win taking the game 13-9 after pulling away in the last few minutes.
After the round robin we went into the playoffs seeded 4. Our first game was against Indies to get into the 3-4 play off. We beat them in golden goal with a layout catch in the end zone to win 8-7. This put us into the playoff game against Ishtar. Again it was a close game to start with them pulling away to win 5-9, which meant we were going into Nationals placed 4th in the southern region.
Overall it was a great first tournament for all of the Bush players giving us great confidence going into Nationals in a couple of weeks. We would also like to say congratulations to all of the Bush players who were making their tassie state team debut.
The 2007 Bush team at Southern Regionals were:
| Shirt number | Name |
|---|
| 3. | Heidi Pass* |
| 4. | Sarah Robinson |
| 6. | Masni Bennett* |
| 7. | Shelly Slater |
| 8. | Kate Godber |
| 10. | Stella Foley* |
| 11. | Kerryn Herman |
| 12. | Ash Martens (captain) |
| 13. | Alysia Cullen* |
| 15. | Pauline van Adrichem* |
| 21. | Rachel Gentle* |
| 24. | Shavawn Donoghue (captain) |
| 27. | Yvonne Otahal* |
| 28. | Naomi Petrie |
| 69. | Halena (Beans) Bilton |
| 99. | Kath Downey |
where * represents a player who hasn't played for a Tasmanian team previously.
The full contingent of Tasmanian teams, Bush and the Tiggers at Southern Regionals: (back row) Alysia Cullen, Aaron Pinkus, Shelly Slater, Ian Townsend, Pauline van Adrichem, Matt Petrie, Masni Bennett, Mark Verral, Kate Godber, Micahel Dunne, Naomi Petrie, David Cooke, Halena (Beans) Bilton, Joe Boyer, Mike Schmidt, Kath Downey, Rachel Gentle, Tom Fahey, Stella Foley; (front row) John Kristensen, Sarah Robinson, Stan Robert, Dan Wilkins, Yvonne Otahal, Felix Kennedy, Heidi Pass, Basil van Riet, Mani Thom, Shavawn Donoghue, Jemery Day, Iestyn Parry, Kerryn Herman, Che O'May, Ash Martens.
Tiggers, March 2007
Rumour has it that the Tiggers finished 5th, behind two Chilly teams, Heads of State (for whom Ash Button played as part of his World 2008 campaign), and Karma but the Tiggers did manage to beat Ultimate Evolution to secure 5th place and ultimately qualify for a wildcard place at Nationals in Melbourne in April 2007.
Thanks to captain John Kristensen - perhaps we'll get a more complete report here one day!