By Daniel Viles
Forget last year. North Queensland is too proud a women’s football region to let its heavy 2023 loss to South Queensland repeat at Bond University Oval this Saturday.
Subsequent events have shown that the South Queensland team that won 74-nil last year was no ordinary rep team: twelve players with past or future Bond University QAFLW experience, including a Lions Academy captain, and two experienced players in Ellen Hopkins and Jess Davy who are now in the full Queensland team.
That was sufficient motivation for the North to bring out its own big guns. Ex-Lions and Coorparoo premiership ruck Hannah Hillman is back after missing the 2023 game; as is Jade Ransfield of whom only Emma Zielke has scored more than her 159 goals in the Bond University QAFLW (since 2010); plus the small forward genius of former Wilston Grange premiership winner Delma Gisu.
Ransfield and Gisu may not even be required up forward given the scoring form of Tilayna Nissen and Sarah Larkings in AFL Mackay this season, plus Hermit Park’s Maggie Evans who put four majors past Thuringowa last month.
Sodyla Kris of North Cairns and AFL Cape York has already had a taste of the South this year with a stint at Coorparoo in May, while BITS (Boyne Island Tannum Sands) co-captain and tall utility Danielle Fenwick is already acclimatised courtesy of two years with Wilston Grange.
South Queensland won’t lack for experience on home soil, primarily through Rachel Crack and Ari Reilly, each with over 100 games’ experience in the Bond University QAFLW and teammates in Coorparoo’s 2015 Grand Final win.
More than a few eyes will be directed towards Moreton Bay’s Emily Watson, averaging three goals a match in 2024, plus the captains of Burleigh and Across the Waves, Charlotte Durbridge and Scout Strong, both scoring goals for fun of late. Also look for goalsneak Georgia Smith of Sandgate who had a strong season for Grange in 2022.
Courtney Browne impressed as a fullback for Yeronga in 2022, but has averaged a goal a match for the Toowoomba Tigers this year and may provide a legitimate option at both ends of the park.
Tamsin Perry played 59 Bond University QAFLW matches, a record for a Northern Irish dentist, and will provide support either as a small defender or on the wing.
But the South v North match is not so much about the known players as the players who will make their reputations in front of a broader audience. Alicia Withers is having a brilliant season at Broadbeach since moving from Sherwood; similarly, Mali Davies-Scherer has been a driving force behind Cairns City Lions’ 8-from-8 start to 2024. Is this the day when they announce themselves to the whole state?
Matches between sides that play once a year are impossible to predict, but two safer prognostications are: North Queensland will hit back this year; and at least one player’s talent will no longer be a secret.
