By Amelia Cullen
On a rainy and humid July Saturday morning, the Redbacks women were the opening game on what was the second home game day of the season for the Redbacks. The ladies were to play the Munich Kangaroos, who are known to be a very strong opponent, as was experienced in the last game of the 2023 season.
During the warm-up, it was discussed which techniques could be used to give Munich a run for their money. Since the team assumed they would be spending a lot of the time in the back line, they spoke about how they can work best to ensure Munich got as few chances as possible on goal. There were only 6 redbacks who could attend the game: Munich were kind enough to lend us 2 players so we could play 7 vs 7 with one substitute.
With only 7 players per side instead of 9, this meant the ladies had to adapt to the space. The humid weather and existing injuries did not help. Captain Liv Brieskorn was leading from the back and with success in the midfield, the ladies were able to have a successful first quarter.
After regrouping and rehydrating at the first quarter-time, the ladies headed out onto the field in the same formation as in the first quarter. Success followed quickly: Liv TW scored the Redback’s first goal of the game and earned her Shoey. A couple of behinds followed. At this point the weather turned again, and it began to rain. The slipperiness of the ball posed an issue for the Redbacks and many marks were missed.
The half-time break called for a different plan. Due to injuries sustained by the Kangaroos, the Redbacks no longer had any substitutes. Despite this, the whole team pulled together and managed to foil many goal attempts from the Kangaroos. After this however, another injury to a Munich loan-player caused the Redbacks to be down to six players for a short time. The Kangaroos were able to score multiple goals.
For the last quarter the Redbacks managed to keep the ball in their offensive end, not allowing Munich any opportunity to increase their lead. The ladies worked tirelessly, and although it was not the result they wanted in the end, they can be proud of the improvements they made and how the team worked together.
Special shout-out to Liv TW for her first goal for the club. We hope to see many more.
