LEAGUE TAG
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BLAYNEY Bearettes Liv Bird and Sophie Stammers will headline the Western Division side to contest the inaugural AAMI League Tag Country Championship, after helping their Group 10 side dominate last weekend’s Representative Cluster in Gilgandra.
Although, despite claiming wins against Group 11 (18-14) and Woodbridge Cup (14-0), Bird and Stammers will only be joined by four of their Group 10 teammates, the 15-strong squad is sprinkled with players from all four of Western’s catchment areas.
Bird and Stammers will be joined by Bathurst St Pat’s 2015 Group 10 title-winners Michelle Somers and Karah Armstrong along with Bathurst Panthers stars Matilda Power and Claire Woolmington.
Orange’s Heidi Regan also made the cut after representing Woodbridge Cup, she’s turning out for the Manildra Rhinos in 2016.
They’ll be joined by five Group 11 representatives, along with one other Woodbridge Cup representative and two from the Castlereagh League.
The Rams will take on the Southern Stars - Group 6, 7 and 16 - in three weeks’ time at Camden in the opening round of the first ever league tag edition of the tournament.
Western coach Mick Armstrong is anticipating that his side will be up against a strong outfit.
“[Southern] should have a pretty strong team,” he said.
“It is fantastic that the girls finally get their opportunity to have a go at this sort of competition, I’m really looking forward to getting the chance to work with the best players from right across the zone and seeing how they handle themselves against a similar opposition.
“I’m very happy with the squad I’ve been given and I think we got the best 15 from what I saw at Gilgandra, this whole group were stand-outs from the four games over there, they got it spot on.
“There are a few there who I’m not particularly familiar with from outside Group 10 but I’ve been able to watch video footage of the games from the weekend to try and work out who does what a little bit better,” the coach said.
“Naturally I know the Bathurst and Blayney girls pretty well and have watched them play a lot but with the others, I’ll take a bit longer to get acquainted with.”
WESTERN RAMS: Olivia Bird, Sophie Stammers (Blayney Bearettes), Sally Dwyer, Ella-J Harris (Parkes Spacies), Matilda Power, Claire Woolmington (Bathurst Panthers), Karah Armstrong, Michelle Somers (Bathurst St Pat’s), Rikki Lane-Lamb, Crystal Thompson (Dubbo CYMS), Tori Canham (Coonamble Bearettes), Heidi Regan (Manildra Rhinos), Tarlee Roberts (Dubbo Westside), Shay Naden (Gilgandra Panthers), Mikala Mongan (Eugowra Golden Eagles)