Premier Men and Women secure strong wins to kickstart their year
By Kirra Livingstone
THE BeeGees Premier Men’s and Women’s teams have both chalked up a win each in the opening two rounds of their 2024 season.
Men’s team manager, Harry Roads, said it was great to get a 3-0 win against Baringa, with their opposition having a number of former BeeGees players.
It is a step in the right direction for the BeeGees men, as they have struggled to make the finals in recent seasons.
“There’s a bit of room for improvement,” he said.
“We’re definitely working on some things still but there’s some positive steps we’ve taken from last year and now I think we are in a better spot.”
Harry provided insight into what they focused on in preseason training.
“I think we are building on our match fitness, we have a couple of new players in the team, and we are just trying to find out feet, seeing where the boys gel the most and getting that cohesiveness on the field,” he said.
The premier women’s squad has also displayed a promising start to their season, as well as the U23 women’s side.
Premier Women’s coach, Amy Higgins, said after a convincing 3-0 win against Kawana and then a close 3-2 loss against the 2023 grand final winners, Maroochydore, the season is shaping up to be highly competitive.
“Looking at the results from other games, it looks to be an interesting season with some teams already showing some fire in these first two rounds,” she said.
“We have a bye this week and are then away to Noosa the following Friday where we hope to get our winning streak back.”
The U23 women’s side has shown promise with one 4-2 win against Kawana, and a 2-1 loss against Maroochydore.
“They’ve picked up a big handful of new faces which have really added to their strengths and I expect to see them in the final series this year,” Amy said.
Both Amy and Harry said that match fitness was a key factor in their ongoing success for the season.
“The last 15 minutes of our matches you can tell the girls are getting tired and starting to make mistakes and lose the ball,” Amy said.
“But I’m confident that won’t be an issue in a couple weeks and all other teams are in the same position.”
Harry said: “I think much like last year, the premier men, which have five new signings this season, will take a few more rounds to find their groove and perfect their match fitness.”
New signings include Premier Women’s midfielders Tijana Ljubisavljevic and Daniela Palazzolo, and Caitlin Grimmett are all new additions to look out for on the field this season.
The FQPL3 competitions both have new signings.
Kawana has entered the Premier Women’s competition and Baringa in the Premier Men’s competition.
The Premier Women and U23 Women both had a bye in last week’s round, and the Premier Men had a 1-1 tie against Kawana on March 7 in Kawana.
kirra@gcnews.com.au
