Women’s Football.

Jacinta Froud – known to most as Splinta – will play her 100th game of Women’s league football when she plays for the Tigerettes v ADFA at Dairy Farmers Park on Thursday 24 May commencing at 7.00pm.

Splinta first began her career at the now defunct Harman Hogs ladies team, playing 12 games for them in 2000. When the team folded Splinta crossed to Tuggeranong and played 69 games in a decorated career from 2001-05 that included a premiership in 2004 and a League Best & Fairest in 2005. She was also named in the ACTWAFL Team of the Decade in 2007.

In 2006 Splinta’s footy career was put on hold when she moved with her husband Aaron (150 game player at Harman) to Gunnedah for the start of Splinta’s teaching career.

In early 2009 Splinta returned to Canberra and had intended to return to Tuggeranong however fate intervened and her return to football was delayed by the birth of her first child Eve. A chance meeting between Splinta and Pav at the Harman Presentation evening in 2009 resulted in the creation of the Tigerettes.

Splinta was the inaugural captain of the Tigerettes in 2010, leading from the front and not missing a game on her way to a 5th place in the club B&F and the Most Consistent Award.

She then missed the 2011 season due to the birth of her second child Blake but has returned in 2012 to again lead the team and her 19th game for the Tigerettes will be her 100th overall.

Jacinta is a fantastic person off the field and has helped to create a great team environment at the Tigerettes.

The Tigerettes and the entire club congratulate Splinta on her achievement and it will be great to have plenty of support at Dairy Farmers Park on Thursday night to help celebrate.

The team’s effort could not be questioned and particularly in the first three quarters they gave everything they could to restrict the strong Riverina outfit from scoring in tricky windy conditions led by Han and Hurls in the midfield and Em and Irish in the key defensive posts. At three quarter time the team was thrown around a little in an attempt to find the scoreboard but the plan backfired as Riverina kicked 6 goals in the final term with Kodie coming closest for the visitors with a shot under pressure just going out of bounds on the full.

It wasn’t all bad news with three new debutants Tamika, Mikaela and Kylie all making a contribution. Special mention should also go to the 7 mums in the team that made the trip on Mothers day – Splinta, Dougie, D, Siau, Amanda, Roni and Red.

As has been the case this season the team mixed a good quarter with some ordinary ones and until it can learn to concentrate on playing four quarters of football won’t be able to challenge the stronger teams in this competition.

For the Tigerettes Em was fantastic again at full back, Irish had her best game for the year at Centre Half Back, Kodie tried very hard in the ruck, solo after JV went down early with an ankle injury after a promising start, and D made the most of limited opportunities up forward to kick a couple of clever goals in the second term.

The first half proved that the Tigerettes at their best can match it with any one in 2012 keeping a clearly frustrated Eastlake to just the one goal from two scoring shots. However as good teams do Eastlake lifted a gear in the second half and our girls failed to run with them.

Highlights for the Tigerettes included Shorty’s outstanding four quarter performance in defence, Hannah’s tireless efforts through the midfield, JV’s performance as the second ruck, the continued improvement of our new players Liv, Irish and Kodie and a great snap from Dougie to post our only goal after fantastic lead up work from JV, Siau and Hannah.

Going from competition easy beats to being competitive is one small step, but it will take a much larger step to improve even further to get a result against the established gun teams, including playing at their best for the entire four quarters.

Goals: Roni Jordan
Best: Emily Lewis, Tegan Tisma, Melissa Hurley, Olivia Dawson, Hannah Dunn, Kristen Turner

The Tigerettes have started their season with a home loss to the Gungahlin Jets with a slow start costing the team any chance of an upset win. The Tigerettes left their game in the sheds as they allowed the Jets easy clearances and did not compete well enough in marking contests to go down two goals in the blink of an eye.

The Tigerettes only chance in the quarter came after good lead up work from Dougie led to a shot on goal to Roni that just missed the target. Another uncontested mark to the Jets led to a three goal deficit at the first break.

The second quarter was a big improvement as the Tigerettes lifted their work rate, highlighted by efforts like Maddi who tackled two opponents in a row to earn a free kick. While the work rate was better the team struggled when in possession and trailed by 28 points at half time.

The third term was the Tigerettes best responding to the request at half time to not be so ‘nice’ around the contests. Em was doing a fine job in the back line, the midfield lifted and the Tigerettes managed to win the quarter with a good goal from Roni after a couple of chances.

In the last quarter both teams stopped to a walk as the warm conditions started to hurt with several players from both teams cramping up. The only goal came from a questionable 50m penalty as the Tigerettes kept working right until the final siren.

While beaten by 33 points in the end there were a lot of positives for the Tigerettes from their opening game. New players Kodie (in the ruck), Liv (on the wing) and Irish (across half back) all showed encouraging signs with Liv in particular amongst the teams best players. The midfield of Tegan, Han and Hurls were also fantastic, especially after quarter time as was the entire defence – Kritta and Splinta across half back flank and Amz and Shorty closer to goal.