Grenfell Panthers celebrate on their way to a Grand Final against Temora.

The Temora Tuskerettes will face the Grenfell Panthers today in the South West Women’s Westfund Cup Grand Final, to determine who will be the 2024 champs.

    Temora have been the side to beat this entire season. They demolished an injury ravaged Harden She Devils side a fortnight ago and had a week off as Grenfell took on the Devils to see who would face them in the big dance. Grenfell were able to hold out Harden 19-12 last Saturday, and although they didn’t put on a scoreline as large as the Tuskerettes did, they will no doubt be led around by their leader and Coach Caitlin Dixon.

Temora go in as heavy favourites, however, that hasn’t always been the case.

Bill McCrone Coach of the Tuskers, spoke to us at the paper to tell us how the club has been going over the last few years and the transformation they have made over the last decade.

He said, “I’ve been coaching the ladies side for five years. I played a bit of league and then switched to rugby in the later part of my career. I played 100 games for the Tuskers.

The Tuskerettes are the premier side in the competition and very good in the forwards at popping the ball and playing structured and well drilled, Rugby, they will have to content with the Panthers who will come in as slight underdogs.

Bill said, “We have a good skillset across the park and across the bench we have some good players. We don’t have a weak player out there most of the time.

“It’s a matter of popping the ball and we try and get a lot of phases going and it builds a lot of pressure on other sides. That’s the idea. Controlling our ball and then being strong in defence and we have managed that pretty well this year.

You finished first and beat Harden in a convincing scoreline by about 50 points and got to have a week off. Has the week off helped you?

“It probably isn’t too bad but we had a couple of byes and a forfeit before that, so we didn’t play the last three rounds of the competition and have only had one game in the last five or six weeks.

“In the Harden game Harden stuck it to us for the first ten minutes and a couple of our passes weren’t sticking and there was a little bit of rust there, but eventually we got into the swing of things and got on top and that is the thing that we are going to have to avoid.

The paper asked Bill where he thought some of Grenfell’s strengths lie?

“Their coach Caitlin who plays five-eight is a really strong player, so we will have to keep an eye on her and this is only their second year fielding a side, so it’s a great effort for them to have won their way through to the final. They have had a good season and been really strong at the back end of the year.

“We have only played them once this year and the same thing, we had a good win on them over there, but they have had a lot of wins since then. We will have to be on our game.

“It will be the same kind of thing where they try and use second phase play and get the ball away and keeps it rolling, so we will have to be on our game in defence.

Plenty of rain has fallen in the south-west catchment overnight and with Young’s Cranfield Oval acting as a small dam, the overnight moisture and a strong forward pack may determine the outcome if the ball is dropped in the wet.

McCrone said, “We will adjust and see what happens. We play better in the dry, but both sides will have to play in it.

The Tuskerettes will rely on youth and experience today.

“We have a few young girls who we have signed off and have played a lot of rugby through the junior system and who are playing seniors this year and they start in the backs for us. Lara Curry plays 10 for us, while Kaesha Maxwell plays in the centres and they both play in Rep sides through juniors and we weren’t sure we’d get a 17’s girls side this year, so they were signed off to play seniors and they have been good for us all year.

“In terms of premierships, we won it last year and we didn’t make the final the year before that. Harden beat Young the year before that. We are trying to go back to back, so it should be interesting and another thing to aim for.

It’s a potential back to back for Temora and a potential three- peat for Young, so a lot of history is on offering today.

Kick off Women’s Tuskerettes v Panthers 1:50pm

Young Yabbies v Boorowa Goldies 3:15pm