News 09/10
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Thu, 09 Sep 2010 |
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| Woeful Witches Finish 2010 on a low. | |||||
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The Witches failed to capitalise on a bright
opening 15 minutes and paid a heavy price. Once
Gungahlin broke through and took the lead the
Witches simply slumped, offering little resistance
as Gungahlin carved out a match winning 3-0 lead by
the break. An improved performance in the second
half was blighted by injuries to Rach and Nikki but
they kept Gungahlin to one second half goal.
Although the Witches were terrible, responsibility
for the poor performance lies with the Grand Wiz
who totally misjudged his approach to this game and
failed to adjust the line up to suit the conditions
and players available. |
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Posted 04:26 No comments | Post a comment |
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Tue, 31 Aug 2010 |
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| Draw a fair result for Witches | |||||
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Missing Danni and Meg, the Witches were boosted by
the return of Mikki, Sara, Courtney and Maddi and
actually had a reserve for the first time in weeks.
Even so, Maddi's late arrival due to being held up
by a traffic accident, caused a late reshuffle to
the line up with Rach donning the gloves and Nikki
moving into the unfamiliar midfield role. Monaro
kicked off running downhill and settled quickly
into stride. Early pressure saw the Witches on the
backfoot and it was no surprise when Monaro opened
the scoring after only seven minutes with a high
lobbed shot that gave Rach no hope of getting near.
The arrival of Maddi saw Rach come off for a break
but no easing of pressure from Monaro. The Witches
were scrambling frantically in defense but in the
18th minute there was little they could do when
their right winger unleashed a powerful angled
drive from 12m that Maddi hardly saw. Although the
introduction of Rach back into midfield helped stem
the tide,Monaro were still dominant and the Witches
were thankful that when halftime came it was still
only 2-0. The second half saw a significant
improvement from the Witches and they started to
cause Monaro problems but they still weren't
playing as well as in recent weeks. The
breakthrough for the Witches came from a free kick
awarded near the middle of the park, Rach sending a
floating kick over the Monaro defense. Nikki did
the rest, leaving her marker in her wake she made
no mistake from 6m, hitting her strike low and hard
to get the Witches back into the game. Monaro, who
had looked comfortable up to this point, now looked
a little hesitant and the resurgent Witches applied
the pressure.The equaliser came 5 minutes later
with Rach again supplying the final pass for Cassie
to head home from 10m out albeit with a bit of
luck. Spurred on by their vocal supporters, Monaro
responded well and the game now became an open
affair, flowing from end to end as both sides
fought for the vital opening to break the deadlock
but all to no avail. The score remained at 2-2, a
satisfying result for Monaro as they maintained
their undefeated tag. Not quite as satisfying for
the Witches who will be disappointed not to have
gone on to win after their comeback but perhaps a
little fortunate to have kept Monaro to only two
goals. Even so they demonstrated, once again, great
strength of character in the face of adversity as
they fought back from two goals down against the
Division's top side. They will need to show every
bit of that character again next week when they
take on great rivals Gungahlin in their knock out
semi-final. |
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Posted 05:19 No comments | Post a comment |
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Sun, 22 Aug 2010 |
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| Last week - covered in mud. This week - covered in glory | |||||
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With only ten players again, the Witches were not
expected to trouble a full strength Belsouth in
Canberra. After a bright but goalless start by
the Witches it seemed their luck had run out and
the pundits would be proved right. In the 11th
minute Belsouth scored a soft tap in effort after
Danni could only parry a difficult dipping shot
from 20m. Facing a challenge is nothing new to
the Witches and once again they rose to the
occasion. Refusing to panic they played
themselves back into the game and in the 30th
minute they reaped their reward with a sparkling
move capped off with a deadly finish from Cassie,
lashing the ball home from 16m out. Shortly after
the game was shrouded in controversy when a
Belsouth shot cannoned off the crossbar, bounced
out over Danni's head and was caught by her on
the edge of the keepers area. The ref was,
rightly, going to allow play to continue until
the club linesman, 30m from the backline, raised
his flag and indicated the ball had crossed the
line. The ref awarded the goal causing a degree
of heated comment from the sideline and obviously
upsetting the Witches who argued strongly that it
was not a legitimate goal. The Witches were
stunned but managed to get to half time with no
further setbacks. Still fuming, the Witches were
quickly settled by the grand wiz and returned to
the field fired up for a big second half effort.
The second stanza was following a similar pattern
to the first with Belsouth having plenty of ball
but unable to prise open the Witches defence,
while the Witches made numerous breaks on the
counter attack but found themselves understaffed
at the business end of the park. Midway through
the half the Witches managed to put some
sustained pressure on Belsouth, resulting in
a corner on the right. Rach sent over a typically
accurate ball that dropped at the far post and
there was an unsuccessful scramble to clear the
ball by Belsouth before Cassie popped up to steer
the ball past the diving keeper for a deserved
equaliser.Far from settling for a commendable
draw, the Witches went for the kill, throwing
Nikki up front with Cassie while Jess kept order
at the back. With 10 mins remaining the move paid
dividends when Meg released Nikki down the right.
Nikki took the ball deep into enemy territory
before cutting back inside past the Belsouth
sweeper and another defender and fired an
unstoppable left foot shot past the keeper to
seal a memorable and so very gutsy win. Belsouth
were stunned and the weary Witches had no trouble
finding the extra energy to comfortably see out
the remaining minutes to full time. A pulsating
game, full of drama, controversy and courage by
the Super Witches. |
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Posted 05:23 1 comment | Post a comment |
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Sat, 21 Aug 2010 |
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| Coles watch Witches gain a point in the wet. | |||||
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With team sponsors Coles looking on, the Witches
took on Gungahlin. Gungahlin had been in fine
goalscoring form recently with big wins over
Belsouth and Woden and a 5-5 draw with Monaro. Not
so hot for the Witches with no game in the previous
two weeks and only the bare eleven players against
Gungahlin on a heavy pitch. What folowed was an
enthralling battle as Gungahlin threw everything at
the resilient Witches, all to no avail. The Witches
rode their luck early in the game but the longer
the game went the more composed they looked at the
back. Danni was in superb form in goals, especially
considering the atrocious conditions, while Jess
marshalled the defence brilliantly in Nikki's
absence. THe Witches produced a number of attacks
on the break and created their fair share of
goalscoring opportunities. Most of the second half
was played in torrential rain, making the pitch
even more of a bog and the Witches efforts even
more meritorious as Gungahlin were kept scoreless
for the first time this season. |
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Posted 03:37 No comments | Post a comment |
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Sun, 25 Jul 2010 |
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| Witches of Courage | |||||
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Taking on Woden for the second time in five days,
things were not looking too bright for the Witches.
They were only able to field ten players and a
number of those were carrying injuries into the
game. Conversely, Woden had a complement of
fourteen players to call on. The Witches were
instructed to play a defensive game, relying on
quick counter attacks when possible. The first half
was fairly predictably dominated by Woden both
territorially and possession wise. Despite this the
Witches defended brilliantly with only a minimum of
errors and the score at half time was 0-0. The
numerical advantage, combined with the injuries was
taking it's toll on the Witches but they never
baulked at the job ahead. Every player contributed
to their maximum capacity and they repelled wave
after wave of attack from an increasingly
frustrated Woden.Although they were showing
signs of severe fatigue the Witches took every
opportunity to launch a counter attack, causing
Woden no end of problems. It was from one of these
swift raids that the Witches broke Woden's back,
Rach sending through a long pass which was seized
on by Cass. She took one touch then sent a low shot
across the goal and into the far side netting. The
Witches barely had the strength to celebrate the
goal they were that exhausted. Nevertheless they
did muster enough energy to snuff out Woden's last
feeble attempts over the final seven minutes to
signal the end of an incredible effort by the most
wonderful, courageous group of Witches in
Goulburn.(or anywhere else for that matter)
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Posted 04:58 No comments | Post a comment |






