The Tigers Under-16s girls are a new team as of this year and they are exceeding expectations by winning every game and coming top of the ladder. This will be their first year at Kanga Cup as a team, and this is how they are feeling and preparing.
“The team has been preparing through many training sessions focusing on what we are expecting from our competition,” Madeliene Shrewsbury, who plays in the squad told Kanga Cup. “We also had a combined training session with the Canberra Croatia U15s NPL where we trained for an hour then played a friendly game for an hour.”
Considering its some of the players’ first times at Kanga Cup, they are looking forward to seeing what it’s like, and for those returning, they’re excited to play new teams.
“We are looking forward to being able to play lots of games and have fun together,” Shrewsbury admitted. “The best thing about the tournament is playing as a team and spending lots of time together. It allows the players and teams to bond to hopefully get stronger as a team. I have never done it before so I’m excited to see what it’s like to play there.
“According to other players and coaches, it is a fantastic week which brings more fun than expected on cold winter mornings. The players get to have fun, and the spectators get to watch games they wouldn’t normally see considering the different opponents. It provides a new level of competition that only comes once a year.
“We are only playing out of state teams, so we don’t know much about our competition. We hope to play to our best and hopefully winning will come from that.”
Although a form of Tigers FC has been around since 1952, the girls program only started in 2024 with just the under-14 girls. This year though, they have expanded to all aspects and hope to keep achieving more.
“We are expanding every year especially the girls side,” Shrewsbury said. “There was only an U14s Division 1 team last year who topped the ladder without a single loss, but they couldn’t move up to NPL without the 16s team. Now that we have both of those plus U12s, we hope to top the club championship and move up to NPL.
“Our teams goal this year is to top the ladder and move up to NPL. My team is currently coming first after no losses so it’s looking good.”
