Harvey Norman NSW Cup 2025 Season comments

Girls played well. Dogs forwards were stong and our girls matched them I thought.

McCarthy was stella in middle, very strong for a 17 yr old, isn't afraid of contact.
Fane Finau strong on edge too and second half carries she broke free of one of one defence constantly.
Grace Giampino was our leader up front, very good in run and D.
15 and 16 Sophie Buller and Aliyah Paki were immense off the bench. Great technique in defence and really put a stop to the Bulldogs middles
Tess Staines did great with 4 tries, using her speed but wouldn't read heaps into it as the Dogs centre was as big as a prop and moved like one. But good work by her and her centre Lucy Spain for iding that.
7 Ashlee Harvey has a pretty decent kicking game that gave us good meters at end of sets.
Maria Brown quite a good defensive centre, made some good reads.

Good first up win by the girls
 
Who would be the quickest player of the girls?

I thought Lily White was fairly quick but she looked like she was running in quicksand last night.
 
White had that one play where she ran past a forward to make a break (before butchering a try) but overall she's very underwhelming as an athlete. Few times Willison did well to create some space and gave it to White who is just too slow to capitalise. Staines is the quickest in the squad and played well today.

If I'm guessing the fastest in last night's team my money would probably be on McEwen, which is equal parts impressive and depressing. Very slow back 5.
 
Thanks, maybe Tess might be best for the win then. Yeah that’s impressive about McEwen to be that quick
 
I notice Malaki Poa is 14 for Wentworthville.
I like her as a player, but she was our 3rd choice hooker in Tarsha Gale this year and only got a few games, and the two girls ahead of her didn't make HVN side this year either.
Wentworthville were one of the teams to bear last year.
I think the only two girls from TG this year are Mariah Brown and Fane Finau - girls who played all season last year like Liz Montgomery, Lelani Ahsam and Aylah McCulloch didn't make the round one side, but they might be injured - all 3 were in the early trials and missed the last one I think.

Way back in the men's pre-season they had a day at Cessnock where two teams of senior women played each other with Jefferies on the field giving them instructions, and at that time you could see we were trialling a lot of very good players from all over.

The fact that so few of last year's grandfinal side played in round 1 says we have recruited a lot of players from all over.

I see Ashlee Harvey played for Burleigh Bears in Qld in 2022 and I think was at Maitland last year. She looked great at halfback this week. Her kicking game wasn't too far short of Jesse Southwell's.
 
Wentworthville 10 - 16 Souths at halftime in the last game of the round.

Both sides look good.

Wentworthville only lost once last year - against us in the semi finals.

We play Wentworthville next week. They look beatable this year.
 
Souths won 22 - 20 over Wentworthville.

Mia Middleton was one of the best for Wentworthville, but went off with a head knock, which rules her out next week.

Souths are a big side. Not much skill about them, but plenty of big forwards who run hard.
 
  • Tess Staines 7'
  • Tess Staines 12'
  • Aaliyah Paki 20'
  • Tyla Brown 25'
  • Tess Staines 30'
  • Lucy Spain 37'
  • Tess Staines 46'
That left edge of Fane Finau, Lucy Spain and Tess Staines is deadly.
Lucy Spain is the Matt Gidley of HVN cup - she just draws the defence and pops the perfect pass to Staines time after time, and Staines is the fastest on the field by a long way, so doesn't get run down.
A win against last year's minor premiers by 40 - 6 is impressive.
 
We are top of the table after 2 rounds.
Next game is against Souths, who beat Wentworthville by 2 in round 1.
I watched that game and Souths won in the forwards. They have a huge and powerfull pack.
We have won our games with our speedy back 5.
It will be an interesting clash of styles.
 
Billy said:
  • Tess Staines 7'
  • Tess Staines 12'
  • Aaliyah Paki 20'
  • Tyla Brown 25'
  • Tess Staines 30'
  • Lucy Spain 37'
  • Tess Staines 46'
That left edge of Fane Finau, Lucy Spain and Tess Staines is deadly.
Lucy Spain is the Matt Gidley of HVN cup - she just draws the defence and pops the perfect pass to Staines time after time, and Staines is the fastest on the field by a long way, so doesn't get run down.
A win against last year's minor premiers by 40 - 6 is impressive.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the run down. Sounds like there’s a lot of good players to come through in the future.

How is Staines defensively? Whoever plays on the left wing next week is going to have their hands full with Michaela Brake. So will our middles for that matter
 
up 12 - 6 after 20 minutes - props scoring this week
  • Viena Tinao 10'
  • Grace Giampino 14'
 
22 - 6
great try to Lucy Spain in the corner, but she picked up an injury diving over.
 
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