Queensland Firebirds captain Kim Ravaillion says she is looking forward to seeing how her team can further benefit from the rest of the Suncorp Team Girls Cup pre-season tournament.
Despite a 37-45 loss to the Melbourne Vixens in their opening game at Melbourne’s Parkville Stadium on Friday night, the Firebirds leader was upbeat about their performance.
In what was the club’s first pre-season contest against an SSN team, the Firebirds fought back impressively to lead late in the game before the Vixens finished off strong.
“I thought in patches we were brilliant and in other patches we weren’t,” Ravaillion said.
“But this tournament is all about finding those connections and trying things that we have been working on at training, so we just need to keep building on those throughout the weekend.
“They have obviously had a couple of (pre-season) games and we had a bit of a COVID patch so that was actually our first game and to be honest it was a good starting point for us.”
It was an exciting day for all teams, though it was extra special for three players who made their debut in purple for the Firebirds.
From the first whistle, international recruit Eboni Usoro-Brown showed why she is in the England team, with her work in defence a standout in the opening half.
Though it was the first appearances on the big stage for two training partners that had their captain grinning from ear-to-ear.
“We’ve got two new faces out there in Charlie (Bell) and Ash (Ervin) who came on and did a great job,”
“Ruby (Bakewell-Doran) came on and her defensive pressure was unreal, her and H (Hulita Veve) had a real crack at the ball in defence which really set us up in attack and we just had to finish off and Grets (Gretel Tippet) took some awesome two-point shots.
“It’s just building that confidence and knowing we can do those things but just consistently.”
The Firebirds now quickly turn their attention to tomorrow’s double-header against the NSW Swifts and Sunshine Coast Lightning.
