The Wests Tigers’ Lisa Fiaola Cup side is aiming to stay alive in the competition’s finals series and make a deep run in the finals as they take on the Central Coast Roosters in a must-win match on Saturday afternoon.
Finishing in fifth place ahead of the first week of the finals, the Wests Tigers won six out of a possible eight games, with their only two losses coming against the Sydney Roosters (18-20 in Round 2) and the Canterbury Bulldogs (38-8 on Round 7).
“It’s so good, especially after last year. The competition for Lisa Fiaola was just a little bit all over the place, there wasn’t too much structure whereas this year they’ve had nine rounds,” Botille Vette-Welsh told Zero Tackle.
Yeah, we had training and it was a little bit more quieter than normal,” she added on if there are nerves around the club.
“I think everyone’s a little bit nervous and not wanting to do anything too crazt but then we had KFC afterwards and everyone was back into their normal spaces which was really cool.
“If they can keep a team to zero in a game, then they get KFC or they get pizza at training, so it was a very quiet training session.
“It’s such a humbling experience to be able to coach and be amongst the young girls and share information and see how much they improve.
“I’ve got to give a lot of reps to all the coaching staff or head coaches having to deal with young teenage girls or just girls who ask a lot of questions – our coach Scott is an awesome guy.
While she isn’t coaching full-time with the Lisa Fiaola Cup team, Botille Vette-Welsh has been around the squad and will wear the trainer’s shirt on the weekend.
A key figure of the Wests Tigers NRLW team, Vette-Welsh has been a constant presence in the NSW Sky Blues and Australian Jillaroos line-up for a number of years.
“The girls have really grown and learn a lot,” added Vette-Welsh.
“The young girls want to learn and bet better and better. Anything that I learned from eith Noddy [Brett Kimmorley] and NRLW or any other rep teams, I like to take that back to them.
“If I can bring all that information, give it to some 15, 16-year-olds – give them three or four years in that level – they’re going to be so much better than us and they’re going to be so much better than us and we’re going to be fighting to keep positions because all the young talent coming through is just going to be too strong.”
This won’t be the Tigers’ first encounter with the Central Coast Roosters this season. Earlier in the year, they defeated them 26-16 in a back-and-forth match.
Lucyannah Luamanu-Leiataua, Alavina Tu’ifua, Tallia Pele Taula, Sakari Ritchie and Paige Attard all crossed the line for the Tigers while the goalkicking duties belonged to Ellie Barnett and Agnews Faaui.
The Wests Tigers will play the Central Coast Roosters at Leichhardt Oval on Saturday afternoon at 12:00pm (AEST).
