A bye in Round 11 and the upcoming International break is giving our Roar Women plenty of time to prepare for their next Westfield W-League clash away to Perth Glory on Sunday, 15 February.
Head Coach Jake Goodship feels that his squad are ready for the month off, with a number of fixtures lined up for those not away on international duty.
“We’ve got games planned. We’ve got very good relationships with the local NPL clubs in Queensland. We have a very good relationship with our youth team coach and youth team players who come into the environment regularly,” Goodship said.
“We’ve got some triallists coming as well. There’s going to be a number of games, we’re going to look at a number of trialists, keeping the players on their toes so when the Matildas come back in, we improve, we don’t drop off.”
The Roar will have five players involved in the Westfield Matildas crucial qualifiers with Mackenzie Arnold, Clare Polkinghorne, Elise Kellond-Knight, Katrina Gorry & Tameka Yallop all selected, as well the recently-departed Hayley Raso.
One of the cohort in Elise Kellond-Knight has only recently returned from an injury which curtailed her return in Brisbane orange, but the versatile midfielder has been key since her return & will play a key role in the Roar’s run towards finals.
“She [Kellond-Knight] is fantastic. What a player she is and what a person as well. You can see probably when she came off [against Sydney FC], there was probably a little bit of a hole in central midfield,” Goodship continued.
“We’ve got to be patient with her, got to make sure she’s right for the Matildas as well and for hopefully if we get into the finals. We’ve just got to be patient and build her up slowly.
The Roar only had a four-day turnaround between facing both Western Sydney and Sydney FC, with the month off now being an extremely different test of how they’ll approach their next match.
But Goodship sees no reason to panic with the confidence his coaching staff have instilled in him.
“It’s keeping the players entertained when we’ve got a bye and obviously the international break will probably be a bit of the test I think,” Goodship added.
“We have a great sport science team, a great strength and conditioning coach as well that does all the loading for us and he gets them through a good level and the players work hard. There’s no issue.”
The Roar Women currently sit fourth on the Westfield W-League ladder, three points ahead of Melbourne Victory with three matches to play.
