AFL: After two amazing starts turned into two average finishes Queanbeyan Tigerettes coach Robert Anderson is left searching for answers going into round three.
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The Tigerettes suffered a 40-point loss to the Riverina Lions on Saturday at Town Park and a 12-goal belting at the hands of Belconnen in round one, despite winning both first quarters.
"At first I thought it might have been fitness, but Town Park isn't a big oval and fitness wasn't our issue there," Anderson said.
"We're just not going as hard to get the ball, we're waiting for our opponents to get the ball and then trying to get it off them.
"I'm disappointed, but realistically we've faced two of the toughest teams to start the season."
Queanbeyan only managed to score a single goal for the remainder of the game against the Magpies and only two points against the Lions.
The Tigerettes flew out of the blocks and posted four goals in the first quarter to the Lions two, including a brilliant banana close to the boundary from Charlee Cremerius.
Riverina came back with brute force in the second and lead by 16 points at halftime, but the vibes were very positive in the Tigerettes changeroom- still confident three goals were definitely not unachievable.
Coach Anderson warned the girls not to let the Belconnen game repeat itself, to reel in the score before it ran away from them and get back to the intensity and football smarts of the first quarter.
But it was not to be, a few controversial calls went against the Tigers and they dropped their heads, trailing by 26 points at three-quarter time and losing 4.2 (26) to 9.12 (66) at the final siren.
Experienced Queanbeyan fullback Kristol Pyke held the backline together and single-handedly rushed through a number of would-be Riverina goals, Anderson said.
"Megan Godfrey went all day and Charlee Cremerius and Kahli Jensen were good up forward early," he said.
"Carly Res played well, attacked the ball hard and has a good competitive attitude and Tash Rakic and Anne McRoberts in the backline are still learning, but are going to be good. But everyone does little bits and pieces."
Queanbeyan take on ANU at Town Park on Saturday and Anderson said if the team can work with the same first quarter intensity for the four quarters they should be competitive.
"It was a good lesson for us [against Riverina]," he said.
"The physical part of our game needs to lift and we need to work on our positioning at stoppages.
"ANU is playing alright, but we should be able to get over the line if we do the team thing and get the harder ball."
