QUEANBEYAN Tigerettes are doing the yellow and black proud, they're the first team into the AFL Canberra division two grand final after a 10.9 (69) to 1.2 (8) semi-final win over Ainslie at StarTrack Oval and in a couple of weeks will be hoping to make it their third consecutive premiership.
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Unlucky not to make it into division one, the Tigerettes dominated the second half of the competition through the regular season, rocketing them into top position and the favourites tag thrown around early.
"I think there is a lot of pressure on us to win it for the third year in a row, although I think we can do it," Tigerettes captain Hannah Dunn said confidently.
After two previous meetings with the Tri Colours resulted in two close wins for Queanbeyan the Tigerettes were expecting their rivals to come out kicking and screaming.
But it was almost the complete opposite, rucks Megan Godfrey and Kate Reid dominated the hit-outs and midfielders Fallon Lieschke, Ella Ross (one goal) and Jacinta Froud found space and moved the ball beautifully, assisted by wingers Lon Flakelar and Keely Johnson.
Forwards Lani Watson (three goals), Shay Thompson (one goal) and Cassie Reid (two goals) led hard into space and made life hell for Ainslie defenders.
The ball rarely made it into Ainslie's forward 50, but when it did backs Kristen Turner, Kristol Pyke and Anne McRoberts made sure it came straight back out.
Ainslie trailed by 46 points at halftime, only scoring a behind in the second quarter- it wasn't until the final term that the Tri-Colours broke through with a major.
The Tigerettes covered the absence of speedster Carly Res well, who is recovering from a rib injury, but is expected to be fit in time for the grand final in two weeks.
Queanbeyan now await the result of this weekend's preliminary final between Molonglo and Ainslie after Molonglo's 48-point semi-final win over ANU.
Dunn said both the Tri-Colours and the Juggernauts are "strong teams" and a full team effort will be needed to secure the flag for another year.
"We need to really focus on supporting each other, trusting our teammates to do their role, backing each other and really getting on a roll. Once we get space, we seem to run with it," she said.
"We have a lot of quick girls especially the two Reid sisters [Kate and Cassie] and need to use that to our advantage. Really relying on the midfield a lot to win the hard ball around the ground.
"I think we will go fairly well [in the grand final]. If we played how we did against Ainslie in our first final we should get the win."
