Tuggeranong Bushrangers: Season Preview

Brenden Bradley and Darby Medlyn return to the Tuggeranong Bushrangers for another season as they look to improve on last season's Preliminary Final berth.

In the Katrina Fanning Shield, the Bushrangers will have their eyes set on the finals after experiencing significant improvement last year.

Whilst for the Ladies League Tag side they will be looking to return to the finals and mirror the success of the Women’s tackle side.

An eleven-game winning streak for the Bushrangers at the end of last season, saw the club qualify for the Grand Final qualifier, with Captain Coach Darby Medlyn stating the group will be better for last year’s experience.

“Last year, we were definitely a new group; we've got a few new players coming into our team this year, but it’s good to have that last year under our belts,” Medlyn said.

Despite the winning streak, the club was forced to go on the run after an 0-6 start, with Medlyn aware his side needs to improve to start this season.

“We were chasing their tail at the back end of last year, and we can't afford to have that slow start again.”

 “Every game we picked up at the end of last year was a must-win.”

 “We need to make sure we start fast and have that continuity from the get-go”

Last year saw the talented lock forward secure the Les Mcintyre medal for the competitions best and fairest, with Medlyn putting his year down to enjoying his time on and off the field.

“It was a really enjoyable year, and that was the main takeaway for me last year.”

 “When I’m enjoying it, I’m playing my best footy, probably the same as most of the other blokes as well”

Meanwhile, the Katrina Fanning Shield side experienced a similar start to the season as the Canberra Raiders Cup team, according to Jana Teivonen, with strong improvement by the end of the year.  

“We started off the year a bit slow, but coming into that back end of the season, we definitely amped it up and started to gel a bit more,” Teivonen said.

 “This year, we are really focusing on keeping that building going rather than resetting.”

Lead by last years Coach of the Year, Teliya Hetaraka, the Bushrangers outside back attributed her coach’s ability to stay ahead of the trends key to their development.

“She [Teliya] brings so much knowledge to the side, especially keeping up with new techniques.”

“There’s always a new way to tackle or a new way to form a play, so she’s really got that modern-day knowledge which has really helped our team.”

For the Ladies League Tag side, they will be looking at their one percenters as a key area of improvement, with Susie Felstead aiming to turn these into wins.

“I think just fixing up all our little one percenters and turning our losses into lessons and bringing that into this year,” Felstead said.

Three of the Bushrangers five teams featured in the finals last season with Felstead attributing the club’s ability to connect with each other as part of the success.

“Everyone gets around each other, they're always there to support each other from preseason through to the last games, they're always there to get around it.”

Similar to the Canberra Raiders Cup, the Reserve Grade and Under 19s teams will be aiming to overturn their Preliminary final losses and advance to the Grand Final.