West Belconnen Warriors: Season Preview
After an elimination final defeat last season, the West Belconnen Warriors will be looking to bounce back under the new leadership of Peter Marrapodi who replaces Ryan McQueen for the 2026 season.
The Katrina Fanning Shield enter as the defending premiers and will be looking to create history by becoming the first KFS side to go back-to-back.
In the Ladies League Tag, after a Preliminary Final last season they will be looking to rise up the ladder and win their first title since 2019.
Peter Marrapodi joins the club replacing Ryan McQueen who leaves the club after spending eight years at the helm, as the club’s Captain Coach, with hooker Harry Brown excited about the change he has seen over the off season.
“Just in terms of attack and defence, just those key principles that they obviously teach in the NRL, just drilling that into our guys, which has been ongoing through the preseason, and it's been really positive,” Brown said.
Along with welcoming a new head coach, the Warriors also boast a list of impressive signings which includes, John Papalii, Atu Tupou and Jomal Nchouki, creating an exciting forward pack for the year ahead.
“I think we just fell apart just in terms of numbers in the back end of the year.”
“We still had a great year, and everyone enjoyed it, but as you can see with the signings, we are really bolstering our forward pack, so looking forward to that.”
Meanwhile, the Katrina Fanning Shield team enter as the team to beat after a comprehensive victory in last year’s decider against the Belconnen United Sharks, with Maddison Harney stating the goal is to return to the last game of the season.
“We’ve got a really good squad together, but we will just take it week by week and see how we go, but that’s always the main goal [making the final],” Harney said.
With the challenges associated with being the defending premiers, the Warriors plan on keeping things simple, for a team that has experienced some turnover this season.
“We just have to stick to what we do at training, stick to our game plan and just take it from there.”
“We’ve got a few experienced girls coming from union and some coming up from non-contact, but we’ve been doing a lot of tackling and contact in general, but the speed from league tag really transfers well into the backline for tackle.”
Whilst, for the Ladies League Tag team they are looking to bounce back from a heartbreaking Preliminary Final loss against the Woden Valley Rams last season, with Liv Hall saying her side has gone to work on what didn’t work last year.
“It’s been a big preseason for us, we were really trying to write out our wrongs of some things that weren't working well for us last year,” Hall said.
“Just going back to basics, working on our plays and fitness, plus our chat on the field is going to be a big move for us this year.”
After seeing the success of the Katrina Fanning Shield side, it has inspired the League Tag team to return to the top of their respective competition with the entire club interacting throughout the pre-season.
“It's really awesome to see what those girls [KFS team] do out there; they are a huge inspiration for us.”
“We are actually a really tight-knit group, and we do a lot of training sessions together so that we will be working towards that and taking their inspiration and hopefully transferring that into our game as well.”
For the Reserve Grade side, the will be looking to bounce back from their Minor Semi Final loss against the Bushrangers, whilst the Under 19s will looking to return the finals after missing out last season.
