The University of Queensland (UQ) are the team to beat in the QAFL Women’s competition this year, after taking out the premiership in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although going back-to-back is one of the hardest tasks in football, Red Lions coach Ross Clayfield<\/strong> said that 2022 is a new kettle of fish and that his side is not looking to build on last year, but rather to \u201cforge a new identity\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know it sounds a little corny but we really not talking about premierships,” Clayfield said. “We didn\u2019t talk a lot about the premiership last year either. We have a very different group, I guess the AFLW involvement this year is going to be pretty minimal compared to last year and we were a top two team throughout the season last year. An influx of our Lions girls certainly was a big factor, but this year will be very different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “We\u2019ve had retirements and we\u2019ve had a couple of important players move with work and those Brisbane Lions players won\u2019t be available in the same way, so it’s such a different team. We\u2019re really just forging a new identity and not really talking about building on last year, it\u2019s more about a new adventure this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the challenges facing Queenslanders at the moment, Clayfield said that preseason had gone pretty well for the most part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would have said amazingly well up until 48 hours ago,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cWe\u2019ve just had a few hiccups, a few injuries and a Covid related thing or two, and we\u2019re probably going to go into Round 1 a little understrength but that\u2019s okay, we\u2019ll keep fighting on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like many QAFLW clubs, UQ had not avoided the wrath of the South-East Queensland floods, nor the threat of Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell the floods are a factor, and a couple of players in our team were affected pretty seriously\u201d said Clayfield. \u201cTraining has been affected a little bit but not too bad with some weather, but that\u2019s fairly normal this time of year but we\u2019ve managed to get a couple of good sessions in one way or the other most weeks, so we\u2019re feeling pretty good about where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alongside former Carlton Blue Laura Ernst<\/strong>, Clayfield mentioned a number of exciting new recruits to his side for 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cProbably the big ones would be a couple of girls from one of our rival club Wilston Grange, Kaitlyn Day<\/strong> and Kristen Tyquin<\/strong>. They\u2019ve settled really, really well into the club and just a dynamic kind of pair who are probably going to mainly play forward this year, which we\u2019re really excited about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n