Em McDonald admits venturing into the inaugural Westfund Ferguson Cup finals series, as one of the smaller players on the field, is a touch daunting.
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But, as the old saying goes, the bigger they are the harder they fall – McDonald only needs to look back a week to remember that.
Orange Emus brought down one of the premiership’s real big dogs last week at Forbes, coming from behind to win 31-26 over minor premiers West Wyalong in the final round of the regular season.
Emus takes on Cowra at Molong on Saturday in one of three elimination semi-finals and while that win over the Redbacks has given the greens plenty of confidence, McDonald knows her side can’t afford any complacency.
“Honestly, we headed into the game against West Wylong thinking we were going to get smashed,” McDonald said.
“We only had 10 players travel over to Forbes, we had no subs and were facing top-of-the-table leaders … coming away with the win’s definitely a confidence booster but playing Cowra in the semis is going to be a whole different ball game, so we can’t go into this game thinking it’s going to be easy for us.”
McDonald certainly won’t be.
“I get nervous before every game,” she added.
“Being the smallest on the field is pretty scary but this weekend makes me a little more worried due to the fact I know how much Cowra are going to want it and they are probably one of the teams that have a bigger and stronger forward pack.”
Cowra’s heightened desire is two pronged, with Emus knocking off the Eagles’ girls twice during the regular season while the red and whites will be keen to bounce back after going down in last year’s grand final, ultimately losing to the Bulldogs.
Cowra’s one of the Central West Rugby Union’s mainstays, so experience alone makes the Eagles a tough finals proposition.
Particularly for a young Emus side.
“I expect they will come out firing pretty hard,” McDonald said, adding her 10-a-side outfit has come a long way in 2018.
“I think everyone is just enjoying playing together and loves the game.
“A lot of the new girls had never played contact before and now are putting some big hits on, overall the team has improved in all skills and aspects of the game thanks to the help of people like Shane Udy that did a few training sessions with us.”
McDonald praised one of her side’s veterans, Amanda Ferguson. Saturday’s clash with Cowra will be Ferguson’s last for the season before she heads off as manager of the Wallaroos.
“Amanda Ferguson has stood out to me this season, she helps direct everyone around the field and she’s one of the older teammates that can pull some freaky stuff out of the hat and has given me a lot of help and confidence to improve my game,” she said.
“All the new girls have been impressive in everything, for girls that have not tackled or knew a single rule of rugby they have improved in every aspect of the game and are only getting better.”
CSU Bathurst will take on Mudgee at 2pm and premiers Bathurst Bulldogs clash with Temora, from 12pm, on Saturday.
The Emus and Cowra semi-final is at 1pm.
