THE target is on the backs of the Panorama Platypi for this upcoming Western Women's Rugby League opens campaign but coach Kevin Grimshaw expects his side to rise to the occasion.
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The Platypi have begun their training for the new season, which gets underway on September 23, where the open age squad will be gunning for their third straight premiership.
Panorama were the benchmark across both of last year's summer and spring premierships but with a couple of changes to their side - and the unknown quantities across the rest of the competition - it remains to be seen how well the team will fire in 2023.
There will be a high level of expectation on the Platypi for the new season, given their sensational run of results in this competition, but Grimshaw believes that pressure will fire up his players.
"It's very exciting to have the chance to win three in a row. It's a good challenge for me and it's a good challenge for the girls," he said.
"That's the case for the new girls and the girls who have been there before, and it's been great to see a lot of talk about the competition as well."
Grimshaw remains tight lipped on what the final makeup of the Platypi squad will look like but has confirmed that numbers have been fantastic for his opens side.
"Change is a good thing. It's sad to see that some girls won't be playing again but it's a great chance for new players to come through. One of the priorities for us is to make sure that we get a good group of under 18s players coming up, and we want to make sure that there's always a place for them," he said.
"It'll be a bit of a juggling act for us because we've got big numbers. We're up around the 27 player mark, which is absolutely fantastic, and that shows you what's happening in the women's game.
"I put a lot of that down to the NRLW being on TV, and it will gives the girls something to strive towards."
The Platypi are still waiting for the winter sport season to wrap up completely before they can ramp up their productivity at training.
It's not the most ideal of circumstances for Grimshaw to work with but he's got full confidence in his team to produce a strong brand of football on the day.
"The first training session was full of rain, sleet and hail but it was still good. We had great numbers for it and there were no complaints about the weather
"We're really starting to build into it. All the winter competition are finished now, with just the soccer grand finals to go, and then everyone will be on board.
"We're going in with limited preparation due to those other sports where the girls have made semi-finals and finals but we'll still be good."
The Platypi opens side won the first of their 2022 titles in an 18-10 grand final win over Woodbridge (in a competition delayed by COVID-19) and returned later in the year with a 20-10 victory in the spring decider over the Wiradjuri Goannas to make it back-to-back premierships.
Platypi's season begins with a trip away to face Castlereagh at Coonabarabran.
Panorama's coaches for the other grades this season will be Jess Hotham (under 18s), Molly Kennedy (16s), Kurt Hancock (14s) and Emma Duke (12s).
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