Roar Women ready to hit the ground running for 2019

A refreshed Roar Women outfit will hit their first clash of 2019 this Friday night full steam ahead according to Head Coach Mel Andreatta.

The Roar return to Westfield W-League action for the first time this year away to defending champions Melbourne City at AAMI park on Friday afternoon.

After having the bye first-up in 2019, a chance for the group to refresh and prepare for a big end to the season has Andreatta’s side well placed for the trip south.

“We’ve had a great training week. Everyone is feeling positive and really looking forward to taking on a great opposition,” Andreatta said.

“It [the bye] was timely with a lot of younger players who had a big winter & have then earned debuts in the Westfield W-League this season.

“It was a good opportunity for us to freshen up, and that’s shown at training this week.”

The meeting will be the first between the two sides since last season’s Semi-Final and Andreatta expects a typically controlling style of play from the Roar’s opposition on Friday, who will also be spurred on by the importance of picking up points on home turf so late in the campaign.

“We expect nothing else but the Melbourne City brand of football. They’ll want to control the game and I think they’ll have that extra fire in the belly,” Andreatta continued.

“But, they know us too & they know that we’ll never take a backwards step. I’m just looking forward to it, it’s going to be an exciting game.”

One of the tightest Westfield W-League competitions in history looks set to go down to the wire, with the vast majority of the league still in contention for a top-four berth.

The Roar head into Round 11 in fourth position & a win on Friday would send them in to the top two for at least 24 hours.

“You want to be playing against the best in a league where every game is competitive. Every wants to be playing in February, we’ll take it week-by-week & time will tell where we end up,” Andreatta concluded.

Catch Friday afternoon’s clash from Melbourne LIVE on Fox Sports Ch 505, SBS Viceland or streamed on the MyFootball Live App, from 4:20pm QLD time.

MATCH DETAILS

Westfield W-League 2018/19 – Round 11: Melbourne City v Brisbane Roar
AAMI Park, Melbourne
Friday, 11 January (4:20pm KO QLD time)

BRISBANE ROAR WOMEN SQUAD

Goalkeepers: 1.Mackenzie ARNOLD, 20.Annie GROVE

Defenders: 2.Carson PICKETT, 4.Clare POLKINGHORNE (c), 5.Jenna MCCORMICK, 8.Kaitlyn TORPEY, 11.Natalie TATHEM, 14.Summer O’BRIEN

Midfielders: 6.Celeste BOUREILLE, 18.Leah DAVIDSON, 19.Hollie PALMER

Attackers: 7.Indiah-Paige RILEY, 9.Chioma UBOGAGU, 12.Allira TOBY, 15.Abbey LLOYD, 17.Yuki NAGASATO, 2.Anna MARGRAF **two to be omitted**

Ins: 18.Leah DAVIDSON (promoted), 22.Anna MARGRAF (promoted)
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: 10.Katrina GORRY (ankle – season), 16.Hayley RASO (back – 1-2 weeks)