A seventh career CFL hat-trick from Reilly Yuen helped the North Canberra Fire to a thumping 19-3 victory over the Queanbeyan-Palerang Power as one of the title favourites got their season off and running in some style.
Yuen moved onto 48 CFL goals in just 22 matches with what ultimately proved to be a five-goal haul for a player who also spent a half playing in between the posts. Tatum Mazis wasn’t far behind with a four-goal return herself as Fire rained in the goals against the out-gunned Power.
Jasmine Richards, on debut, bagged two as did Ayla Robertson, whilst in reply, the Power saw their won debutant Dannielle Waltman mark the occasion with a brace of goals in the second stanza. Zoe Wilson struck the other Power goal.
South Canberra Swift are the nascent league leaders, a point clear having played an game more, but can have been incredibly satisfied with an encouraging display in the Grand Final rematch against West Canberra Lightning, the match ending in a thrilling 5-5 draw.
Lightning have only ever dropped three points in the tournament history before this round, losing once last season, but looked in danger of repeating that as, after taking a second minute lead through Isabella Barac, they found themselves 3-1 adrift at the interval.
Goals from Sienna Birnie, Cara Ceruti, and Isabella Hindmarsh had the Swift in dreamland, and it was a similar tale after the interval as Barac netted early again for Lighting, only for a Jamie Berkeley own goal and a Zoe Halpin strike to put Swift 5-2 up with time running out.
However, this Lightning team isn’t back-to back campions for nothing, and they staged a remarkable recovery with eight minutes to play. Brittany Palombi scored twice, and now has an incredible 58 goals in just eighteen appearances, before Barac completed her hat-trick to seal a point.
UC Stars claimed their first win of the season after having been defeated in Round 1, as they won the University derby in some style crushing ANU Apex 6-1 lead by a four-goal haul from Megan Castle.
Castle added to Jessica Mitchell’s first-ever CFL goal just before half-time to give the Stars a crucial 2-0 lead at half-time, which was halved via an Eliza baker strike for the Apex just after the resumption.
Far from being deterred, the Stars hit their stride again with Castle rounded off a couple of nice moves to extend the lead to 4-1. Rhiann Goldstien added the fifth with seven minutes to play and Castle rounded out the scoring with her fourth as time was ticking away.
RESULTS
North Canberra Fire 19 (Yuen 5’, 10’, 18’, 20’, 29’, Richards 12’, 22’, Mazis 16’, 16’, 37’, 40’, Robertson 16’, 30’, N. De Marco 20’, 36’, Chao 27’, 27’, S. De Marco 27’, Oliver 36’) QP Power 3 (Wilson 23’, Waltman 24’, 29’)
South Canberra Swift 5 (Birnie 6’, Ceruti 11’, Hindmarsh 16’, Berkeley 30’ (og), Halpin 31’) West Canberra Lightning 5 (Barac 2’, 23’, 37’, Palombi 32’, 34’)
UC Stars 6 (Mitchell 10’, Castle 20’, 28’, 29’, 39’, Goldstein 33’) ANU Apex 1 (Baker 23’)
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | South Canberra Swift | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 4 |
| 2 | North Canberra Fire | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 3 | +16 | 3 |
| 3 | UC Stars | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 8 | -1 | 3 |
| 4 | West Canberra Lightning | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | ANU Apex | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | -5 | 0 |
| 6 | QP Power | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 19 | -16 | 0 |
TOP SCORERS
5: Reilly YUEN (Fire)
4: Megan CASTLE (Stars), Tatum MAZIS (Fire)
3: Isabella BARC (Lightning), Anneke CORRY (Swift)
2: Eliza BAKER (Apex), Sharon CHAO (Fire), Natalie DE MARCO (Fire), Zoe HALPIN (Swift), Brittany PALOMBI (Lightning), Jasmine RICHARDS (Fire), Ayla ROBERTSON (Fire)Dannielle WALTMAN (Power)
1: Sienna BIRNIE (Swift), Cara CERUTI (Swift), Kaitlyn COLWILL (Swift), Stella DE MARCO (Fire), Rhianna GOLDSTEIN (Stars), Lauren HALL (Swift), Isabella HINDAMRSH (Swift), Jessica MITCHELL (Stars), Eliza-Jane NORRIS (Stars), Ginger OLIVER (Fire), Samantha PRICE (Swift), Zoe WILSON (Power), Own GOALS
