On what he saw in Tamworth on the weekend and with the young talent coming through, Central North women's coach Jeremy Maslen believes the 15s program is only going to get stronger and stronger.
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The combined Central North/New England outfit finished fourth in the Thomson Cup after beating Central Coast in the final game of their campaign 17-10.
"Every game we built, got stronger and stronger.
"The win just topped it off for us," Maslen said.
They were very close to two wins, falling just short against Mid North Coast 12-5 first-up on Sunday.
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The Kookaburras were attacking in the final seconds but it came to no avail.
That was for Maslen the only real disappointment of the weekend with the game getting away from them. They had a lot of the play in the first half, but dropped balls in good positions hurt them and saw them leading just 5-nil at half-time.
In the second half they had to do a lot of defending and then probably panicked a bit when they did have it.
But they learnt from that, and in a similar situation, against Central Coast were a lot more composed.
"A big thing going into the last game was just be patient, don't panic," Maslen said.
That was tested, with the Kookaburras, from 17-nil up finding themselves clinging to a seven point lead.
"But we dug deep and defended well," he said.
The challenge going into the weekend for them was always going to be adjusting to 15s with most of the side having only ever really played sevens.
"(But) Each game all those things got better and better; our set piece, defending 15-a side, our work at the breakdown," Maslen said.
The plan is to next year run the women's program "a lot longer" and with a lot of juniors coming through that will move up into the seniors, Maslen is excited about the future.
He thought captain Rosie Ferguson was a standout for them.
"Claudia (Neilsen) with her experience, she set a level for the girls and I think all the girls stepped up to that level," he said.
Josie Coddington was also huge for them with her experience.
"The addition of the New England girls, that strengthened our team," Maslen said.
He also made particular mention of Charlotte Goldman's performance against Central Coast.
"I've never so many turnovers made by one player in a single game, she would have made nine or 10," he said.
Their hopes of playing in the final had been dashed by a 34-5 loss to Hunter on Saturday.
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