'A lot of heart': Bolts women impress in debut outing

After three years without a senior women's side - an absence which began due to COVID-19 - the decision was made this year to commit to rebuilding the program.

But when the draw was unveiled, Tamworth drew the shortest possible straw.

Two clashes against the second-ranked Goulburn Bears on Saturday were followed by an outing against the top-placed Canberra Nationals Academy the next day.

Though the Thunderbolts lost all three games, the biggest margin was just 13 points against Canberra.

The two clashes against Goulburn were decided by seven and four points, both of which Higgins believes Tamworth "should have won".

"They didn't beat us, we lost to them," he said.

"We were by far the better team, but through probably a bit of inexperience, we kind of threw those games away.

"But that's a good lesson."

Regardless, the Thunderbolts "played above and beyond" Higgins' expectations, and he is now confident that his team can not only compete in this division, but push for finals.

Working in their favour is their defence, which Higgins said was outstanding and even caught the eye of opposition coaches.

"They played with a lot of heart," he said.

"Our defensive game is what kept us in all the games. Our defence over the three games was outstanding, and it was commented on by all the other coaches we played."

Arguably the biggest barrier the Thunderbolts will face this season is scheduling.

Their first three games all took place in the one weekend, and they now have a two-week break before another cluster of three games in two days.

In Higgins' opinion, the best way to prevent any rust setting in between games is to bring the intensity to each and every training session and local game they play.

"We can realistically only fit one, if not two, training runs in before we're back on the road again," he said.

"So there's some games on Tuesday night where the girls will get a game in. But we've really got to show up to training before the next round, and we've got to put that effort in.

"Now we know what the benchmark is, we've got to start training to that level and keep pushing ourselves."

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