NERU: Tamworth women warm-up for maiden finals appearance with 68-14 win over Robb

The Magpies are preparing for their first-ever finals campaign after what has been a watershed season.

From struggling to win a game, they claimed eight including back-to-back wins for the first time and their biggest-ever win, to finish third.

It's a position Mills didn't doubt they could be in.

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"I actually said to the girls, at the start of the year, we will be playing in the finals and we want to take the competition out," he said.

Part of that was wanting to instill some confidence in them.

But he also genuinely believed it.

"We had a few girls turn up that had good rugby brains and good football brains and once I saw that, and what they were putting on the paddock I reckoned we could take the comp out," he said.

They will tackle Glen Innes in the minor semi-final on Sunday and go in brimming with confidence after beating Robb 68-14 on Saturday.

It was a strong performance and the perfect boost ahead of the finals. They played with a real finals intensity, putting Robb under a lot of pressure in defence and at the breakdown.

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"I told the girls to muscle up this week," Mills said.

His other main message to them was to just play their game.

"Slow the play down and play our game, not go to their game and try and play as quick. You make mistakes when you play quick."

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Paige Leonard, Flo Davidson, Tobi Lee Clough, Beth Andren and Lauren Harbison all crossed for doubles.

Mills did make special mention of Leonard and Clough, along with Tahlia Urquhart, but said everybody had a wonderful game.

They have had the measure of the Elkettes so far this season.

"So we're going in confident but they will be a very hard team to to beat," Mills said.

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