Coaching is, more often than not, about nuance.
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Some coaches only have one gear, one way to inspire better performances from their players. Others like to tailor their approach to the team in order to get the best out of them.
Jeff Faint prefers the latter style, but during today's game between his Kootingal-Moonbi Roosters girls and the Dungowan Cowgirls, he had to crank the intensity right up.
"Dungowan came out of the gates at a million miles an hour," Faint said.
"They came out with intent, they came out with a lot of moves ... and caught our girls standing flat-footed.
"I gave the girls a bit of a rev-up at half time and said 'Do you want to play the major semi next week, or should we give Dungowan a chance?' That's how I felt at half time, I was pretty cross."
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It was difficult for Roosters captain, Rebekah Hartmann, to pinpoint exactly why the hosts at the Kootingal Sports Ground had started so slowly.
But ultimately, they scrambled well enough in defence to prevent the Cowgirls from running to an unassailable lead, and only trailed 10-6 at half time.
"We needed [the spray from Faint]," Hartmann said.
"We weren't playing to our potential. They came out real hard and fast, and we didn't necessarily match it."
But a gritty effort from former captain-coach, Abby Schmiedel, early in the second half pulled the Roosters level, before a stunning intercept from Kasey Fulwood saw her sprint nearly the length of the field to put the hosts up 16-10.
A late try from the Cowgirls went unconverted, so the score remained 16-14 when the final horn rang.
"We got a win, but we probably weren't the best team. But it's satisfying to win scrappy," Faint said.
"That's a really good sign, when you can scrap and fight and dig your way out of it."
Though it wasn't their cleanest victory of the year, Hartmann was pleased that the Roosters will now go into their major semi-final against the top-ranked North Tamworth Bears riding a five-match winning streak.
"We've solidified our second-place position, so the pressure was off in that the points didn't matter," she said.
"But we didn't want to go into finals on a loss. We wanted to make sure that we maintained our momentum."
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