Noosa Tigers women's coach excited ahead of gaining competition promotion after back-to-back premierships

Noosa Tigers head coach Graham Burgen says he’s excited about the possibility of promotion and reveals which of his team's current players could play in the AFLW competition.

The Noosa Tigers senior women's team, who have gone from strength-to-strength in the past 12 months by securing back-to-back premierships, are now focusing in on QAFLW aspirations.

The Tigers team were able to beat out Ipswich Eagles in the QFAW North Division 2 competition 4.4-28 to 1.4-10 to be crowned 2021 champions on September 4.

Head coach Graham Burgen said the skill of elite netballer and ex-Firebird Keirra Massoud (nee Trompf) was a great asset to the team.

“Our biggest strength was that so many girls were able to improve overall but as far as players that stood out it’s hard to go past Keirra who won the grand final best on ground,” he said.

“For her to have no footy background at the start of the year and instead come from an elite netball background she just had a thirst for knowledge and learnt the game very quickly to become a great player in that standard of competition.

“She’s a super athlete so I think if she played another couple of years she could be a super player and even though she’s older she’s got the potential to play at that AFLW level.”

Current Noosa Tigers player and former elite netballer Keirra Massoud winning the competition’s best and on ground after their grand final victory. Photo: Highflyer Images

The former AFLW and VWFL coach said being able to win the final was a nice way to end the season.

“I think the win was the end product but the process and the fact that the players skill and footy IQ grew over the season was really enjoyable to watch,” he said.

“We’ve had a lot of girls really improve their kicking and that skill of bouncing the ball so it gave them so many extra weapons when they carried the footy.

“For us to kick away and beat Ipswich by three goals was a credit to what the girls had learnt throughout the course of the year.”

Noosa Tigers women's AFL team celebrate winning the QFAW division two premiership. Photo: Highflyer Images

Burgen said he isn't opposed to the idea of playing in the higher competition but understands the off-field matters that come with that decision.

“Ultimately it’s going to be decided by the girls themselves but we have to look at the demographic of Noosa and our players situations,” he said.

“We’re 30 minutes up the road from Maroochydore and we’ve got a lot of young mums and some single mums in our team as well.

“If we go up, we’re forced to go to the Gold Coast three or four more times a year and for young mums that’s not ideal so I think we're really quite demographically challenged.”

Burgen said he believed the team could still compete at that higher level.

“The step up in skill is always going to be a challenge but the rapid improvement they made this year they would make the same growth if they were to change competitions,” he said.

“I’ve got no doubt if they went to the grade above they would play finals footy with the same squad we’ve got now.”