BMD Premiership Round 2 preview

The Western Clydesdales are not going to coast off of their Round 1 win.

One of two new teams in this year’s BMD Premiership, the Clydesdales kickstarted their season last week with an impressive 22-18 victory over Central Queensland Capras.

It was a significant moment – one for the history books.

But for coach, Mitch Sargent, it’s just the beginning and nothing to get carried away with.

Sargent’s women will this week face one of the biggest challenges they could come up against in the BMD Premiership, when they meet reigning premiers, Burleigh Bears.

They know that this weekend’s result will show them where they stand.

“It was pleasing to see the scoreboard show a result that we’d been working hard on since November to pay off,” Sargent said of his team’s Round 1 effort.

“We can build off that performance.

“But this weekend, we’re expecting Burleigh to play the footy that they play every single year.

“They’re a fantastic team and fantastic club that breed success. It’s a massive, big challenge and I’m sure they’ll bring their best to Pittsworth. It will show us where we stand.

“Having their combinations and connections plays a key role in rugby league.

“We will definitely see where we’re at once the fulltime siren goes and I know there will be areas we go really well in and some key learnings we’ll take out of this game.”

The Clydesdales will this week be without star second rower Kezie Apps (unavailable), with the Australian Jillaroos co-captain crucial in last week’s win with 151 run metres and 19 tackles.

Instead, young local talent Mackenzie Zeller will come into the starting side.

“It’s really important and special to see this as a team and region,” Sargent said of Zeller’s promotion from the bench.

“She’ll learn from this experience in a run-on opportunity. It’s such a key learning for her and we’re extremely proud to see that opportunity and pathway now create moments like this for our young players, to get opportunity to run on with Ali Brigginshaw.”

For Sargent, the most special part of last week’s win was getting to see the local talent, such as Zeller, have their moment to shine in the inaugural Clydesdales line up.

This included co-captain Tara Reinke who topped the tackle count with 32 and had the most run metres for the Clydesdales, with 181.

“We had eight debutants that are southwest players play in that match, which meant a lot for the team and the local region,” Sargent said.

“They’re getting better every single game and that’s the most pleasing thing.

“Tara was outstanding leading from the front. She played a lot of minutes and brought energy to our team and also Keeley Davis.

“She played really well off the bench and brought some spark to our game.”

Round 2 of the BMD Premiership will begin with the Central Queensland Capras playing host to Wynnum Manly Seagulls at Rockhampton’s Browne Park.