CIARA Kearns has endured her share of tough Saturdays as a Bathurst Lady Bushranger, but as the 2022 AFL Central West women's finals series draws closer things are starting to click for her side.
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In the last four rounds the Lady Bushrangers have twice beaten Orange, showed promise in the first half against the competition leading Bathurst Giants and tested the Dubbo Demons.
Kearns, who skippers the Lady Bushrangers, knows there is still improving to do but she's been delighted to see the effort the squad has put into developing their skills start to translate on the scoreboard.
"In our game against Giants for the Mental Health round our first two quarters were incredible, we were within four goals and probably could have been up based on how we'd been playing," she said.
"In the second half we dropped off, we got tired and it blew out really quickly, but those first two quarters were amazing, that was the best two quarters we'd played.
"Then we went to Dubbo and did that same thing but for the four quarters which was great. Then in Orange on Saturday, it was a little bit of a different game, bit slippery, bit muddy, but the quality was still there."
While the Lady Bushrangers only took a small, core group of 12 to Dubbo and the Demons helped them out with some additional personnel, the way the Bathurst side played was still impressive.
They moved the Sherrin quickly with handballs, they hit targets with their kicks, they provided good leads and worked hard off the ball. It showed as they only went down 37-12.
"It was an absolute blinder of game, it was the best we played all season, the girls connected," Kearns said.
"Then we carried that through to our game against Orange where every contest we were in there, which was so good to see."
Saturday's match against the Orange Tigers, played at Waratahs Sports Ground, was tight early on.
But the Lady Bushrangers took their six-point lead at quarter-time and built on it to eventually emerge 10-7-67 to 2-3-15 victors.
Laura Salter booted four majors while Kearns, Angela Evans and Emily Smith all bagged a brace.
"Orange, they came out strong, they scored the first goal of the game. They're not easy to beat, they've got a bit of experience in their team and a few of their midfielders are so strong, their drive through the centre is so impressive," Kearns said.
"So it's definitely hard to control and hard to predict the way they play and they have so much promise. But the way our team was able to keep building quarter by quarter, each quarter we came off and set a goal and achieved that the next quarter.
"Just the consistency and the effort across the four quarters was awesome."
The Lady Bushrangers now have five wins for the season and Kearns hopes they can add to that tally before they're done.
But no matter what the rest of season 2022 brings, the captain knows the way the squad has improved points to a strong future.
"The whole season we've be trying to work on little things and just piece it together and there's just been something that was blocking us each week," Kearns said.
"But the last couple of weeks we've been so good. The deliveries into the forward 50 have been cleaner, things are coming together with our contests through the midfield.
"I think it has been a little bit of that slow burn, the last five weeks at training we've had a massive focus on skills and discipline and that has meant people are taking that extra step and being a bit more composed on the weekend.
"We're going from strength to strength and no matter what happens this season, things are looking bloody good for next year.
"We're a confidence team so when we're all hyping each other up and having that positive attitude, having that good vibe on the field and off the field, it shows in the way we play."
BATHURST LADY BUSHRANGERS 10-7-67 (Laura Salter 4, Angela Evans 2, Ciara Kearns 2, Emily Smith 2) defeated ORANGE TIGERS 2-3-15 (Tori Moore)
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