Although it’s been a tough journey in the WPL so far for Quenten Wells and his Monbulk Rangers side, he insists there’s still plenty to play for, starting with a key clash against Cairnlea on Sunday afternoon.
While it’s looking a tough task, safety is on the precipice of the Rangers head coach’s mind, with a secondary focus on developing the younger players within the squad.
“Definitely trying to develop the youth but we want to pick up points and we want to get results,” Wells said.
“The aim is still here to stay, there’s plenty of games, still plenty of points for us to get.”
Wells has labelled the next month of fixtures as key for survival, challenging his team to go out, compete and take points out of the matches.
“The next few games are going to be important against Cairnlea and the FFV [U17 Girls] that are all around that level and even Box Hill in the next three,” he said.
“They’ve had a poor run for whatever reason they haven’t been getting points either. There’s going to some opportunities coming up and we’ve just got to be prepared to take them.
“We’ll see if we can get some points here, even a point, just to get the girls confidence back up. See if we can pinch one here or there and boost our confidence for the rest of the season.”
The task has been made harder with the news that Monique Nogueira – one of Monbulk’s best performing players thus far – is out for the rest of the season as she heads overseas.
“Monique [Nogueira’s] gone, headed off overseas. She’s on a little bit of a holiday to start with before a 4-5 month scholarship in the US – so she’s done for the season,” Wells said.
“We’ve got Emily [Hulbert] back for a few games then she goes back to the US on her scholarship so we’ll make use of her for the next 3-4 and then it’s basically the squad we’ve got.”
The Monbulk coach continued to discuss his squad and was left to rue the injuries that have hampered the progress of a number of his new signings but admits it’s just another challenge his squad will have to tackle.
“We’ve tried to get a couple of players in, unfortunately two of the new players we’ve brought in have been injured in their first games and they’re out for 5-6 weeks.
“Everything we do we seem to hit walls, little hurdles so it’s all challenges and we’ll keep fighting them.”