At the start of the season, six girls returned from last year’s under 13G Maroon Balloons. Additionally, we secured three girls who came up from under 11’s plus a football convert and found ourselves with a small but perfectly formed 10-piece girl's rip team. Add two coaches, one manager extraordinaire, and the 2023 under 13G Maroon Cocoons were born.

We sought to improve everyone’s core skills - catch, pass, kick and rip plus reinforcing the need for fun and a real focus on maturing to play as a team rather than as individuals. There were times during the season when individual brilliance led to tries, as we have many talented, speedy and elusive girls. But it was the fantastic team tries that really put a smile on the coach's faces - somewhere the ball was in a sweeping movement involving multiple team members passed at pace using the full width of the field, or where some of our kick chase or newly learned set piece moves came off. Rugby is more than scoring tries, though, and it is our defence that was the difference throughout the year. It was great to see everyone’s skills in this area improve exponentially - this was our secret weapon and resulted in another very successful season.

The girls in this team get on so well and play both with and for each other and this was evident throughout the season. It was especially clear when we faced some great teams with limited and on one occasion no subs, and they each would dig in and help grind out a win. As a management team, we are very proud of how they have represented Cote through the season. We are sure that if they continue to play, then they will all have a bright future in rip rugby and some we hope will cross over to tackle as they head to college.

A quick mention of our O for awesome family of supporters. Thanks for buying into our coaching approach and, importantly, for helping us make such a great team environment so that the girls could grow their talent in what has been a great year of rugby.

Lyle, David and Rebecca