As part of the Blues team that made the Katrina Fanning Shield semi-finals, Remi Wilton, Kasey Dragisic, and Shaenice Allen were named in the inaugural women’s open tackle Monaro Squad for the 2019 season. 

Blues captain Remi Wilton said that the news of her selection was an “unreal feeling”, and that being selected alongside her teammates will only serve to strengthen the Blues in future seasons. 

“It’s always good to have our teammates in rep squad, it makes you feel a bit more comfortable,” she said. 

“I think everything involved is gonna be pretty good for us. Having that rep squad we haven’t had exposure to before will be really good for [Queanbeyan].” 

As this is the first year that the Country Championships will feature a women’s open tackle division, Wilton said that it will provide a “different kind of challenge”. 

“I’ve been in the Raiders squad a couple of times before, but this is my first time in [the Monaro squad].

“[It will be] just different exposure, playing against country teams as opposed to the Canberra comp.” 

Blues coach Blake Murray said that the selection was a testament to the commitment that all three girls showed throughout the year. 

“It just goes to show that the hard work they put in during the year will pay off with some rep honours,” he said. 

There were “no surprises” in Murray’s mind about the selections, but he added that “there was a few girls that could have been [named in the squad] that didn’t try out due to a few other commitments.” 

The girls, Murray hopes, will benefit from the environment of the representative side and hopefully bring back some more skills to share with the Blues in 2019.

“They’ll bring back a bit of experience, maybe a bit more of the technical knowledge, and I think that they’ll develop some more leadership coming from a team like that,” Murray said. 

The squad had its first training session on Sunday November 4, and the Country Championship competition is expected to begin in March.