Seeing Jemma House bag a treble of goals in Newcastle Olympic's 6-0 win over Mid Coast on Sunday was pleasing for coach Harmonie Attwill on a couple of fronts.
House scored 33 of Olympic's 69 goals last year and was integral to the club securing the Newcastle Herald Women's Premier League premiership-championship double.
After being the league's highest scorer and player of the year, House earned a debut W-League contract with the Newcastle.
But, after limited playing time with the Jets, Attwill thought it may take House a few weeks to get her groove back in WPL. So, the Olympic mentor was thrilled to see House produce a hat-trick in just her second appearance this season. She was also buoyed by the fact goals are being shared around.
Impressive new recruits Jade Mcatamney and Keea Parrish both also got on the scoresheet against Mid Coast. Mcatamney scored a double.
"Scoring was something that we identified as an area of improvement in the last few weeks, so I was happy that we were not only creating goals but scoring them as well," Attwill said.
"Jemma is obviously a quality player but our message to her is take your time to settle in and it'll come. There's no pressure on her from us. We're a full team."
Olympic face a quick turnaround to play Maitland at Cooks Square Park on Friday night. Winger Georgia Little is the only Olympic player in doubt at this stage.
"This year and last year she's had quite a few concussions, so she is getting checked out properly as you can't be too careful with that kind of thing," Attwill said.
"She's got to have an MRI this week and she can't do contact until the MRI clears her of any issues."
Important result
Adamstown coach Ryan Campbell described a 2-1 win over Charlestown Azzurri on Saturday as one "we needed" in the wake of a 6-2 loss to Maitland and ahead of a tough stretch.
In their next three outings Rosebud face unbeaten league leaders Broadmeadow, last year's grand finalists Warners Bay then Olympic.
"It was good in regards to the fact that we didn't play that badly against Maitland but when we got back in that game we let them get straight back on top of it," Campbell said.
"When it went to one-all against Azzurri, I wondered how we'd react because against Maitland when it was two-all we got flogged.
"But as soon as we conceded we basically restarted and got back on top of the game again. They didn't actually panic, they just got on with it.
"Just the fact that they had to grind out a win in a game that last year we might not have was good. There was lots of good signs."
Impressive debut
The first appearance of Azzurri winger Jess Gentle, who has been playing college football in the United States, drew the praise of both coaches on Saturday. After playing rugby in the afternoon, Gentle took the field for Azzurri and scored their only goal. Unfortunately for coach Michael Lee, Gentle is out this weekend as she will be playing for University of Newcastle in the National University Sevens play-offs.
Emerging talent
The Emerging Jets took a 1-0 lead through Chloe Smith before going down 3-1 to North West Sydney in NSW National Premier League Women's last weekend.
On Wednesday night they play Illawarra at Valentine Sports Park in a rescheduled match before hosting APIA Leichhardt at Speers Point on Sunday.
Coaching scholarships
Northern NSW Football are offering C Licence coaching scholarships for five women in an initiative to help increase the number of female coaches in the sport.
More information can be found at northernnswfootball.com.au.
