Champions Melbourne Victory have revived their Westfield W-League title defence in recent weeks with their new-found form coinciding with the red-hot goalscoring of forward Racheal Quigley.
Melbourne completed their regular-season commitments on the weekend with a surprisingly one-sided 4-0 win over Newcastle Jets to jump into second prior to this week’s departure for the International Women’s Club Challenge.
Quigley scored an impressive hat-trick for her sixth goal in the past five outings, with many of her eight strikes worthy of any highlights reel. Notably, the classy second goal against the Jets on Saturday will be hard to beat for pure class and cool in front of goal.
Here Quigley talks though the Victory’s revival, her form in front of goal, her off-season move from Adelaide United and much more.
It was a great win against Newcastle on Saturday, it seems like the Victory are really building form?
The mood in the camp is really good. There are still things we can improve on but we are definitely going in the right direction.
The team had a mid-season slump results-wise, did you feel that in the group and is that behind you now?
We had a rough week there losing three matches in eight days, and that is always going to be tough, and we had some key players away too. But the team has always had the right attitude and we were able to build on that.
On a personal note, you seem to be in career best form. You must be feeling good about your game?
I’m feeling really good with the Melbourne team. I think we play beautiful football and I’m just happy I can finish off everyone else’s good work.
Is there something about the move to Melbourne that has helped your form, be it playing style or otherwise?
The girls are great, and I have learnt so much, not only from the coach, but from all the girls as well, Lisa De Vanna especially. We play very attacking football and we play it well.
Did you feel a level of confidence or expectation within the group when you arrived at Melbourne Victory as champions?
There is a massive level of confidence within our team, and that goes throughout the whole squad. The biggest thing is we expect so much of each other, but we are able to deliver upon those expectations.
So is the team confident heading to Japan?
The game on the weekend definitely has in good spirits. Everyone is pumped to represent our club and our country so there is a lot of excitement about it.
How exciting is it to be playing in Japan?
I can’t wait, it is so exciting. The thought of playing against Arsenal, and everything else. It should be a great experience.
What kind of on-field challenges are you expecting in Japan compared to the Westfield W-League?
I think it will be a very fast-paced game (against Japan’s Okayama Yunogo Belle) so it will be important to keep possession and play at a tempo that suits us. So I’m just hoping everyone rocks up to play and we be smart about what we are doing.
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