West Coast’s loss against Gold Coast will be a hard pill to swallow after surrendering a 16-point lead in the last 10 minutes of the match, according to senior coach Michael Prior.
But there were key takeaways from the clash, with Prior to focus on field positioning and inside 50 efficiency in coming days, as well as reassessing personnel for the coming game against Adelaide.
“We thought we were a real chance early in that last quarter, we got the ball in our front half a lot more than what we did throughout the course of the game, that’s an area we need to get better,” Prior said.
“And then it just turned in the second half of the quarter, they got field position, they were able to score off the back of that.
“We’ve gone from looking pretty good to pretty ordinary pretty quickly.
“For us to be successful and to get a few wins along the way we need everyone firing and we’re just not getting that at the moment.
“We’ve got a healthy list, we’ve got girls training who didn’t play today, they’ll be pushing for a spot, there’s pressure on for spots.
“A similar thing happened to us last week in the last quarter, we’re going to have to look at that, look at personnel, look at where we’re playing girls.
“We need to make a few tweaks.”
Despite the loss, silver linings from the match included young gun Mikayla Bowen’s (12 disposals, eight tackles, three intercepts, one goal) development across the wing, as well as Belinda Smith’s (16 disposals, 12 intercepts, four rebound 50s) contest work off half-back.
“I think those girls did a good job rebounding the ball out of our (defensive) 50, but it’s in there too often, they’re doing that too much,” Prior said.
“We want it at the other end of the ground more so we can attack, put some pressure on the opposition through time in forward half and on the scoreboard as well.
“We got out-pressured again today, through the middle of the ground, but I thought our girls had a real go in there, it wasn’t the reason why we lost the game.”
Vice-captain Dana Hooker also led the side supremely from the midfield after spending time across half-back against Fremantle, finishing with 18 disposals and eight contested possessions, as well as four clearances and five intercepts.
“’Hooks’ was really solid for us today and led the side really well,” Prior said.
“She played midfield today, so we were happy with her performance, she’s probably one of the few we’ve got too many carrying the load at the moment, which is disappointing.
“For us, to be successful and to get a few wins along the way we need everyone firing and we’re just not getting that at the moment.”
