Congratulations, what is it like to get a round one win?
“It’s really pleasing, for all the work we have done over our pre-season and how hard the players have worked during in what is their second pre-season in twelve months, outstanding effort. To run out the game like we did was really impressive and it’s a testament to the work they have put in.”
When Aisling McCarthy weaved her magic there, did you sense something special was going to happen?
“Look she’s (McCarthy) has been fantastic for us through the pre-season and she had a role today and we thought she executed it really well and the goal is just a bit of cream on top for her. But if you look at the fourth quarter effort that she put in today, it was pretty special.”
What was your plan to do stop Erin Phillips?
“Aish Mac was on her. To her (Phillips) credit we knew she was a quality player and she leads their side. It was their first game in the competition and we couldn’t let her get away with too much today. To Aish’s credit she put the homework in, she watched tape, she had conversations with the coaches and she was able to execute on the day so credit to her to get the job done and it really helped us towards the victory in the end.”
In previous years if you were three goals down at two quarter time, you’d probably loose by four or five goals. What was the difference today?
“I think if you look back at the last ten weeks, which was our pre-season the work that we’ve done and the little things that we’ve introduced and a couple of them are ‘off legs’ fitness sessions and the players have really bought into that and it just showed today that we are able to run the game out really well so the confidence we get out of that is huge. If we are in those scenarios in the next two or three weeks, we know that we’ve got the run in our legs to run over any opposition that comes our way.”
“Port Adelaide brough some aggression today, how did the player handle it?
“I think it was really good, we kept and eye on how pressure factor throughout the course of the game and we were constantly above two which is really good. So I thought Port brought the pressure but we were able to match it as well. We were outstanding in that area because it was really contested. Especially when the rain came, when you got to put your head over the ball and win the contest and lay some tackles, I thought we were right up there as well.”
Obviously quite a few debutants today, how did you think the cohesion came together? They all played a role and had an impact first up.
“Yeah they did, it was always a bit of a unknown because we had eight players play their first game for the club, not just AFLW but there was a few that have played before so we weren’t too sure. This win will help bring them together pretty quickly, so I’m really pleased with what they all brought to the game. There was no one that I thought struggled with the tempo of the game, they all played their part and that’s why we ended up getting the victory in the end.”
There’s a lot of talk about how Ella Roberts is going to take that next step. How did you see her first up performance for the club?
“I think it was what we expected from her, we can’t expect to much from Ella she’s 18 and that was her first game of AFLW today. We threw her in the midfield to kick us off in the last quarter and we thought she played her part in there well. When Swanny got the first two clearances she was clearly doing what we asked her to do so I think that is the beauty of Ella. We can play her forward and we can play her through the midfield with confidence that she is going to do the right thing for us so a step in the right direction for her today.
How serious is the injury to Kellie Gibson?
“Not sure yet, she’ll have a scan tomorrow she just got a knock after kicking a goal in that first quarter. I didn’t look too much but she’ll be assessed tomorrow, and we’ll know more but at this stage I’m not too sure.”
