Didn’t get the result but there must be a lot that you take out of that performance?

I think as a young developing team we took a step forward today. Especially in the first half our pressure around the footy, clearance and dominating time in our front half. We probably didn’t capitalise in the first quarter. We missed a couple of shots that we could have kicked. But I think if you look at what our group was able to deliver today. We were in the fight against a good team, Freo are still a good team. I know it’s their first win but they’ve still got some very good players and I was impressed with what we delivered.

So a missed opportunity or a sign of how far you’ve come?

I think we are building and developing, more of our players are contributing more frequently. I was surprised that Bella (Isabella Lewis) only got one vote, I thought she was outstanding today. But I think there is more contributors throughout the course of the game so positive in that regard.

Emotionally how were you in that last few minutes when Bella kicked that goal to bring you within a point?

I was fine the players are the ones that are out there and they need to deliver. I was pretty calm, just hoping we’d get that centre clearance which we did. I’m pretty sure we got the clearance then it just went down their end and they were able to kick a few points off the back of that. Obviously we didn’t get across the line but we take some positives out of that and we will take a lot of learnings as well that we need to consistently deliver to get across the line.

The game turned in the third quarter when they were playing (Kiara) Bowers as an extra on ball. Was there anything you could look at to stop them getting momentum?

We knew Kiara Bowers went forward and Belinda Smith was on her and she followed her into the contest. Bowers had 18 tackles but we thought we handled that situation quite well and we thought Smith was one of our better players. Not taking anything away from Bowers but we thought Smith was super today.

Sarah Lakay has really seem to come really far quite quickly, what have of her season and her performance today?

I think her growth is probably a two-fold thing. She’s got her herself a little but fitter this year, we had Paris Laurie last year but she’s now a number one ruck and really thriving. She’s doing some really good things, she had 42 hit outs today which is outstanding. But for us to have plus 20 hit outs we need to get more from our clearances I think it was only plus three so we need to work out how to get more efficiency from her dominance. 

Mikayla Western’s speed was an assert out there on the wide expanses.

She’s been fantastic for us, that was her fifth game for the year which is really exciting so we see a lot of upside to her. Last couple of weeks we’ve been able to push her forward and play her in the front half. Her pressure and speed up forward has been really noticeable so we put her up late in the game to try and get a bit of run but I think she was pretty tired by then.

What did you make of Abbygail Bushby’s debut? Getting a chance to kick a goal as well.

That was really good, I think she only had eight possessions but in the midfield she was up against some pros in there and she held her own. To kick a set shot goal at Optus Stadium where she would have been under a bit of pressure and had a lot of nerves. I thought she handled the occasion really well, so we look forward to the growth in her for the rest of the year and years to come.

You’ve got Hawthorn next week. Is this an opportunity to build on the work you’ve been doing and reward yourself with four points?

I think it’s an opportunity for us to go out and play hard, tough footy again and if we do results will take care of themselves. I think we’ve improved in that area over the last two weeks and it’s just another opportunity to prove that. I’ll sit back and have a look at Hawthorn’s game over the course of the weekend and see what we need to do to get ourselves a victory.