Hitting the halfway point in their 2024 campaign, the West Coast Eagles have had their most successful season to date with a 4-2 record, and coach Daisy Pearce reflects on the team’s growth.
“The improvements we’ve made with our contest method and defence have been really good,” Pearce said.
“I think the pleasing thing that was showcased on the weekend, was by focusing on those two things, we were still able to score really well.
“The way we’re trying to play with good defence, it sets us up to be in good positions to attack as well and we’re starting to see us do that more and more consistently.
“Things to improve, even in games, there’s always times where certain parts of our game falls away, so just our consistency of being able to do it across four quarters, I don’t think we’ve had a game yet where we’ve won four quarters.
“That consistency and just continuing to add to our understanding of it is probably the focus moving forward, starting this weekend.”
The Eagles managed a record-breaking score (64 points) in last week’s win over the Giants, with young gun Ella Roberts slotting a career-high three majors, one of seven goal scorers for the game.
Roberts has impressed in every game so far this season as a strong contributor around the ground, an elite marking target up forward and applying tough tackling pressure on every opponent.
“We’ve had a lot of growth all across the board,” Roberts said.
“We’ve got girls who are really coming into their skin and playing their best footy this year, girls like ‘Schillo’ (Beth Schilling), ‘Rentschy’ (Jess Rentsch) this year as well.
“That’s helping us score a lot and it’s been really pleasing to see.”
With a new coach at the helm this season, Roberts said the team are very receptive to what Pearce brings to the table.
“Daisy is a great communicator, she’s pretty clear and direct with what she wants us to do,” Roberts said.
“She doesn’t beat around the bush, she get’s straight to the point and we’re very open to listening to her.
“Whatever she says we’re willing to do, we respect her and want to do whatever she tells us.”
Having never won more than two games in a season before, Roberts said the success of this season has really lifted the spirits within the group.
“It’s crazy, it changes the vibes completely,” Roberts said.
“It’s something all of us girls have been wanting for ages and to finally have it now, we’re kind of addicted to it.
“We just want to keep going, it’s something that we’re chasing for more success, we’re definitely looking towards the future and looking towards finals and we’re really excited, we love it.”
Currently sitting at seventh place on the AFLW ladder, the Eagles’ aspirations of finals are becoming more realistic from week to week.
“As cliché as it sounds, we do just take it one week at a time,” Roberts said.
“We really are just focusing on getting the win each round and then that obviously accumulates to finals.
“It’s definitely our goal and we see it as a realistic goal for this year.”
West Coast take on Port Adelaide at Mineral Resources Park on Saturday, and Pearce said they’re expecting a challenging matchup.
“They (Port) had a good win on the weekend, and their win-loss record probably belies how their season’s gone,” Pearce said.
“They’ve had some really tough opponents along the journey and statistically they stack up really well as a good contest team.
“They’ve been in every game, even the ones they’ve lost, so we’re expecting a team that will be really strong around the contest, they’ll put our defence under pressure because they kick the ball to a number of strong marking targets.
“They go really direct, and they defend pretty well themselves, so they’re going to be a challenge, but one that we look forward to taking on at home.”
