The last few minutes of West Coast’s battle with the Bulldogs might have been the most stressful of her 15-game AFLW career, but Cassie Davidson reckons that made the club’s maiden triumph all the more special.
Davidson said it was impossible to contain her emotions when the siren sung out across Leederville Oval on Saturday.
She was first overcome by relief knowing that she and her back line comrades had staved off the fast finishing Bulldogs, who threw everything at the Eagles in an attempt to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
And seconds later a feeling of pure joy flowed over Davidson when the reality of what the group had achieved set in.
“When they got that last goal at the end there and my heart went through the roof,” Davidson said.
“I thought if they get another one they’re on here.
“Those last couple of minutes were intense. We were trying not to look at the scoreboard and focus on locking down on our opponent and making sure they didn’t get any cheap shots at goal.
“It’s been tough the last few weeks. We’ve had some good quarters, but we just haven’t strung four together. It was really good to put together a four-quarter effort on the park today and all the girls tipped in.
“We celebrated pretty hard there. It was an unreal feeling when the siren sounded.”
Davidson, who made her debut in blue and gold in the fixture, played an important role in the win.
She brought plenty of aggression to the contest and used her clean foot skills to get West Coast out of trouble on several occasions.
“My mindset was to lock down on my opponent and bring some mongrel to the contest,” Davidson said.
“I really pride myself on being hard at the contest and bringing a bit of mongrel. I felt like I did that today.
“The backs made me feel really welcome being out there today. ‘B’ (Belinda Smith) and Cougs (Talia Radan), their voice and communication has been really good over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been listening in from the boundary.
“They were good again today.”
Davidson and the Eagles took some time to “smell the roses” after their history-making victory, but she said the team did not go overboard knowing it had another tough encounter on the horizon.
The club’s next clash is with Melbourne, who are placed second in Conference B and possess a healthy percentage of 148.1 per cent.
“We’ll get back on the track and prepare to face Melbourne, because they’ve been in really good form,” Davidson said.
“Daisy (Pearce) is up and about and they’ve got a great back, forward and midfield line. They’re good across all lines.
“It will be another good test for us.”
