What’s your general assessment of that tonight?
Pretty disappointed, I think we certainly can play a better style, and bring better effort. Initially a bit disappointed and look forward to reviewing the game and then Sunday is what we are looking forward to, making amends.
When did you feel the effort let you down?
The Bulldogs were incredible with their relentless tackling and their pressure and we probably didn’t match it or go with it. Tackling, we had 20 less than them, our inside 50s hurt us, 14 doesn’t give our forwards much of an opportunity to put scoreboard pressure on. We will review and there are a few things we can work on.
It’s hard to tell so early but have the Bulldogs set a standard in terms of tackling and pressure?
I think the talk has been about the Bulldogs, this is AFL football now for these girls so they’ve got to bring that effort and endeavor and be relentless and the Bulldogs certainly did that.
Did it hurt missing shots at goal in the second quarter?
It does and not getting scoring opportunities in the second half hurts you as well.
What are the main things you will be working on this week?
We’ll review and have a look, some real basics as well, some fumbles that a number of the girls don’t usually do, so whether that’s in awe of the crowd or whatever that may be, but they can certainly play better than that.
Did you get the impression there were nerves or do you think they handled that side of it well?
I felt they handled it, I just felt the Bulldogs pressure was great.
Were there any players you were particularly pleased with tonight?
I think Belinda Smith in the back was great, she did really well. Dana Hooker started the game really well. Leading by the front, our captain also started the game really well. We need more than that. We need a lot more players giving greater effort.
Is there any concern over Antonio’s bump?
I haven’t seen it, so I’ll have a look at it.
Was the travel a factor at all?
I don’t think it was in the lead up but who knows, it may have been. There may be other factors that contribute to this result but at the end of the day if you don’t bring the effort out there, you get this result.
With the travel side of it, how much do you have to do with the men’s team and the routines they put in place?
They are great with their support around that, so we feed off them what they do and what works well and what doesn’t. We try to do what works well and implement that in our program. They are extremely supportive around that
Do you look forward to being back home at Freo Oval?
Absolutely. It’s our home ground, we train there and we can get great support there as well. Similar numbers to tonight will be fantastic but the girls are excited about the next challenge, we’ll put this game aside after we review it. The next challenge is the Brisbane Lions and no doubt they will be a challenge for us and we will be up for it and we’ll bring the effort.
Is Freo Oval big enough? I imagine you will have a pretty big crowd there.
I think it is.
Any other injury concerns?
Akec Chuot has mild concussion but other than that everyone seems to be fine.
Are there some positives?
A positive is that you are playing AFL footy and they weren’t doing that for the last 100 years and now they are. It’s an incredible positive and they are representing an incredible club and they know the standard that is acceptable now so they are up for that challenge and looking forward to making amends.
You sound sort of shocked by the way they played?
I know what we can do. We have trained really well over the past 12 weeks. I know the standard that these girls can train at. I’ve seen it and lived it in their practice matches. I didn’t think they were playing to our standard, and that’s when you don’t have as many contributors in the area and we just need more, we need 22 girls weighing in and playing our way.
What have you made of the weekend as a whole?
Amazing. The AFL has done incredible to get this competition to where it is and last night was a fantastic opening to this competition and there is another game tomorrow, which will be great. How fantastic is the support from the community and the whole of Australia getting behind these girls. It is great to see and they certainly deserve it because they worked really hard and even people who have worked really hard before them to get these opportunities as well.
