• Match report: Freo earns historic AFLW win

Big moment for you guys, can you put it into words how you are feeling?
It’s a really big moment for the girls and the footy club. It’s our first every victory for our AFLW team. The girls have worked really hard since November 22. Our key focus and message at the end of the game was that this win is all about them. They have worked really hard, every pre-season running session that they have had, the challenging few weeks, and the six weeks that they have had since the start of the competition. It’s a fantastic reward for effort.

Did the motivation drift at all when it was no longer a possibility that you could be in a grand final. Were the players able to keep their spirits up and still want that win as badly?
They are an incredible group of players, which were driven all along. We’ve never gone into a round without wanting to compete to win and they are really driven. The morale around the club has been exceptional considering the draw and the one-point loss. They never faulted, never waived away from our purpose and what we are here for. It’s bigger than wins and losses. It’s about this brand new AFLW competition and these girls played exceptionally well. I thought their effort was outstanding today.

The skipper was pretty phenomenal?
She is. She sets the benchmark for this competition. I think she had 14 contested possessions. She just gets herself involved at the contest and really hunts the footy. She leads from the front and did exceptionally well.

You spoke last week about how proud you were of the playing group in terms of the effort. What do you think changed to get the result today?
I was really proud of their effort last week. They are just really hungry for this. This is home of footy (in WA) and they wanted the reward, themselves for all of their effort, but also for all of the supporters that have stood by us. We drew the line in the sand essentially and wanted to make a statement, and you see girls that really put their hand up and gave four quarters of effort, which was great to see.

We saw at the final siren the girls hugging each other. How about yourself, how did you celebrate?
I actually just sat back and watched that. I think it looked incredible. That was a key moment for me and they deserve that elation. They deserve what winning brings. Now that they have had a taste of it, we can go again when we get on a plane and go to Melbourne.

What about you now that you’ve had a taste of it as well, does it motivate you to win more games and get that reward?
I think just more so for the players to see them get the reward. We play footy to win and they certainly came out to win today.

Is there some relief for you too personally, given that before this you had a great record as a coach with Melbourne and you had to struggle away to get this win?
Not really, it’s more about the girls. That’s really been our focus all along. Wanting them to get this reward for all of their effort. We haven’t waivered from what we’re doing and what we keep teaching and our education and development of the way we want to play because we know that when we do it, we can be a very, very strong team. We’ll continue to coach and educate and all along I’ve seen improvement from round to round with these girls. We’ll hopefully take it another step forward next week and be better.

Alicia Janz was impressive again, second week in a row.
I really love the competitive nature that she brings to our footy team. Her second and third efforts around the contest are outstanding. She certainly puts her hand up moving forward, she’s great.

Gemma Houghton also looks promising up forward.
Gemma worked hard in, I guess, stringing two consistent games together and that was her challenge for today. She had seven tackles and was really dangerous throughout the whole game. I also saw her take a couple of good marks.

Michelle, this is probably the last chance we’ll get to talk to you this season. Are you committed to the club for the long term and stick around with Freo for quite a while?
I’m here for the long term and I see that we’ve got some great goals that we’ve set moving forward and what we want to achieve in 2018. It’s an exciting time to be part of this footy club, both our men’s team and our women’s team. I’m rapt to be here.

Did you get any injuries today?
We had one injury – Mel Caulfield. I think she has a hip injury and we’ll follow that up with medical.