That was sort of what you promised, and it seemed to come to fruition pretty well?

I wouldn’t say the third quarter went to plan, but we did want to be a high scoring team and play an attacking brand of footy. We were still confident at three-quarter-time and confident with what score we needed to do. So, it was great from the girls, the belief that they had was very positive and they delivered in the end.

How do you get them back on track after five goals to none?

We spoke about that our plan was just to be in contact with Melbourne at three-quarter-time because we thought we could run out the game better and that the conditions suited us. So, it was just a matter of resetting at that point, it was probably actually handy to be able to go into the rooms and re-focus. We got beaten in clearances four to 11 that quarter and if we did that again we were going to get beaten no matter what the breeze was doing and to the girls credit they did that really well.

That’s probably arguably one of the best games in the short history of the competition, what did you make of it?

It’s the best one I’ve been involved in. It was free flowing, there was a lot of good one-on-one contests and the forwards probably at both ends got on top of one another at stages. I’m not sure it’s enjoyable to coach like that when the fluctuations are so vivid but it’s a good brand of football and that’s what we want to do this year and hopefully we keep beating the opposition.

Do you think that a game like this could set the benchmark for where women’s football should be aiming for?

I think so, even the games last night like the Adelaide and Western bulldogs, the skill level was quite high, they just didn’t convert in that last 20 metres, which isn’t what happened today but it’s going to happen for sure. As the girls train more and the skills get better we will see improvement for sure.

How about Kiara Bowers? 12 tackles and that goal at the end.

We spoke about her at three-quarter-time, 30 months of training and not being able to play, we knew that she’d give everything in the last quarter. The girls just had to jump on board with her and they did to a tee.

Was that the main theme of what you were saying at three-quarter-time?

It was, we had to think about a few things tactically that we weren’t doing well but then after that it was about trusting our fitness, trust where we were at and we did know Kiara was going to do it, so just everyone jump on board with her.

So, what did you change for the last quarter tactically?

Not too much positionally, we spoke about what our forwards needed to do to contest better because they had been really good in the first half and got away from that. We needed to spoil better because they had way too many uncontested marks in the third quarter, so if we could stop that and we were confident with our pace up forward then we could score goals. The backs just needed to hold back with that breeze a little bit and be available for that outlet.

Ebony Antonio up forward as your main focal point, how did that work out?

Really well, she is just an absolute competitor. I find myself fighting every week between Amy Lavell and Lisa Webb (our Backline and Forward line coaches) about where she’s going to go. We want to play her forward as much as possible, we think it gives our midfield a lot of confidence to go to her knowing there’s going to be a contest but at times we needed her back today and that will probably be the theme for the year.

How did you find your first game coaching AFLW?

I loved it, the assistant coaches were really good with the information they were feeding me and decisions they were making so I didn’t feel the pressure too much. I suppose any coach at any level with those close finishes you feel it but overall, I was reasonably calm. 

Seven debutants with eleven in the squad, how are you seeing them gel and how much does a win like this do for the group?

One of the big things is the belief, we haven’t won a game interstate before, so now that we’ve ticked that box, the belief in the group can go up. The debutants have been fantastic in not necessarily playing big roles, although Parris Laurie did a great job leading the ruck for us today, but the character is really good, and they make our other players better. They all jumped in there today and they all did a really good job for us and I think we’ve still got another few who are more than capable of jumping in if we need them. 

There were some very defined momentum shifts in the game, do you put that down to the heat or was it not as simple as that?

I think it was just a matter of who was winning the clearances at different stages, that’s where the momentum seemed to change. I don’t think it was the hot conditions, although, we did run out the quarter quite strongly. I think we kicked the last three goals in both the first and second quarters, so maybe it had something to do with it but overall, I think it was just who was winning the ball at the source.

Are you happy with the Heat Policy?

We were fine with it, we were ready to go and didn’t think it was going to affect us with the extra time during the breaks. You’ll have to speak to the girls as it probably affects them more, but we gave them some more time on their own in there and it seemed to work fine, there was no problems.

There were no major issues with anyone?

No, and that’s a credit to our high-performance coach Kate Starre, she comes from a hockey background and she’s got our girls really fit. We knew it was going to be hot, we were actually happy and thought that would work in our favour and it probably proved to.

Will this be your lightest week on the track?

It’s a seven-day break so we will have one solid session during the week, no reason to hold back at this stage maybe later on but we’ve had a pre-season to get us ready for that. We’re going to play every game in the heat probably, maybe one cool one down at Geelong but we’re ready to go.