What did you make of that? It was some heart-stopping stuff at the end wasn’t it?
It was. I thought we were in real trouble at ¾ time. We hadn’t played well. People watching at home probably didn’t realise how strong the wind was because there wasn’t a lot scored at that end. I thought we were in a lot of trouble at ¾ time and to the girls’ credit, they fought it out really well. We really worked it through the midfield and back, they had to put on their superhero capes and they did that. Ebony Antonio’s goal was pretty special. I enjoyed it more than the first one of the year, it was a ripper.
Is it the game situation that makes her turn it on?
She’s always capable of doing that at any stage, even if she’s not playing well. Today she played well for the whole four quarters. To be honest, I thought, just get a point. That would have given us a two-point lead and I thought that could be valuable at that stage. As soon as she kicked it, it was just going through. It was a big effort.
You mentioned that end of the ground. To that side of the ground, you led the inside 50s 29-4 and you only had a five-point advantage in those two quarters.
We played the wrong side of the ground. Our runner's GPS will have blown up because he was running on that side of the ground trying to get them in and we just couldn’t do it. To the Bulldogs’ credit, they owned the corridor. Every time we looked up, the players decided not to go there. Full credit to the Bulldogs for the way they played the whole night, but in particular those two quarters.
You mentioned the corridor. Inside 50 Celine Moody seemed to sit in that space and you still seemed to go there but it didn’t come off.
Absolutely. Mim Strom actually positioned herself quite well outside the 50. We needed to chip further up to hopefully draw Moody out, but we didn’t do that. I thought (Eleanor) Brown and (Katie) Lynch were immense, especially in the first half. Their positioning was really good. We had some inexperienced forwards out there today as well, who probably needed to lead to better places. Without Kara Antonio out there, she was probably a really big out for us (managed) in directing those young players. So we're happy we snuck away with it.
Amy Franklin on debut?
She showed a fair bit, didn’t she? She is really athletic, she’s got good hands, she can kick. To kick those two goals into the breeze was a big effort. Amy’s going to be a really good player for us. She’s got a bit of work in progress, we won’t see the best of her as a tall for 5-6 years but really looking forward to what she can do.
It was a tough, scrappy match. How proud of you are of your team, five games, with five wins?
We are 4-0 on our road trip. We have talked about different chapters. We were hoping to make that chapter a little bit easier. The book should be alright, because we keep on having exciting games. Really proud of the group, in the last quarter it would have been easy to say ‘woah is me’ with all the things going against us, but the resilience of the group is unbelievable to dig in and produce what we did in in that last quarter.
Ebony’s goal was similar to when you were down here against the Dogs in 2020?
That was on the far side, complete opposite pocket, I remember that one. This one was probably better because of the stage of the game and the wind conditions to kick a goal from that far out on this side, was pretty special.
It now sets up a tantalising match up with another in-form team of the competition, North Melbourne, down in Hobart. It must be pretty exciting for you.
They are a really good side. They have been ever since they have been in the competition. We had a really good game against them last year when they just got the points. Looking forward to heading down there and testing ourselves against one of the best teams in the competition. It should be a really good spectacle.
On Sunday, they said that pretty much the finals have come early because it’s such a short season, to play against the top teams, it’s like a final. Do you see it that way?
Maybe not a final. I just said to the group that the win won’t go down as one our better ones, but it could be the difference between a home final or not having a home final. Every game is that important, whether it’s a final or actually making it or not, it’s probably more about who finishes on top of who and gets that home ground advantage.
Any injuries?
Matilda Sergeant unfortunately suffered a concussion on that far side. I think she is the only one, I haven’t spoken to medical yet, but she was ruled out at that point. I think the rest should be ok.
Do you think (Emma) O’Driscoll has anything to worry about with the tackle?
I didn’t see it, we do a lot of work on our tackling technique but I am always worried because we have so many tackles that one does go wrong because of the momentum of the other player. I haven’t had a good look at it yet. She is a very good player with a clean technique so hopefully it’s not too bad.
