Tough loss today, what are your immediate reflections?
I thought that we were probably really lucky to be as close as we were at three quarter time. We were a chance to pinch it because we had some good field territory in the last quarter. We ended up winning the inside 50’s which really surprised me because I didn’t think we had any control at any stage. I think the right team won on the day, but I was very proud of our girls’ effort to produce the effort that they did. We can play better football than that, but the effort just maintained all throughout.

Did you really miss Kiara Bowers today?
No doubt. I thought Hayley Miller and Gabby O’Sullivan stepped up again to another level, I think they might have had 20 tackles between them, so they were phenomenal as well as getting plenty of the ball. Just that extra good player makes a big difference and Kiara doesn’t have to have a great game she always just has a really honest game. It makes a difference, but we had other opportunities to come through there, Dana East got some more midfield time and she showed that she’s definitely going to be up to the level, and Airlie Runnalls got to play a bit more time through there as well and she had some nice moments.

Was it a bit frustrating at times throughout the game trying to exit your defence?
That was on our forwards, our forwards really got out of shape. We knew that North setup well behind the ball and our forwards got desperate and got way too high and even if we did get possession, we ended up kicking to that North Melbourne spare anyway. That definitely wasn’t the way we wanted to play that’s probably a bit of mental fatigue after going through what we’ve gone through after the last few weeks because the effort was there but to go away from what we wanted to do there was disappointing.

Do you know what the plan is going forward?
I know the plan is to get on a plane, that’s the first plan. We don’t know how the rest of the week looks, we know we’re on a plane and unfortunately, we couldn’t find accommodation together so we’re spread out all over the state when we get home in various Airbnb’s but we’ll be quarantining for two weeks and we’re still waiting to hear whether training or playing is possible.  Hopefully the AFL, the Club and WAPOL are working on that hard to get a decent result for us, for the AFL and for the community to be able to come forward and watch some good footy.

How impressed have you been with Aine Tighe this season?
She’s been fantastic. She’s played a role forward and then when Janelle Cuthbertson went down we thought we need her height down in the backline and she was great again today with 14 possessions playing against quality opponents and used the ball well too. We’ve known for a couple of years what Aine could produce, she’s been really unlucky with injuries but she’s a first-class person as well so it’s good to see her out there and we’re definitely a better team when she is.

Ebony Antonio continuing her trend of finding the right goal at the right time, what have you made of her season?
She’s had a great season, and what was good today is she had a really quiet first half with only one or two touches up until half time, but we always knew she was capable of having those moments and she did it again. We probably just needed one more from her and we could’ve nearly stolen it, but she’s had a great season. The way she is working through games and through quiet patches is really impressive as well, in the past she may have drifted out but this year she’s really impacted in every single game so far.

How proud are you of the group?
It may have looked a bit easy because of the results and some of the footy we’ve been playing, as well as some of the questionable social media content the girls put out, but it definitely hasn’t been easy. The constant changes of their mindset has been really difficult but every game they’ve managed to put that aside and perform so I couldn’t be prouder of them. If you said we were going to be over here in those circumstances and win four out of five we would’ve taken that every day of the week.