Trent you must feel as though you let that one slip?
Yes, definitely. We played some really good footy in the first half and then had some chances and momentum late in the game as well, but Carlton sort of dominated that one and a half quarter period after half time.
What was it, it seemed like McKay and Hill got off the chain a little bit in the second half. Is it more what Carlton were doing or what you weren’t doing after half time?
I think McKay was a good battle with Gore, then Hill started to get on top, so we flicked Gore to Hill and McKay sort of got going as well but they put a spare behind the ball at the start of the second quarter and I thought we had a bit of the ball early but didn’t navigate that particularly well, which gave them a bit of control. Then we just had one unfortunate defensive slip and then they were back in the game, they got their tails up and pushed hard, and probably just a little lack of belief in our girls as well with not having a result so far, probably had them on the back foot instead of attacking the game like we had up until that point.
Do you feel, considering last week's close call and this week, the steps forward are coming now. You got a couple back today, Gabby O'Sullivan was in very good from the get-go?
Yes, definitely. We were obviously very poor here two weeks ago and last week was a big step forward and we just probably didn’t connect forward, and today we did do that, so we still have got a lot of work to do, a lot of errors to improve on but definitely there’s some positivity around.
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How’s Aine Tighe? She kicked those two goals early but to miss that last one late, how is she?
I said to all of them, when there’s a draw every player and every coach will go ‘what could I have done’ to change that result, so that’s a natural feeling and we said that’s sport and there’ll be people at both ends of the ground feeling the exact same way like I said and the coaching staff as well. So, those feelings probably won’t help us so we said we have just got to park them and be positive and push forward. We only have a five-day break now so that’s a really good thing, that we have to get going as well. Aine’s the same as quite a few others who probably did something that could’ve turned the event including myself.
What do you make of Kiara Bowers’ game? Not the possessions she would usually get but 17 tackles, the intensity was ridiculous.
It was really good. We really are challenging Kiara to get more of the outside ball though, for us to be a good side we need her more on the outside so we’re working on that, we’re working with her running patterns to get there. It’s not natural so it’s going to take a little bit of time, but you can’t complain when you got someone who’s charging around like she does and applying the pressure that she does.
How do you feel about your finals chances now, obviously it’s a very short season, hard to turn things around?
Yes, to be honest after the Geelong game we weren’t really thinking about them too much. If we’re going to challenge, we want to be in the position to win a premiership and I think it’s fair to say at this stage we’re not playing at that level, so if we sneak into the eight or not it’s sort of a bit by the by. We want to be getting back to playing our really good footy and with that things may look after themselves. Maybe we’re too far back already, but it's not a real focus for us at all at this stage.
Madi Scanlon came off with a wrist injury, how is she?
Yes, not sure about that one. It was unfortunate because she gives us some good run and carry from behind and that had to change a bit when she did come off, so no doubt we’ll send her off for some scans and x-rays on her wrist and fingers crossed it’s not too bad.
What about the RAC Derby, it’s probably shaping up as a tight battle considering the Eagles have had an easy draw early on and building that confidence themselves?
Yes, so they had a good win today so they’re two and two at this stage, so we’d love to be in their position. It’s a really good battle, we had a good battle here a few weeks ago in the pre-season, so they’ve obviously got a lot of young talent in that side now that’s quite exciting so we look forward to taking them on at Optus Stadium on Thursday.
Megan Kauffman as well, she probably had one of her better games in purple, how have you seen her development coming from the amateurs to the big team?
Yes it’s been phenomenal. It would be frightening to know what she could do if we really played our brand of footy as well. So, at the moment she’s one of the ones leading the way and as a player with her inexperience she should just be playing her role but she’s having to do that and I thought she was outstanding today in everything she did and that last contest where she came charging in sort of sets the way she goes about her game.
She seems to read football pretty well for someone who hasn’t played that much and coming from a different sport?
Yes, it’s funny the tennis players, you’d think the skills don’t translate but tennis players have to read the ball very early and we’ve seen that with Janelle Cuthbertson who does the same, so I think they take the cues with what’s happening around them very early and tennis players, they do that and I think it’s just a slight adaptation but the physicality’s definitely not in tennis and both of them can do that but I think that adaptation does come across really well.
