Trent, satisfying first of all to get the first win of the season and maintain that RAC Derby streak as well?
Yes, definitely. The girls have been working really hard and we've been really happy with some of the footy they’ve produced over the last three weeks. They just crave that winning feeling and that’s what they deserve and, fortunately, we got that today.

Where did you think the game was won in the end?
I think in the second half we were behind a fair way in the clearances and then Kiara Bowers played a different role in the second half, which was really effective for us, we turned the clearance numbers around and then from that I think the inside 50s for the second half were about 24 to 9. So we dominated in that period, we didn’t quite get the scoreboard reward, but we definitely played with what I thought was a fair bit of control from that point on.

You mentioned Kiara Bowers starting forward and pushing up as an extra on-baller. Was that to create a bit of confusion about who was playing on her?
Not confusion, we were struggling in the clearances, so we thought if we could get an extra number in there to stop the effectiveness of the clearances, but if we just did that with any player they probably wouldn’t have come with us and we would’ve ended up with a dangerous spare back. We thought by Kiara doing that role it meant they either let her go, which is obviously very dangerous with Kiara being such a good player or it meant that we had a lot of space in front of the ball, which is what happened. I thought Amy Franklin and Aine Tighe, they’re talls but they’re very athletic and they worked well with that space.

What were your nerves like in those final few minutes after Bella Lewis kicked that goal?
Not great. I’ve got really good confidence in the team, but just when you haven’t had that result. The players were really strong, they were really steady. I’m not sure, but from where I was standing it looked like the players had belief and weren’t panicking at all. Ange Stannett I thought was brilliant in those last few minutes, Hayley was obviously great all day, but we just played with a bit of control and did well in those last few minutes considering there could have been a bit of panic, considering what’s happened the past couple of weeks.

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And on Hayley as well, obviously walking away with the medal after a really delayed pre-season, is it good to have her back at pretty much her best?
Yes every week she has built. Hayley isn’t a very patient person and she likes to perform at her best but we’ve been preaching to her just keep doing what she’s been doing and it’ll come. She’s so competitive, so she likes obviously winning and playing well, and she’s felt probably the internal pressure rather than pressure from outside of that early on, but today absolutely she was back to her best. It was a really good performance.

You mentioned Amy Franklin, she seems to be growing in confidence as well?
Yes, tall forwards, you think about it in the boys and they always take a fair bit of time. Amy’s a second-year player and we expect a lot of her, but today I thought she was fantastic. Her competitiveness all day, she finished with 1.2 but just her work rate, her tackles, she did get that one high at the end but it could’ve been a match winning tackle as well if it was legal. Her intensity around the ball today was really good and exactly what we’re looking for.

Orlagh Lally seems to be adapting really well?
Yes, really well. She literally had a week and a half pre-season total, and that’s not pre-season, that’s a week and a half of football because she hasn’t played before. She is an unbelievable athlete and has been working super hard with everything that she does. I didn’t think I’d be picking her round one but she’s just fitted in so quickly with the group. They were all supportive of her playing and then she’s just gone from strength to strength, so we think we’ve got a good player for a long time. She’s still learning the game but she’s got a lot of good attributes.

To get the monkey off the back now and get the first four points, can you grow on this?
It gives us the confidence that we’re on the right track, but we know we’ve got improvement in us. We kicked three goals and eight points today and it’s probably not actually the goal kicking, it’s probably a few things we could do better with our entries to get into better spots. The girls have been absolutely fantastic in taking in what we needed to do after that Geelong game, and like we said, we’re not going to fix everything at once but just fixing little things along the way, which we’ve done. We’ve got a big challenge next game in Melbourne as well, so we know that we have to keep getting better.