Trent, how does that feel?
Fantastic. The girls thoroughly deserve to be playing finals footy and had a big task today against a really good side. We played as well as we have all year so there is a really good feeling amongst the group now.
You don’t know who your opponents are going to be just yet, are you going to get a chance to watch some of the games together as a group tomorrow?
No, the main priority will be recovery, and just let the girls have their own time. They’ve got to go to work Monday, most of them also study. We can’t take any more time away from them, they need to do whatever they need to do, but they’ll do their own individual recovery tomorrow and then be back into the club on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday this week. We’ll find out tomorrow who it is and look forward to playing whoever that may be.
How are Sabreena Duffy and Dana Hooker going, was there was a bit of a scare with them?
With Sabreena the message came to me that she’s done an ankle, do we want to keep her going or put her away? At that stage we were safe, so I said no definitely put her away. She iced up straight away, soon as you ice up an ankle it freezes up pretty bad, so she looked sore walking around, but she’s confident she’s right to go. She doesn’t want to use crutches at all, the physio said, “just use them, you’ll be fine if you do”. Dana had a couple of corks from a pretty big hit, but they should be minor things that she can bounce back from.
So, you expect them both to get up next week?
Yes, I think so at this stage. I haven’t had a good chat to the doctor yet, but just speaking to people on the periphery, we’re pretty confident both will get up.
What goes through your mind at that stage?
Well I didn’t see when Duffy went down so the message to me actually wasn’t too bad. I did see Hooker go down and that was a big hit, and you don’t know what it is so you’re worried, but she was up and about after the game. She did a post-game interview, so I think she’ll be fine.
Conference A was one hell of a conference, how big of an achievement is it to be able to make it through that?
Huge. It puts us in really good stead, it put us in good stead for today because since Darwin every game for us has been a final. If we lost to the Bulldogs we would have been out, if we lost to Geelong we would have been out, so we’ve played under that pressure for three weeks now. We embraced it today and I think it puts us in good stead for the finals.
What about the fact you have to play away now in the final when really on paper you deserve hosting rights?Obviously that’s the case but we love playing here, we shouldn’t downplay how great our support is here, but as a group we love getting away, it’s really good fun. The girls work all through the week, but they get a day off because we go away Friday, spend a bit of time together. We don’t have the grind of travelling every second week for 22 weeks like the boys, so for us it’s a bit of a novelty and it’s a fun thing to do to get away together, so we’re looking forward to it.
Containing North to that score, is that a credit to your defence?
Absolutely. Our defence has been amazing. We were under-manned right from the start when we moved (Ebony) Antonio out of there and Lisa Webb’s done such a good job. I sort of had in my mind where I wanted her to take the defence to, she aimed to get them better than that and they’ve achieved that. What they’ve been doing the last few weeks has been outstanding. We kept Geelong to three scoring shots last week who were top of the conference at that stage, and to keep North Melbourne, who have got a really potent forward line, down to that, is a great testament to the way the backs have been going about it.
You mentioned every game since Darwin has been a final, we see some teams when they get to the final stage get a bit of stage fright, you must be pretty confident in them?
We said before the game it was an advantage for us that we had over North Melbourne because they went through undefeated in the early part of the season, they lost one, but it didn’t matter if they won or lost last week, it was going to come down to today. This was their first must-win game, we’ve been in that situation for three weeks, so every game’s been a final. For us we’ve embraced that challenge even though it’s been forced, it wasn’t designed that way but it’s put us in good stead for next week.
Do you think it’s a shame that North won’t be in finals?
I’m glad they’re not because they’re a really good team, but yes absolutely. Melbourne as well, we had a cracking game against Melbourne in round one as well and they’re a really good side, I know they got blown away today, but that’s the way it is. We’ve known that from the start and we’ve played accordingly. I do feel for North Melbourne that they had to come across here and play in a final, when they didn’t probably deserve to be in that situation.
Do you know if you’re playing Saturday or Sunday?
I don’t know that. We’re ready to go Saturday, if it’s Sunday it’s Sunday but we haven’t been told that information yet.
