That puts you out of contention for the Grand Final, what was the message to the girls afterwards?
It’s incredibly disappointing when you see how well the girls played in the first quarter and then to fall away so quickly is disappointing.
Can you put your finger on what happened after quarter time?
I thought Adelaide lifted their intensity. We went in with a focus of wanting to be harder, stronger, for longer. We clearly did it for a quarter and that’s not good enough. There are some basic skills that we need to continue to develop and work on with the group. Not being clean below the knees really hurt us, our overuse of the handball early, and then also just our reaction and two-way running which I think Adelaide did really well.
You went into the year with pretty high expectations externally. How difficult is it to manage something like that, premiership favouritism?
I never bought into any of that because it’s a brand new competition. I don’t know where those measurements come from anyway so those conversations weren’t within our four walls, but clearly we are disappointed at where we sit at the moment. We thought we would be more competitive in this competition and certainly a few things haven’t fallen our way.
When you get over the initial disappointment, what do you make the focus for the next three games?
They are small wins. We have Collingwood at Peel next weekend. We’ll get the girls in early, we’ll work on the below the knee stuff and our two-way running. We’ll continue to coach and educate that. It’s been a key focus for us all along. Their actions speak really loud right now and we need them to perform.
How were they after the game?
They are pretty flat, because it was a really important game for us. They will recover and they will come ready to go to take on Collingwood.
Do you think it’s a mental thing or do you think there are some physical reasons that they couldn’t sustain it?
I think at times the whole competition has been challenging with the exposure that it has gotten, but we communicate about it and talk about it. We’ll review the game and have a good look at what it was. But to kick 1.4 to 6.10 after quarter time, it doesn’t win you games of footy.
Ebony Antonio was thrown into the middle at the start, how did you find her game today?
I thought she did really well. Certainly in the second half, I thought she impacted the game really well around the ground.
You didn’t look like you got any injuries today, is that a positive to get out of the game?
I think Gabby O’Sullivan copped a knock to the knee but we’ll wait on medical regarding that one.
What is it that you can take from Adelaide in this?
Adelaide work really hard for each other, their two-way running is great but they also kick the ball a lot and get it forward, and give their forwards opportunities. You can take a lot out of Sarah Perkins’ game. She’s incredible. She had ten tackles in the game, works really hard. Her first, second, third efforts are some of the best that I have seen in the game, so credit to her and the team.
On a positive note, your leaders really stood up. Kara Donnellan in particular was outstanding again.
‘Juddy' stands up and that’s the fourth game that she’s really stood up and she is an incredible leader. We certainly need more girls to stand up and less passengers.
