Congratulations on the win, what were your thoughts on the match?
It was tough going for the girls, it was relentless. I don’t think it stopped raining all day and it was quite windy as well. After the first half of the first quarter we sort of dominated proceedings but we just couldn’t get on the scoreboard. It was a credit to West Coast the way they defended but they got a lot of numbers back which made it difficult to get the shots on goal. We sort of had it in control but they still had a chance when they got within six points in the last quarter, so I was pleased we finished as strongly as we did.

What’s it like as a coach when the ball is inside your 50 a lot but you’re not getting on the scoreboard?
It’s not as bad as maybe what you would think. It might have been hard for you guys watching it on TV but when you’re here at the game, they had 14, sometimes 15 players back behind the ball. So they never looked like scoring so, as frustrating as it was, we didn’t feel in danger that they were going to score at the other end. We definitely would have liked a few more goals along the way, but at the same time, it didn’t feel like they were going to break it open at the other end.

Did you feel like some of your weapons as a team were taken away by the conditions?
There’s no doubt that when the conditions are like that, Gemma Houghton’s not going to be showing her running bounces, and a few of the other players, but it also brings in a few others. Kiara Bowers loves playing in the wet and it suits her game. Hayley Miller I thought was really good through there. We did discuss how we could use Gemma and Gabby O’Sullivan, did we need to use them in a different way and that was a possibility that we could have thrown them up on the ball and use their bustle there if needed. But we thought we had control so there was no need to do that.

Kiara Bowers had another amazing game, can you give us your thoughts on her?
In these conditions we knew she’d get the 14 tackles, that was never in doubt but what we’re really rapt with now is that she’s getting a bit more ball on the outside. I think she had 400 metres gained which today is probably worth 1000 in the dry so it was an amazing effort to do that. She was awarded the medal and she was clearly the best on ground. I don’t know what to say about her because it’s the same every week. We know what we’re going to get, it’s going to be great and she drags all her team mates along with her.

Who else do you feel like stepped up in the conditions?
I thought Steph Cain’s game was amazing today. On the wing, she sort of controlled the wing and took a couple of good marks which no one else seemed to be able to do out there. I was really pleased with her game and Sabreena Duffy, who kicked the three goals last week and got a lot of credit for that, came up today and did a lot of the hard work. She was one of our leading possession getters today and never got clear or hit the scoreboard, but I was really happy with her performance. Finally, our backs, the same as last week I thought they were really solid and didn’t look like getting penetrated too often. 

How do you handle the uncertainty around the fixture now?
We just addressed it, it is what it is. Fortunately we had a bit of practice at it with our final against Gold Coast last year, we had no idea who we were going to play until the Thursday night. This week we didn’t know, next week will be the same. We just need to prepare ourselves to be as ready as we possibly can. The girls are fine with that, to be honest it’s harder for the coaches, in particular Lisa Webb who’s our opposition coach because she has to rush and get five days of work done in one or two days. It’s not too big of an issue for us, if we’re travelling we’ll jump on a plane and get there.

Have you been told that it’s likely to go to back to a home and away format instead of a hub?
Not really, there’s definitely a possibility with the low cases around the country at the moment which is a positive. To be honest I was watching the border situations closely on Monday and Tuesday, but I haven’t taken much notice the last few days, I’ve been flat out preparing for this game. We haven’t heard anything specifically from the AFL about what next week will look like, if it’s just going to be fly in fly out, but hopefully there are some borders open or exemptions that we can do that and keep the season ticking along.

Any injuries?
I think we come out really well. I spoke to the doctor at half time and he said that everything was great. With five minutes to go I just check if anyone needs any less time, at that stage the game was in the balance, and they said everything was okay. I haven’t spoken with the doctor post-game but unless something happened in the last five minutes, I think we’ve got a clean bill of health.