Almost a perfect four quarter performance… How do you assess it?
Really good. You could just tell right from early on in the week that we were going to be on for this game. The pressure all day was really good and I think the disposal count there was only 11 difference for the day, but the difference was that they were under pressure when they were delivering it and I thought our midfield pressure was really good which helped our backs out and our then our ball movement was as good as it’s been.
Kiara Bowers had another incredible game to win her 3rd consecutive best on ground medal. She’s pretty special isn’t she?
Yes and she’s really showing what we knew. She is an elite ball user and one of those kicks to (Gemma) Houghton lace out… her getting to the outside is really important for us because she is such a good ball user. Today having Katie Jayne Grieve back in the side to do a lot more of the inside grunt work and let Kiara get to the outside a bit more was a big part of why we did move the ball so well.
You’re in a prime position now to finish top two... is that the aim?
Definitely. First of all, we think we need six games (wins) to wrap up a finals spot and top two we might have to win them, so it’s not going to be easy to get top two. We’ve got three really good opponents to finish with, the three other finalists from last year before the season got cancelled, so it’s a really good opportunity to play some good sides, and all the other sides have got good sides to play against as well so it’s a really exciting fixture to finish the year off. We can’t wait and top two would definitely be nice if we can finish there.
So you will need to finish the season well against other finals contenders?
Yes and that’s what you want. You want to come in and play those teams. There’s good sides that we’ve already played in Brisbane and Adelaide but it’s good to play the Victorian sides and to get over there and play a couple of games, we can’t wait to do that.
Gemma Houghton finally made the most of her opportunities today?
Yes. It’s not going to happen every week but today I thought the delivery into her was outstanding, but she just kept working as well. As a forward, sometimes you’re a bit reliant on other things, but as long as you keep working, she’s been working hard every week and today it was her turn for it to fall, not in her lap because she worked hard to deserve it, but to finish as well as she did was really pleasing.
How proud are you of that defensive effort? They are so disciplined, and Janelle Cuthbertson played that goal keeper role all day?
West Coast are very dangerous in getting out the back. Last week, watching them against Gold Coast, at half-time they had four inside 50’s but kicked three goals one and kicked them all the same way. We decided that we wouldn’t follow them all the way up and it wasn’t always going to be Cuthbertson playing that role. Sometimes, it was going to be Pugh and those types. They were very disciplined, and what helped was our pressure up the field. We made them kick the ball under pressure and that’s where they could mop it up and use it so well from there.
How important was it to get a run out here at Optus Stadium considering that if you do get a home final and maybe even a grand final that it’s more likely to be here than Fremantle Oval given the capacity of the crowd?
We didn’t really think about that, but this is a magnificent stadium and just walking into it gives you a real buzz. The girls love it, but they also get a huge buzz playing at Fremantle Oval so as long as we are able to have one of those two venues for any games that we might deserve as far as the finals are concerned, then we will be happy. It’s a great buzz to be out here and a great place to play footy
With the margin being so big how much do you look back at this game during the week?
What we will do is go back and have a look at our pressure and ball movement. We have been working on a few things with our ball movement because we have been a really fast-moving team and we are trying to be a little more composed. I thought we did that really well at times today, so we will look at those things and we will also analyse how they scored that goal out the back because we want to make sure we keep improving. Our backline are pretty determined. They just keep learning, they are such a good group as far as wanting to learn each week. As you wrote during the week, they come from different sporting backgrounds, so they aren’t a complete blank sheet but they’re really willing to learn and they do that so well.
Just on the travelling aspect as well, you had a few get out of jail wins over east last year, do you think you have learnt from those and can apply some of those learnings?
I think in the last two years we won 83 per cent of our interstate games. We get a lot written - normally from the eastern states - about our interstate record but in our home and away season we have won 83 per cent. There are not too many teams anywhere in the world in any competition with that type of record. The girls love getting away, we were disappointed we had to get back a few weeks ago - we were ready to go for three weeks and ready to go and play in Adelaide. That was our best performance of the year so travelling holds no fear for us. The girls can actually get away from their work because they aren’t here, and they can have fun with each other and focus on footy. We are really looking forward to that
