Sydney Swans AFLW Head Coach Scott Gowans spoke to the media this morning ahead of the side's Round Two clash with Geelong. See what Scott had to say following the side's season opening victory and looking ahead to Round 2.
How are the girls feeling after the breakthrough win?
They are very excited, probably a little bit too excited from a coaching perspective but you have to let them enjoy it.
What a day at north Sydney oval. It was a sea of red and white, the girls really soaked it in and it was important after such a frustrating year last year, to let them enjoy it.
It wasn’t just about the win, it was the way they did it coming back late. What was that like to watch?
On reflection, it was good we didn’t just get over the line last season, and then to be able to experience that in front of our home crowd.
Belief and momentum are amazing things in football and if we can get some belief and momentum off that (we have some hard games coming up against Geelong and Brisbane), it might just stand us in good stead to put our next foot forward.
How exciting is it to have back to back games at North Sydney Oval and have fans back?
There is no doubt the fans helped us win that. To come back from 25 points down, the pressure that was in the last quarter from GWS and our girls just giving it back as hard, that was on the back of the crowd and the noise.
It was something to hold on to for a long time and that will give us some belief.
From my perspective, I am really looking forward to the second win and from a coaching perspective, that is when I will probably celebrate a little bit more.
If we don’t win now for the next nine weeks, that shows we are maybe not ready to compete yet, but that gap between win one and win two will dictate exactly where we are as a group.
How big of a talent is Ally Morphett in the womens game?
I said to Ally at the end of last season, ‘I could make you into the best player in the competition but you have to get fit first,” and she took the feedback really well and is the one who has done all the work, all credit to her.
I think she could be very special.
It is rare to get a 19-year-old that has got that much talent, and is that tall in our game, and I think she has a lot of upside too.
I thought her game on the weekend was really good, but with a coach hat on, there are a few growth areas for her and we will work away at those.
But if you bring effort and intensity, get yourself fit and you are able to compete, that will get you a long way in games.
There were a lot of big moments from Chloe Molloy, Laura Gardiner etc, but what did you make of Brenna Tarrant’s efforts down back?
She had a moment last year against Hawthorn where she kicked in from fullback and kicked it straight back to Hawthorn and we spoke about that.
I am a big believer of creating belief and I just told her I want her to take the next kick in and she did, but she was a bit down about that and she worked on it in the off-season with her ability to just stay in moments.
I encourage the players just to take the game on still, but Brenna’s last three marks were just sensational. Not that she took the marks, but the composure to set herself up to take the marks.
Looking ahead to facing Geelong and shutting down Georgie Prespakis.
I have sat and watched Geelong, and I have full respect for Geelong. They came into the competition when I was at North Melbourne in 2019 and the North build was very different to the Geelong build.
They went youth and got a core group of kids to develop them and those kids have now turned into young women that can play football.
All credit to Geelong, I really respect their program and they are tough. Georgie Prespakis is a superstar and we will put a bit of time into her and a few others.
They have a number of players that can hurt us. They are a really well drilled side. If we let them have 300 possessions again, we won’t win so we have to get our team defence right and try and get the ball off them.
Laura Gardiner will face her former side this week. Do you think she is in for a big one this weekend?
She is pretty keen! She is an amazing footballer. She is so cool, calm and collected.
She is one of those players, you look at the stat sheet, and I got a bit of a shock at how much pressure she actually applied.
She just needed her opportunity and I can understand why she wasn’t getting a run at Geelong. Their midfield is so good.
That was just a stroke of luck that we ended up with Laura but she has fitted right in.
With Sofia Hurley, they can form a really good combination, but she is really keen for this weekend.
Latest on Montana Ham?
She is looking like Round 4 but she is tracking really well. The difference this year, we are able to put a bit of time into her, where as last year when she was flying in and out with her knee injury, we weren’t able to do the rehab properly. We did the best we could, but she had exams and everything else going on, so this year she is able to tick all the boxes, is tracking really well and even if the medicals said you could push her for Round 3, we wouldn’t, we would let her settle and Round Four will be her round unless she has a setback. But she is spot on for Round Four at the moment.
Latest on Alexia Hamilton?
Lexi will be up for selection and she has come along good. She will do a full session on Thursday, and if she gets through that, she will be available for selection so selection will be hard.
