Our AFLW side have begun preparations ahead of an exciting Round 10 clash with Fremantle. With finals hopes well and truly alive Scott Gowans and co-captain Lucy McEvoy appeared in a press conference to answer questions from the media.
See what they had to say below.
On playing for a top eight spot
Scott Gowans: “It's exciting. I think we have earned the right to be excited. We spoke about it about pressure privilege at the team meeting yesterday, and how we can adapt to it or shy away from it. We decided that we are going to take it as a badge of honour. But we have to play our way - nothing changes. It is still our footy and DNA, and what we believe in. Coming up against a side that will be hungry to beat us. Destiny is in our hands.”
On coaching:
SG: We don’t want to shy away from any pressure, whatsoever. We're going to let the girls know pregame what the scenario is. I am going to clear their minds and tell them what we need to do. I think it makes no difference to how we play, it just gives us a target. Sustained success means you need to be able to cope...
“Everything we do from the way we train, to the way we think about strategy, game plan, everything is based around what it takes to win in AFLW. I know everyone focuses on, for example hit outs and clearances, which are really important, but are they a higher correlation to winning than contested balls?. It is not that you can say you’ll win those stats, and you’re going to be fine, you’re not. Each game is different. But if you'e going to win consistently, the numbers are the numbers.”
Progression since last season
SG: "We are the fourth youngest list, which you tend to forget as you’re flying up the ladder. We are by no means a finished product; we have only had three players play every game since we started, and we’ve played 19 games in our history. We are still very inexperienced. We have got momentum and that is massive in football, and we need to ride it until that moment when someone works us out and stops it. I am well aware that it is not going to be linear, and it is going to have its bumps and bruises, and that is all part of learning and growing, then we will be able to correct things off that.”
Lucy McEvoy: “It's an incredible position to be in. The girls last year, who went a whole season and didn’t win a game, it's tough spot to be in. But to come in and see how motivated they are to get better every day, and they knew it was going take time, and to be a part of that and help drive that has been an awesome opportunity.
On looking ahead to finals
SG: “We haven't mentioned what follows, but we have mentioned that there is a prize at the end of it. The prize is, that you get an opportunity to continue. It's just a mindset of taking what we need to grow from last week - what the positives were and improving it. It really is a process driven thing. We haven’t shied away from talking about what the prize is, and I think it is just a great opportunity to feel pressure and see how we go against it.”
LM: “The group is really excited for the opportunity, and to be in the position that we are in is awesome. It just shows how much growth we've had as a group. The girls know the opportunity that we have, but because we are so young, we know we actually have to win first. All eyes are on the game this Sunday against Fremantle. We are pretty good at not looking too far past that."
On Collingwood and team momentum
LM: “The Dogs game was pretty impressive, but to be able to take it against a team that has proven to be top eight, top four, and withstand that pressure and changed momentum when we needed to, it just shows how far we have come and the maturity that we have shown. It has felt like it has just clicked for us in these last couple of weeks. I think it was definitely up there with our best performances."
LM: “I think it just comes with being consistent. We had ebbs and flows throughout the year. We knew we hadn’t played our best yet and our training probably had ebbs and flows as well. But in the last few weeks we have been able to put together a really solid training week, which then translates into the game. We see that now and we know that. There is no taking a step back, it's getting what we need to do, done, and then taking that into the game.
On Fremantle
SG: “Fremantle play a similar game to us, which is good. It could be a high scoring game. It's just a matter of repeating it. We focused in the team meeting on what we did well, from a ball movement perspective. But from the contest side of things we’ve got a bit of growth area in there. We dialled into that in training today, and will do the same on Friday, and take that up against Fremantle.
LM: “We have shown what we can do, and we can take it to anyone if we can bring our best. We have got to just get the job done on the day and that is our first focus. I think we have built a really solid couple of weeks and momentum is on our side. in saying that, in the football world anything can happen.”
On injuries
SG: “Paige Sheppard will be available if she gets through training on Friday. She will put her hand up for selection, which is nice to know she is healthy and going. She trained today and moved quite well. Kiara Beesley is a few more weeks away, progressing really well but we just need to get load back into her body. She is probably not quite ready, just yet.”
Visit our Match Day Hub for everything you need to know ahead of our Round 10 game against Fremantle.
