The Sydney Swans return home to Henson Park to take on the Gold Coast Suns on Saturday afternoon in Round 8 of the AFLW Season.
The Suns share a 1-1 win loss record against each other with the most recent meeting being the Swans’ Elimination Final victory in 2023.
Despite being anchored to the bottom of the ladder, Gold Coast senior coach Cameron Joyce was pleased with the Suns effort in their 16-point loss to reigning premiers Brisbane last weekend.
“We won the contested footy against the Lions, our pressure for the majority of the night was really positive,” said Joyce.
“To be within 6 or 8 points with 4 minutes to go against a team that hasn’t lost much over the last few years was really pleasing.”
In a boost for the Suns, defending AFLW Club Champion Claudia Whitfort has been named to return for the first time since Round 5 in what will be her 50th AFLW match.
The Swans sit 15th on the ladder, with their most recent 60-point defeat to North Melbourne offering plenty of learnings from the competitions leading side.
“We wanted to take them on and keep taking them on and get the lessons out of it, but also I think on reflection that probably kept us in the game at patches as well,” said Swans senior coach Scott Gowans.
“There's probably 20 or 30 percent of the game, they're just so good that they got away from us. But you look at the territory game and some players that stood up against the best team in the competition, there's a lot to take away from it.”
Gowans has warned the Swans to be wary of Gold Coast, who will be hungry to register their first victory of the season.
“I know they're anxious for their first win of the season, they've been extremely unlucky, they've had I think three results recently that are sort of around that two goal margin,” said Gowans.
“Henson Park will be rocking and hopefully we can put our best foot forward. We're really looking forward to building on what we did last week and then turning that into a little bit more offence."
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