On the Dogs’ competitive efforts:

“I thought we competed really well. We finished with the same amount of inside 50s and one less scoring shot, but they were much better with ball in hand and probably got us a fair bit on transition.

“We’ve been competing well around the contest and defensively, but we probably need to shift the ball off the line a little bit more.

“We kicked a little too much into their hands and they took advantage. They were really good in the air.

“It’s disappointing. We are better than effort, but we’re just not finishing off our work at the moment.”

On the Dogs’ inside-50 entries:

“I don’t think it was necessarily disconnect – we just took some poor options when we had a really good opportunity to launch deeper.

“We probably went a bit too wide a couple of times when we had chances from 60 (out) to put their backs under pressure 1v1.

“Our decision-making was poor, but then we failed to execute. We had enough chances but just (weren’t) finishing off our work.”

On tackling pressure:

“We’ve got a really competitive group. Some of the core metrics that we wanted to improve on was our contest stuff but also really consolidate defensively.

“What we’re not doing is finishing off that work.

“We’re doing all the hard work of winning the ball back, but then giving it up too easy the other way.”

On De Berry’s return:

“She’s a really strong leader and we saw her skills in the last quarter.

“She’s been out for a while though so I think she’ll be better for the run.”

On Ellie Blackburn and Alice Edmonds’ impact:

“They’ve been huge. This is only my second season here, but even as an opposition coach they both always caused headaches.

“Ellie obviously was a marquee player with the Bulldogs and is a pioneer of the game. She’s had to shoulder a fair bit of the load and now we’ve got players who can assist, but her status not only in the game, but in the club…she’s really been the benchmark of midfielders for a long time.

“Alice as well – internally we don’t underrate her, but in terms of the work she does, she’s probably revolutionised how rucks get around the ground in the women’s game. 

“They’ve both been huge for us.”