On how the game played out…
“I thought that we held up well in the first half. We probably let a few red-time goals just from lapses in concentration, but from a contest perspective we we’re really pleased.
“We challenged them from a contest perspective – we know they are a very, very good team and I thought they pressured the ball really well, which caused us to be quite fumbly.
“Our fundamentals weren’t great, so any opportunity we had in open play, they were pretty quick to shut down.
“We’re a little disappointed, but there were some areas we were pleased with.
“We had too many shallow entries and didn’t get the ball in deep enough, so didn’t have a lot of opportunities inside 50 which was disappointing.”
On the biggest lesson/growth opportunity…
“They slaughtered us on turnover. I think our ability to recognise a little bit more game awareness – shutting down those uncontested marks and little things like that.
“There’s a lot that we can take out of this game – as you said they are the benchmark, and we are an ambitious group.
“We aren’t going to shy away from that. We want to be able to compete with the best, and we did today but not for long enough.
“We’ll go to work and clean up a few things.”
On Elisabeth Georgostathis’ face mask…
“She had a beautiful mask on. She chipped a tooth in the Hawthorn practice match, and then also had a broken nose (in another practice match).
“It was a bit of extra protection for her – especially for the way and role she plays.”
On the VFLW team locking in finals…
“We have a really aligned partnership with our VFLW program. Our Head of Development Liam Cavanagh is our VFLW coach, so there’s a really strong pathway there.
“It’s really good to see our AFLW players rolling through…we love the alignment piece and the fact that if they’re not picked for AFLW, they are still able to play games.”
On facing the Swans in Round 4…
“We’ve worked really hard, so for us it’s the ability now to learn from the things we probably didn’t get right today.
“Our ability on offence to challenge and go at teams a bit more, with a bit more run and carry…that will assist us with deeper entries. We’ll go to work on that.
“We’re excited to get back home. We’re still two (wins) and one (loss), and with nine games to go we still think we’re in good shape.
“We just had a bit of a hiccup today against a bloody good opposition.”
