SPEAKING after her side’s win over Fremantle on the weekend, Essendon coach Natalie Wood spoke of her influential half time speech, which was all around negating Fremantle’s systems.

“I thought that firstly, going into the game Fremantle from what we’ve seen like it really contested, they put a lot of numbers around the ball, so the message was heading into half time was try to set up a system to negate that a little bit, but give us some run on the outside,” Wood said.

“We probably took that a little bit too far and we had to tighten that up, and that was probably particularly around our wings and their positioning, so we just need to be better placed to defend but also allowing us to attack and I think that’s what allowed us in the third to get quite a bit of ascendency.”

“Obviously we had the wind in the third so that helps, but I thought our ability to hold the ball in our front half was excellent and there were some outstanding tackles and pressure in the first half so we looked at a few of those and really put it on our mids. Fremantle was doing an excellent job of winning the clearance, so we needed more from our inside mids. Swapped a little bit of personnel around as well, and I think the players really responded.”

Wood was very happy with how her team performed against the Dockers, especially considering their stature in the game.

“I guess regardless of where we are on the ladder, coming up against Fremantle, an inaugural team, we saw it as a really good challenge for us,” she said. “Obviously we were really challenged last week against Adelaide, took some things that we thought we did okay out of that and also some learnings.

“We didn’t get it all probably the way that we wanted, but probably what most impressed me with the group is just our ability to really fight back in the second half. I thought Fremantle’s pressure was really good in that first half and the way that they were winning a lot of clearance and winning the contested possession, so I thought the resistance for the group to take it up to another level after half time was excellent.”

She also heaped praised on co-captain Bonnie Toogood, who continued her stellar 2023 campaign on the weekend.

“I think what you really see with Bonnie is that she’s really embodied what being a leader is, and her and Steph Cain do an outstanding job of leading this group,” she said. “Bonnie’s ability to get up the ground and defend, I think she’s our highest tackle player as well, and her work to get the ball inside 50, I think she had five inside 50s to go along with her two goals.

“Her ability to give us strong structure ahead of the football but then also that willingness that you’ve got to compete really hard to win the footy, and I think she really leads the way with that, and she’s having an outstanding year which is terrific to see.