IT was hard to wipe the grin off Hawthorn coach Bec Goddard’s face after her side’s win over Port Adelaide on the weekend.

Asked how she was feeling post match, she said she was “bloody stoked.”

“There was a bit of a breeze with the wind and we had it in the last quarter so we had a plan for that,” she said. “Sometimes it’s not pretty, you’ve just got to take the territory and find a way. But, Greta did her work today and just dragged the team over the line when they needed the help and that’s what she did her job.”

She agreed that wins like the one her Hawks earned on Sunday evening were particularly important for a young team like hers at the back end of a season.

“It’s so important, and we’ve got a young team,” she said. “You look at some of the games we’ve had, a close one against Richmond, all bar one quarter against Freo, we were up against Brisbane at half time when we played them. To then put all of the good things you’re seeing in those games and to get them for four quarters and to get the win it’s really important for young players.”

Goddard was really happy with how her troops improved their performance around stoppages, which she said was a real focus heading into the game.

“We were really poor with our stoppage compliance last week, just not even setting up in the right spots,” she said. “So our mids certainly copped feedback this week, and I’ve got to give them credit. Emily Bates in her 75th game, she has got the will to win and she shows her team mates how to do that week in and week out and she wasn’t going to go down this week in her milestone game.”

On Bates, Goddard was particularly happy Bates got to kick a goal in her milestone match, and spoke of her importance to the Hawks.

“It’s awesome,” she said. “Sometimes you can’t plan those moments but they are really important when they happen. We wanted to really try and show Batesy how important she is to us and we get around her when she does great things like that.”