PORT Adelaide coach Lauren Arnell was incredibly proud of her team’s effort in their win against the Western Bulldogs, which capped off a solid start to the season.

In the 40-point victory for Port Adelaide, the Bulldogs were held goalless all evening, with the only sour note being the knee injury to captain Janelle Cuthbertson, which Arnell said was “not looking good”.

One key component to Friday night’s performance was key forward Julia Teakle‘s career-best showing which included four goals. ‘Teaks’ is a much-loved member of Port Adelaide’s forward rotation, one that often goes without some reward for effort according to Arnell.

“We love ‘Teaks’, she’s the ultimate team player,” Arnell said post-match.

“‘Teaks’ is a forward who every single week, she just plays her role and in her role there will be weeks where she kicks four and then 70 to 80 per cent of the games [where] she plays she’d be lucky to get a shot at goal.

“All of her other work is selfless and so I think it’s really nice that we’d say that she got a lick of the icecream tonight and that’s just from consistently playing your role.”

Coming to Port Adelaide from Western Australia ahead of their the Power’s inaugural season, Teakle solidified her place in the best 21 last year. Arnell described how Teakle has grown in the last few seasons.

“She works so hard every single week [and] every single opportunity she gets at Alberton to practice her goalkicking,” she said.

“She’s just been a master of her craft since the first day she walked in the door and the fact that she got to show that at the MCG is just pretty awesome.”

When considering Teakle’s influence, Arnell noted that the entire forwardline was selfless in their team-oriented role.

“We’ve got a whole group of forwards that just play their role,” Arnell continued.

“[We’ve got] Justine Mules-Robinson, Caitlin Wendland [who’s] a first year player for us [and] played for the Lions for a couple of games last year, [Julia] Teakle and Gemma Houghton.”

“We’ve got some mids going through there [too], we are constantly talking about playing a team game role and we saw that.

“I’m really happy that ‘Teaks’ got the opportunity to kick a bag tonight, and on other nights it will be others.”

Losing to one of the ‘Big Four’ of the AFLW in the Crows in a tight game, paired with drubbing the lowly Dogs, Arnell has every right to be thrilled with their development in 2024. However she is just happy with the manner in which her players are handling themselves.

“I think a big part of our group right now is how much we mature each week,” she said.

“Obviously [I] thought we presented ourselves with some growth last week in Round 1 in a Showdown, and you ask them to get better each week.

“I thought we saw some more growth today and to win by 40 points and to keep the [opposition] without goal, yeah obviously they’ve executed the plan really well and I’m pleased.”

From the Western Bulldogs’ perspective it was a shellacking at the hands of Port Adelaide, one of which head coach Tam Hyett accepts was their own doing.

“Yeah look it was a little frustrating, we definitely had plenty of opportunities tonight,” Hyett explained.

“Taking territory was key and we did that, we just didn’t execute [and] we were just a little bit fumbly. The fundamentals probably weren’t great, but we can’t fault that effort or intent tonight.”

For a team that many pundits and supporters of the league have predicted will be fighting to stay above 18th on the ladder, the Bulldogs’ development is the only metric that Hyett is looking to measure.

Playing at the MCG for the first time for most of her team, coupled with the chasm of inexperience when compared to Arnell’s side, Hyett conceded that maybe the young pups were overwhelmed by the occasion.

“It’s a new environment for them as well, we’ve got a really young and raw side [and] I’m not sure too sure how many AFLW players who are established have played on the MCG,” she said.

“I’m not going to say that’s an excuse, but there’s different nerves and different external pressures that they put on themselves as well, so maybe but it’s all good learning.”