MELBOURNE’s late season AFL Women’s surge has continued, this time defeating Richmond to win their fourth match in a row.

Reflecting post match, one of the things that most pleased Melbourne coach Mick Stinear was that he thought his side “competed really well.”

“I think Richmond’s ability to test the tackle is really strong,” he said. “I mean, Eilish Sheerin had a great game in there and Ellie Mckenzie, they’re really strong players that do test the tackle, but I thought our group after the first quarter really started to stick out tackles. The next layer was then able to come in and support and then I thought they wore the Tigers down over the course of the game and got reward for effort on the scoreboard.”

The win does keep Melbourne’s finals hopes well and truly alive, but Stinear said that was not something discussed pre game.

“Earlier in the season we kind of tied ourselves up in knots about worrying about that stuff and where we’re at as a team and losing four in a row so we’ve learnt our lesson early,” Stinear explained.

“Just enjoy playing together and we had kids day today, so it was almost embrace being a kid and the love of the game and playing for each other and let go of worrying about everything else. And we can’t get away from the way we compete and playing for each other. Anything else we worry about, it kind of takes our eye off the ball.”

Melbourne rolled with a pretty tall line up on Saturday, much taller than what it would normally play with, but Stinear had a pretty simple explanation for that.

“The rucks keep playing well,” Stinear began to explain.

“So Rhi and Georgia Campbell have done a great job of competing and carrying a high workload while Loz has been out injured and so it really forced our hand to play three rucks. I thought the conditions today were great and allowed them to have opportunity to all play, and then Georgia’s ability to compete and tackle and get after it at ground level in our forward half gives us another look there and hopefully stretches the defense as well.

“So not something we planned but the players have forced their hand as coaches and we’re appreciative of how they’re working and competing.”

Someone else who drew praise from Stinear was Alyssa Bannan, who Stinear described as “brilliant today.”

“She’s been competing really well over the last month in particular, and not just her ability to finish, but she’s setting up other scoring opportunities as well, and she’s a real threat in the air and at ground level” Stinear said.