A FRIDAY night battle in Darwin, some record-breaking tons and a couple of shock results highlighted an intriguing Round 3 of AFL Women’s. Here’s snippets of what the 18 AFLW coaches had to say post-match.

Richmond 3.10 (28) def. by Essendon 6.7 (43)

Richmond coach Ryan Ferguson:

“I know we didn’t get scoreboard nourishment and we wanted to take more shots in front of goal and hit more goals and create more opportunities, 3.10 and 10.3 looks a bit different. I thought it was two teams going at it, like the high pressure both trying to get to space, trying to play the right way. I thought we were overrunning them in the second half and we almost had them on the ropes and we just couldn’t take those moments and they were really good at taking some moment that took energy back in their favour.”

Essendon coach Nat Wood:

“It’s always great to get wins. We knew coming up to Darwin and taking on Richmond who have played some really good footy tonight. We always knew it was going to be a strong contest and I thought Richmond probably ruing not getting a bit more scoreboard pressure at one point, and we were the same. The game stayed nice and close and it was getting pretty tight in the fourth, bit of deja vu from last week.”

GWS Giants 2.10 (22) def. by Kuwarna (Adelaide) 7.12 (54)

GWS Giants coach Cam Bernasconi:

“It was four goals seven to zero goals one in the first quarter and that ended up being the game. But the ability to fight back and compete till the end and even have moments where we looked like the game was on our terms as well. I’m really proud of the players, they got challenged and instead of rolling over, they dug their heels in and fought back. There’s a lot of positives in the way that we defended, in the way we fought back in the contest, and even passages move the footy, it’s probably the best we’ve done.”

Kuwarna coach Matthew Clarke:

“It was certainly challenging conditions and clearly strongly favouring that end. I thought we started really well and I thought the fourth quarter was pretty strong up into it. Overall pretty happy. We came off a six-fay break and it was a pretty solid game last week. The way they fronted up was really good and the way they were able to run it out also pleasing. In the middle two quarters GWS maybe have the better of it but we were able to hold on and get a pretty good result.

Euro-Yroke (St Kilda) 4.4 (28) def. by Waalitj Marawar (West Coast) 6.6 (42)

Euro-Yroke coach Nick Dal Santo:

“I don’t think we actually played that well in the first three quarters to be completely honest. There was a breeze, West Coast had it in the second and the last quarter. I don’t feel like we we used the ball very well in the first and the third even when we had some dominance, and a bit of assistance with the breeze. I don’t feel like we played a great brand of footy even for the first three quarters and then clearly for the last, you concede five goals two, after keeping West Coast to one goal previous to that, it was really disappointing.”

Waalitj Marawar coach Daisy Pearce:

“I think the main thing was just to simplify the way we were trying to move the ball. I think we were a little bit unpredictable to each other throughout the day, maybe overusing the handball at times, but really just encouraged them to be clean over the ball, turn up for that first handball and then take the ball forward. So knowing we had the wind we thought we could play a little bit straighter and just be a bit more predictable.”

Geelong 6.9 (45) def. by Sydney 7.8 (50)

Geelong coach Dan Lowther:

“Had a chat to the group afterwards, hurts to lose by five points, but considering our first two games were blowouts in the last quarter particularly last week against the Crows. To play four consistent quarters and have a closer game was a positive for us, and again to have opportunities to put scoreboard pressure on, more inside 50s, the numbers tell us that we’re going okay, but clearly there’s some things to iron out in-game as we go along, and that’s our challenge going into our review, going into Monday. Planning for the right things and then making sure we execute for those things on the weekend against the Bombers.”

Sydney coach Scott Gowans:

“It’s good to win away at Geelong is a hard venue to win at. I think last time we were here we lost by 80-odd so it’s a good turnaround. The pleasing thing is we still have a lot of learnings in our game and we’ll get a lot out of that game. Geelong are a hard team to play against, they’ve had a really tough start to the year but I expect they’ll get on a run at some stage and if we want to push for finals which we openly have said we have, they’re one of the teams we’re competing with, so they’re really important wins.”

Yartapuulti (Port Adelaide) 16.12 (108) def. Gold Coast 5.10 (40)

Yartapuulti coach Lauren Arnell:

“I’m really pleased, and I’ve been talking probably a month now around how important the process is and how we go about things and for as much of the game as we needed the way we went about the game, and the way we executed our gamestyle is the most pleasing part for me. The scoreboard’s amazing, and breaking a little record you certainly don’t expect that coming into games. But the absolutely most pleasing bit is our players’ ability and buy-in to playing their roles and our gamestyle.”

Gold Coast coach Rhyce Shaw:

“Really proud of them. We showed a lot of fight and a lot of grit tonight. Port Adelaide are a really good team, they did a great job. We lose our two key defenders in the first four minutes, Charlie (Rowbottom) gets a stinger on her shoulder and we’re on the back foot a little bit, but I can’t ask much more than what the girls did tonight, they did a fantastic job.

Western Bulldogs 1.4 (10) def. by Hawthorn 2.2 (14)

Western Bulldogs coach Tam Hyett:

“The girls are disappointed, because as I said I think this is one that got away. We felt we dominated a lot of areas of the game apart from the scoreboard, so there’s a lot to come from it, but something we probably need to work on now is our fundamentals. Just simplicity of hitting targets with our kick, and by hand. But as I said, we’ll review it on Monday and we’re lucky we’ve got another opportunity to turn things around against Carlton.”

Hawthorn coach Daniel Webster:

“I thought our defenders did a great job. I thought Jenna (Richardson) back in the team was really good, I thought (Emily) Everist‘s tackle in D50 was fantastic. I thought (Tamara) Smith and (Tilly) Lucas-Rodd really good all day. I thought defenders were really strong and I thought Lucy Wales in the ruck was excellent, she gave us a good go forward which was great.”

Collingwood 4.9 (33) def. by Narrm (Melbourne) 5.7 (37)

Collingwood coach Sam Wright:

“Very proud. Again some fall your way, some don’t, But I think for where we’re building as a young side, you had four or five of our best players out, change before the game, we carried on from last week and they’re the best contested ball side in the comp the way they move the ball with star forwards ahead of the footy. We’re really proud, and again we had three or four or five chances to win it in the last quarter, but we’re putting our selves in positions to win games, and against top of the ladder.”

Narrm coach Mick Stinear:

“I really felt they deserved to win the way they played consistently for four quarters, the way they competed around the ball, they outworked us. I thought Collingwood dictated the tempo of the game apart from the first quarter, I thought we were in a good spot then. Very much felt that way but sometimes you’ve just got to take those ones.

“I thought in the second half after the second quarter, the group responded in the right way and we had some moments, but we just couldn’t shake Collingwood all day, and to their credit they really pushed us and I honestly think they deserved to win the way they played, but we’ll take the four points and it’s always nice to learn and have four points in the bank than learn with a loss or a draw.” 

Walyalup (Fremantle) 2.2 (14) def. by North Melbourne 18.6 (114)

Walyalup coach Lisa Webb:

“Nah, not at all (in crisis), nah. I can understand outsiders looking in, but they probably just don’t understand the connection and the beliefs that this group has got. They’re two premiership teams, they’re super in what they can do and we’ve been off, so we need to really dig deep to find why that is and get back to our best footy. I don’t think it’s far away, but obviously disappointing.”

North Melbourne coach Darren Crocker:

“Yeah really pleased. I think we travel really well. The group seems to really gel when we come away. There’s plenty of energy on our away trips. But it’s always treated with a bit of trepidation, especially when a team’s coming off a heavy loss like Freo were. We knew that they would be looking to try and respond, so to still have a really comprehensive win is really pleasing.”

Brisbane 6.8 (44) def. by Carlton 9.4 (58)

Brisbane coach Craig Starcevich:

“I mean it doesn’t really matter where you play, if the opposition are better than you as Carlton were, they were cleaner, got us out the back a couple of times scoring wise. Little patch in the second quarter that we won’t be happy with when we go back and have a look at it. It rattled us a bit, lacked a bit of composure when that was all happening, but to their credit we came back and had a real strong third quarter and looked like we were going to get ourselves back into it. Won’t be happy having one more scoring shot and missed out on the result by 14 points.”

Carlton coach Matthew Buck:

“I mean Brisbane in Brisbane is always a tough ask and they challenged us in the game as well and required us to come back and play a good brand and I think we were able to do that and to get over the line was fantastic, proud of the team.”