SYDNEY might be unbeaten and one of only four teams in the AFL Women’s that has started the season in the same fashion, but coach Scott Gowans was candid when asked about where he felt the side was at.

Post-game following the Round 3 win over Geelong, Sydney had risen to top of the ladder – the Swans have since been overtaken by North Melbourne and Melbourne – and Gowans was asked whether or not he thought being the benchmark was an accurate reflection.

“No, I don’t,” he said. “There’s some good teams going around, and we’re definitely still in a growth phase. We said we’re aiming for finals and that’s what we want to do, get enough wins to make finals and position ourselves to have a really good throw at the stumps for a grand final. That’s what we want to do, so I think we’re on the journey with that.”

Gowans said watching some of the other teams, he conceded there were some “pretty good sides” and some “really good in-form sides” that would make the run for finals all the more difficult in Season 10. He also believed the gap between the traditionally strong clubs and the rest had closed.

“It’s a fascinating game because you watch a team and you think ‘oh we might beat them there and this way’ and then you watch them the next week and it’s completely different,” Gowans said. “I think that’s the growth of the competition, it’s a lot more even now. There’s about nine or 10 sides that are in form at the moment, and then there’s sides like Geelong who haven’t won yet but they’ll come. They’re too good of an outfit not to.”

The Swans had a down year last season after reaching the AFLW finals series in their second season, with injuries to players such as Chloe Molloy and Ally Morphett really derailing their chances. However Gowan said the key difference between 2024 and 2025 for the Harbour City side was the way the team defends has “completely changed”.

“Off the back of that is to get offence and that was a big focus over the preseason,” he added. “That comes down to our layers, the way we were laying around the contest. We tended to fold in a little bit too much so we’ve really changed and worked on our layer work and that’s helped us offensively. Then when sides have momentum against you, what it does do is it actually gives you good numbers to at least come forward and try and spill the ball back over your way.

“We collapsed a couple of times today, and it’s hard under such heat which we’ll go back and look at the vision and get some really good growths out of that. That’s the number one thing is probably the way we set the shape up around the contest.”

Gowans said the nail-biting five-point win at GMHBA Stadium was a relief considering the level of difficulty winning at Kardinia Park had been for the Swans in the past. That, coupled with the fact he views the Cats as another finals contender, and the four points were vital in the run home to the post-season.

“It’s good to win away at Geelong is a hard venue to win at,” he said. “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.”

For Geelong coach Dan Lowther, it meant the Cats had slumped to an 0-3 start. While it was not ideal, Lowther said the team was fully focused on the next match against another unbeaten side in Essendon having shown promising developments against the red-hot Swans.

“It was a better game, was a much better game,” he said. “Had a chat to the group afterwards, it 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 theres 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. Encouraging game, didn’t get a win, zip and three, but there’s still plenty of footy to play.”