ROUND 4 of the AFL Women’s competition saw Gold Coast and Geelong grab their first victories of 2025, while Essendon suffered its first defeat, and the Lions pipped the Crows yet again. Here’s what all 18 coaches had to say about their respective matches.

Narrm (Melbourne) 8.9 (57) def. Richmond 2.8 (20)

Narrm coach Mick Stinear:

“[Kate Hore] was unbelievable today. I know we were still happy with her performance last week but I know she was a bit disappointed. As a team we didn’t play that well, but I thought she stood up at some critical times, but she had an edge about her all week, and to do that today. We needed to give her a rest in that last quarter because she couldn’t have done anymore.

“Pleased to see a much better team performance today. Collingwood to their credit took our game away from us last week, it was nice to be able to get back to work during the week and play footy on our terms for the majority of the game today.”

Richmond coach Ryan Ferguson:

“Second quarter was really disappointing mostly. Thought the last quarter we obviously we weren’t able to hit the scoreboard as much as we would like, but I thought the game looked a lot different. Whereas the second quarter we fought so hard in the first, almost whether we succumbed to a bit of frustration or want.

“You want to make your move, you want to use the wind, and then when they get one or two, that frustration of wanting something and it’s not happening and then going away from what we need to do, going away from that fight and that spirit and then the ability to win the ball, explode and set the game up in attack. I felt like we got a little bit muddled in that second quarter and lost our way a little bit. Fought tremendously hard in the second half and the second half looked very different, but it was really that one quarter was a big telling part of the game.”

Gold Coast 7.10 (52) def. GWS Giants 4.9 (33)

Gold Coast coach Rhyce Shaw:

“We’ve had our struggles at the start of the year, some of it our own doing, some of it not. But I felt as though, especially in the first three quarters, we played a brand of footy that we’ve been looking for and what we wanted to see. It was really good to see the girls go out there and execute that. We had a really strong plan, and we knew what we wanted to do, and we did that really well.”

GWS Giants coach Cam Bernasconi:

“They certainly had a crack, but we were pretty disappointed with the result. Same old story for us unfortunately, we can play some really good passages of play and we can do that more consistently now, but just our inability to be clinical in moments. When we go forward we don’t punish sides, especially around clearance and centre bounce, we just give some sides some head starts.

“But no, pretty flat group in there at the moment, and I think we need to be better than this. We’ll have a pretty good review on Monday and probably look at a few things, it’s just our inability to win contests, just costs us every week.”

Carlton 7.7 (49) def. Western Bulldogs 4.9 (33)

Carlton coach Matthew Buck:

“I loved the game. The game challenged us in a different way this week as opposed to last week and we want to play an open, fast brand of footy, and today the Bulldogs to their credit were good enough to get a handle on us in that and so we had to win a different way. They asked us to go into the contest and we probably looked to take the game forward a little bit harder, and off the back of that we managed to score, so proud of our team to be able to adjust in game with how we wanted to play and really glad that they were brave enough to go at it in the first half as well.”

Western Bulldogs coach Tam Hyett:

“I thought we competed really well. Same amount of inside 50s, one less scoring shot, they were much better with ball in hand and probably got us a fair bit on transition. We’ve been competing well around contests and defensively, we probably need to shift the ball off the line a little bit more. We probably kicked too much into their hands and they took advantage, they were really good in the air so disappointing, we’re better than effort and we’re just not finishing off our work at the moments.”

Hawthorn 5.10 (40) def. Euro-Yroke (St Kilda) 2.5 (17)

Hawthorn coach Daniel Webster:

“Yeah it was good, it was very tricky conditions, obviously the wind’s very strong and still a bit blowy now. We didn’t take advantage of it in the first quarter when we had it, and then had to work very hard in the second to get the game on our terms. I thought from there we were pretty solid for the most part.

“But to get four wins early in the season is massive. Especially we’ve obviously had some injury concerns with our list, but one of the benefits is we’ve been able to get a lot of games into our younger players which is awesome. The way they’ve gone about it has been really good. So really solid start, and there’s still plenty of improvement and upside tonight.”

Euro-Yroke coach Nick Dal Santo:

“It was disappointing. We came up here with a goal in mind to play a really solid brand of football and to give maximum effort and we felt like we did that relatively well, we would have been right in the contest. Credit to Hawthorn, they’re a very good football team and we knew that coming in. A lot of the things we prepped for they ultimately did and got on top in a couple of key areas.

“The big one was the contested possession., I think it was plus-26 or 27 off the top of my head. The game’s really difficult when you’re getting smacked in that particular area. It’s now been a few weeks in a row where we’ve lost that particular stat and majority through the midfield so we’ll have to have a look at that next week and for the remainder of the year”

Sydney 9.8 (62) def. Walyalup (Fremantle) 5.7 (37)

Sydney coach Scott Gowans:

“We made some structural changes in the third just to help get the ball forward a little bit longer. I felt we were mucking around with it a little bit around the corridor. That helped, and the other thing was we just lifted our intensity to get to the fall of the ball, so our contest stuff was more about because their pressure was so good we felt like we were being reactive to their pressure rather than us dictating it. We tried to flip that at half-time with some vision, showed some structural stuff and it seemed to work in the third.”

Walyalup coach Lisa Webb:

“That (third quarter) really hurt us so we need to find a way to slow that down a bit. Obviously those four goals hurt us, and we tried to change some things around and obviously couldn’t get on top in the last. There were certainly some positives out of it, the last two weeks have been tough. Came out with a strong plan and strong intent, but we just didn’t execute in crucial moments of the game.”

Kuwarna (Adelaide) def. by Brisbane 6.5 (41)

Kuwarna coach Matthew Clarke:

“We played a pretty good game. The last quarter probably lost control of it a little bit and it lived in our back 50 so eventually we got a bit unlucky, but ultimately Brisbane were good enough to maintain their intensity and if you reflect on the whole game it’s probably 80 minutes of footy where 74 of them were pretty good for us, 72 maybe, but you need 80.”

Brisbane coach Craig Starcevich:

“I was actually impressed with despite the play being pretty scrappy at the end there and just playing a bit of surge footy to get it forward, we were actually really composed and had a few little moments along the way which was really, really pleasing given the nature of the game. We’ve got huge respect for Adelaide obviously, we’ve played a lot of close games against one another and that’s just another chapter in that story really.

“These sort of wins are really good for your footy soul, to come out the other side. Particularly we’ve had an up and down year so far but it’s been super for us today.”

North Melbourne 8.10 (58) def. Collingwood 2.1 (13)

North Melbourne coach Darren Crocker:

“We knew coming into the game they would defend a little bit differently to what we’ve been up against the last couple of weeks. They like to play with a really strong team defence, drop off, hold their shape behind the ball and if you don’t use the ball, if you don’t use your numbers which was difficult especially given the windy conditions, that can cause you a few headaches, but just thought that the longer we persisted and the more we were able to get the ball inside our forward 50, especially if we got it in there quite quickly at times, or the balance between quick and a little bit of composure, we were then able to hit the scoreboard.”

Collingwood coach Sam Wright:

“I think we want to have the foundation of a really strong defensive system. You know though with a side like North Melbourne, arguably the best side that’s played in AFLW, they’re going to test you, and I thought we did really well to be organised and disciplined. Unfortunately against the best sides, things happen a lot quicker.

“Your decisions around the contest have got to be quicker, your decisions with ball in hand have to be quicker, and they’re just so clean around the contest that they really challenged us in that area, but in saying that, there was some really good signs from our defensive system when we managed to set it up really well. But it was a great lesson for us that’s within your control and you need to do it for a full game against the best side in the comp.”

Essendon 4.3 (27) def. by Geelong 8.10 (58)

Essendon coach Nat Wood:

“I thought Geelong came out red hot right from the beginning and we struggled to get our hands on the footy in the first quarter. We had every intent to come out and start the game really strongly and look to win clearances and take it right to them in the first quarter but I think they took the first step with that, and we were on the back foot.

“Contested possession, uncontested possession, time in froward half, they just really dominated, I think credit to our team, we’re a very young team … we were able to regroup at quarter time and asked to adjust a few things that we started to look a little bit better.”

Geelong coach Dan Lowther:

“It’s been a bit of a relief to be fair. We’ve been playing okay but it’s obviously it’s been well publicised and talked about we haven’t been playing well enough for long enough in games. A challenging start with Adelaide and North, and a good game against the Swans, but it was always going to be a chance against a team that was three and zip to show some consistency. I thought today was pretty tricky conditions, it was a nice game to get your first win, so very happy.”

Waalitj Marawar (West Coast) 10.4 (64) def. Yartapuulti (Port Adelaide) 7.3 (45)

Waalitj Marawar coach Daisy Pearce:

“I think just our pressure again across four quarters (I’m most proud of). Our ability to just keep turning up for each other and hanging in when Port Adelaide took their opportunities early. Our ability to keep adjusting in games is getting better and better. When the opposition throws something at us we can identify it and then go back at it, so I thought that was tested today with some of Port Adelaide’s challenges, and our group’s resilience just keeps growing, and good to get the result.”

Yartapuulti coach Lauren Arnell:

“I think we got beaten in the contest unfortunately. I think it was even contested possession at half-time and the Eagles clearly worked harder than we did for longer. Our whole group’s exceptionally disappointed in certainly our second half. I think we believe our ability to compete is better than that, and we didn’t turn up for long enough today.”