A REFOCUS on the “small things” helped Richmond pick up its first win of the AFL Women’s season according to coach Ryan Ferguson. After leading in both their matches in the opening fortnight, the Tigers were overrun by opponents Geelong and Adelaide, but were able to post a comfortable 35-point win over newcomers Hawthorn.

“We’ve been working to it for a while and playing some really good footy but not quite getting scoreboard result so obviously good just to get the first win,” Ferguson said. “We focused on all the small things which is a pretty good song by the way. It was bigger with the rain in the second half, it was just get down and get dirty and work really hard. That was the focus and good to come away with the win.”

Richmond did the bulk of its work early, slotting four goals to one in the opening half to lead by 17 points, before the game became much more of an “arm wrestle”. To the Tigers’ credit, they still managed to boot 3.2 to 0.2 and run out impressive winners at Punt Road Oval. Ferguson said it was credit to Hawthorn who was willing to fight for the full four quarters.

“Just got to respect the opposition, because there’s not many teams who are going to give it to you your own way for a full game and if you engage in the scrap, engage in the fight and stick to our game and trust our game that we feel like we’re a good enough team to eventually overwhelm and get the score on the board,” he said.

In terms of some individual stars, Monique Conti had a day out collecting 23 disposals, two marks, five clearances and slotting three goals in the win. The talented midfielder worked both ways as per usual, impressing coach Ferguson.

“(Conti) put some pressure on, lay some tackles but when the time’s right our mids have got to get dangerous, and they did today,” Ferguson said. “So it was good to see Grace Egan getting forward, even Eilish (Sheerin) off the back flank. If there’s times to attack we’ve got to attack. It was good to see some players putting pressure on the opposition.”

Young gun Ellie McKenzie also stepped up, recording 17 disposals, five marks, one goal and an impressive 305 metres gained in the wing.

“We thought she had really high impact today with the ball, without the ball, strong in the air, strong on the ground and again set up our first two goals,” Ferguson said. “Gave us real impetus in the game and then finished strong, so really happy with her impact.”

Inside 50, forward Courtney Wakefield also hit the scoreboard with a major from 12 disposals, six marks and five tackles, providing a contest each time she attacked the ball in the air.

“I thought she was getting better and better just providing a reliable contest up forward and sometimes they’ll end up in goals and multiple goals and sometimes it’s just giving us that consistency that the smalls can get at her feet. She’s putting together a good little block of footy,” Ferguson said.

Richmond will take on Essendon in Round 4 on Sunday, September 18 from 2:10pm at ETU Stadium.