ESSENDON picked up its third win of 2024 after narrowly defeating Sydney last night.

It could not have been more different from their massive win on Friday, but Bombers’ coach Nat Wood agrees that the fact her side won both shows resilience.

“We just spoke about that inside actually,” Wood said.

“I think we’re trying to make growth really quickly in a short season, but one of the growths I think we saw tonight was the game was stressful … there’s different stresses to the game, but I think the group really rallied together.

“They were really connected, they were really trying to figure it out, to work through that, and that’s probably something that we hadn’t seen three or four weeks ago, people trying really hard, but sort of doing it on an individual basis.”

Wood also agreed that there was a sense of make or break for her team’s finals hopes heading into last night’s match.

“I guess after the first three weeks internally, we’re really measuring ourselves off  our values and our purpose and each week we drill into a different component of that and that’s really important for us to make sure we get that right,” Wood said.

She also noted that her side is “still halfway through our third year and making sure that whether you’re winning or losing that, that you’re really establishing a strong culture and strong standards, and making sure they translate to actions on the field.”

One of the most impressive Bombers last night was Amy Gaylor, who was on the last line of defence.

“She’s been absolutely fantastic,” Wood said. “She’s really slotted into our defence.”

“For a first year player, I’m not sure I’ve come across a first year player who’s been at the level so consistently for the first sort of five or six games.

“It’s fantastic to see her keep growing and she’s pretty cool, calm and collected, but she’s also really diligent working on her craft, working on a game plan, even the questioning she was just asking me in there, she’s a real astute learner and it’s fantastic to have her in our side.”

Gaylor came through the junior pathways as a midfielder, so a role in defence is new for her.

But Wood revealed that she could have been playing a very different role this season.

“I like to move players around a little bit,” Wood confessed.

“She’s an inside mid, but we probably saw an opportunity early in preseason for her to train as a forward. So she actually spent all preseason learning the forward craft and slotting in, and she was actually doing some like terrific things for us in preseason, her ability to drift into space, and she’s really good overhead.

“But I just kept watching her and the way that she was sort of intercepting balls. It probably was sort of marking balls that weren’t like great kicks in, and then it just sort of became apparent to us that we didn’t have that type of player down back. So it was only in the practice matches that we put her down back, so she’s learning on the job. She’s doing a fantastic job of it.”