ESSENDON made it four wins in a row in the AFLW last night with a comfortable win over the Western Bulldogs out at the Whitten Oval.

After it was all said and done, Bombers coach Nat Wood described the result as “a really gritty win”.

“We had the wind in the first quarter, and they put a couple of players back spare and we look to try and combat that, look to try and go around that a little bit, try to use our ball use, got some good looks, but not to great effect,” Wood said.

She was also surprised in the second quarter when the Bulldogs had the wind, that they were still putting numbers behind that ball.

“(That) told us pretty clearly that that’s what they wanted to do and really sort of clog up our ability to score,” Wood said.

“It took us a little bit to work through it. We tried a couple of different things, really tried to get a bit more movement and ball use through. But, you know, off the back of four games in 15 days, I think our finesse and our touch was probably not as good as it could be, and the Bulldogs pressure was quite good.” ‘

Speaking of fatigue, Wood agreed that the fatigue brought on by the condensed fixture played a part in how last night’s match was played out.

“Oh no doubt, you know, four games in 15 days, the travel to Gold Coast and just us not being used to playing in 30 degree weather,” Wood said.

“But to the group’s credit, whilst they might have been a bit physically fatigued at times, I thought early we probably missed a little spring in our step and a little bit reactionary. But the resilience and I guess the endurance and the perseverance of the group to stick to task and to work through that means to me that there’s a level of coping through this stressful time.”

Wood also said that there were a number of things she took away from the match, citing that “we’ve had a really strong focus on our culture more specifically our purpose, like what our purpose statement for this season was, and we’ve been able to work on the different facets of that each week with a real strong focus on the actions and behaviours that sit behind that.”

Because of this, Wood said that her team now has “a lot of confidence in terms of how we want to go about our football, how we want to go about our weeks”.

“We’ve got a nine day break now, so a good opportunity for the players to refresh and rejuvenate, but then also be really ready to switch on to the task at hand at training,” she said.