AFTER a disappointing effort against Melbourne in Round 1, Western Bulldogs coach Tam Hyett said she was proud of what her young side did to bounce back when it defeated Richmond by 21 points at Ikon Park last Sunday.

After being neck-and-neck throughout the first three quarters – but staying a goal clear for the most part, two majors within 90 seconds to Heidi Woodley and Isabelle Pritchard insured the daughters of the west came away with the 6.6 (42) to 3.3 (21) victory.

Hyett said the two separate halves were different in nature, but it was about digging deep, and then eventually getting the reward in the form of four points to kick-start the Bulldogs’ season.

“We thought we were doing a lot right in the first half, and I think we were able to finish off our work in the second half,” she said. “Really good nourishment for the group because they’ve put in a mountain of work in the off-season and we know we’ve got a fair bit to go, but really good nourishment for them.”

In the Round 1 loss to the Dees, the Dogs conceded almost 300 disposals (298) while having 243 themselves. Despite only having one more touch in Round 2, the tempo of the game and pressure around the ball meant Richmond only had 196 on Sunday. Remarkably, the Bulldogs had identical contested and uncontested possessions in both games (119 apiece), but beat the Tigers in the respective stats by 16 and 32 respectively after similar deficits against the Dees.

The Bulldogs managed to stick more tackles against the Tigers, which was a notable positive for the coach.

“We were really disappointed with our tackling (in Round 1), and more the efficiency, we missed a lot of tackles,” Hyett said. “The girls are a pretty proud group, so our ability to hunt the opponent was really good.”

One change made from Round 1 was sending Elisabeth Georgostathis into the centre bounce to tag Monique Conti. While Conti still got her hands on the ball with 21 touches and five clearances, 14 of them were contested and she only had two inside 50s which was a credit to Georgostathis.

“We call her the ‘junkyard dog’, she’s pretty ruthless at the contest and we know how damaging Mon premier midfielder can be around stoppages so that was in our planning during the week and I thought she did a great job,” Hyett said. “I thought Mon still had 20-odd touches but the ability that they were all under pressure so didn’t have too many clean ones, so Lizzo did a good job.

The biggest change for Hyett between Rounds 1 and 2 was the “failure to execute”. While she noted the Dogs came up against a “bloody good side” in Melbourne. While still noting areas such as cleanliness as ways to improve, Hyett was pleased with with progression.

“We knew that our first half was okay, but execution wise we probably weren’t really that clean today,” she said. “I think we can still improve in that area, but our ability to get time in forward half and then the second half being able to capitalise on that. “We probably didn’t capitalise on that in the first half.

“I thought there were some really good signs of maturity late, by even the younger players, but also Alice (Edmonds) taking control in the air and slowing things down, so I’m just pleased as I said, the girls have been working really hard. “We know we’ve got a long way to go, but some good nourishment and reward.”

Richmond coach Ryan Ferguson described the game as a “tough” watch, because he thought the girls looked “low on confidence” and nothing seemed to work on the day.

“We just didn’t feel like we ever got anything going and the plans we went into the game we either didn’t execute consistently, or we didn’t have opportunities to execute,” he said. “But because our fundamentals were poor we gave away too many free kicks, we dropped marks when we were out, we fumbled and then we didn’t have the chance to use the space, so it just felt like we could never really get anything to get going.

“The fact is we’ve got what we need, we’ve got the weapons that we need, we’ve got the game that we need, we just need to take accountability for ourselves and our team. “We’re in this together and we can turn it around really quickly, but we’ve just got to make sure that we do that and commit to that.”

Richmond has a quick turnaround to change its fortunes, having landed in Darwin for tomorrow night’s clash against Essendon to kick off the first of the Indigenous Rounds. The Western Bulldogs also face an unbeaten side, heading back to Whitten Oval where they take on Hawthorn on Saturday night.