ENTERING the second half of the AFL Women’s season, Round 7 had a pair of successful 100-game milestones as well as some tight finishes and the largest ever comeback from three quarter time. Here’s what the 18 AFLW coaches had to say after their respective matches.

Geelong 5.5 (35) def. by Hawthorn 6.6 (42)

Geelong coach Dan Lowther:

“One half of the second half, they played a super second half, their third quarter was really good. I thought their contest and spread to outnumber in between the arcs in particular was really dynamic and we just couldn’t catch them on the hop unfortunately in that second half and we tried hard, they did a great job with their spread as I said but they got some good looks off the back of it in their front 50, took a few marks and kicked accurately again. We’re probably leaving a few out on the ground for us. It was a close, hard game and scoreboard pressure counts for a lot and they took their moment when they had that chance and we didn’t at times, but they worked harder than us in that last half.”

Hawthorn coach Daniel Webster:

“I thought for us our second quarter probably wasn’t as clean and our skills really let us down, and that can be very difficult to turn around and keep your head in the game. I thought our players’ ability to stay committed to what we wanted to do and fundamentally back their skills in was incredibly pleasing for us, and good for them to get reward in the second half and come away with the win. Big for our confidence and sets our season up really nice.”

Melbourne 13.15 (93) def. Gold Coast 0.6 (6)

Melbourne coach Mick Stinear:

“The driving force during the week was to be a four-quarter team, and really pleased I thought it was a really good team effort today, but the attention to detail, the mental effort and physical effort right to the end, that’s what we’re most pleased about. We’d been a little bit inconsistent with our form and ability to play four quarters, so pleased with where we’re at in the season to put together a performance like that. Hopefully that’s a sign of things to come and what we’re capable of as a team if we apply ourselves for the full four quarters.”

Gold Coast coach Rhyce Shaw:

“We just spoke about what’s required at this level and how we bridge that gap more consistently. We’ve shown it in parts of games, we’ve shown it for long periods, we’ve shown it for short periods, and today we didn’t really show it at all. We’re got to find a way to make sure that we come prepared and ready to perform because that’s what the game demands.”

Essendon 6.5 (41) def. by North Melbourne 10.11 (71)

Essendon coach Nat Wood:

“I thought particularly in the first half the pressure around the ball that we were able to generate, our scoreboard pressure, we able to to put on in the first quarter as well. Probably let ourselves down in the third, north were able to get some good metres gained or turnover metres gained when we had the wind. There were parts of the game that we’re pretty happy with, but there’s definitely some parts we’ll go back and review and we can be much better.”

North Melbourne coach Darren Crocker:

“We hadn’t been in that situation for a long time, so it was actually going to be really interesting to see what the group how they felt, and how they responded at that particular moment. We knew the conditions were tricky and that Essendon had the advantage with the wind with the first quarter, but it was really good for our players and our group to just have a reset and go ‘okay that quarter’s gone now, what do we have to do now to get the game looking more like a North game? and what do we need to do to respond?” and I thought in the second quarter they responded really, really well.”

Carlton 5.2 (32) def. Fremantle 3.5 (23)

Carlton coach Matthew Buck:

“Coming off last week’s loss and then the resilience to bounce back and have a solid performance, it was a challenging game right throughout for us. But to come out the winner was a really positive result so overall, got to be pleased with it.”

Fremantle coach Lisa Webb:

“Really disappointed. We gave ourselves every opportunity. Obviously we won a few of the things that we were focusing on pre-game. Contested ball, clearances, but we knew that they’re a very good team and they’re obviously in good form and just disappointed that we didn’t take our moments.”

Western Bulldogs 10.5 (65) def. Collingwood 1.2 (8)

Western Bulldogs coach Tam Hyett:

“I think we’ve been building, there’s been areas of our game that’s been really good, and just finishing off our work hasn’t happened and everything clicked tonight. We’re really good at contest which we’ve been all year, as well as our pressure and defensive acts, but we executed with ball in hand, so that was the pleasing thing.”

Collingwood coach Sam Wright:

“I don’t have all the answers right now, but obviously it’s just bitterly disappointing for us. I say that from a place of we have been progressing and we progressed against the really good sides. We’re still a young developing side, but part of that is building an identity that is really clear when you come and watch us play, that there’s a certain level of effort, there’s a certain level of game system that we play to and we just didn’t show that tonight so I know our players will be disappointed, our fans will be disappointed, but we need to get back to our identity and what that looks like and that wasn’t it tonight.”

St Kilda 8.5 (53) def. Port Adelaide 6.6 (42)

St Kilda coach Nick Dal Santo:

“We knew we needed to score quite a bit and more than we’d kicked for the first three quarters and a few of those things paid off. A good effort, really proud of the girls with their ability to stick to the process and find a way through that, because a lot of it wasn’t going our way for the first three quarters.”

Port Adelaide coach Lauren Arnell:

“It felt like probably for most of the first three quarters we had the game on our terms and we just didn’t show enough of ourselves in that last quarter and so the word consistency keeps popping up for us and at this moment in times it’s incredibly disappointing and we just have to keep finding more ways to improve in those moments and stem momentum of teams when they get a run on like that and so our group’s really disappointed and I thought the first three quarters were mostly on our terms in this game and we just let them play their footy and get on top of us pretty comfortably in that last quarter.”

Adelaide 6.5 (41) def. Sydney 6.3 (39)

Adelaide coach Matthew Clarke:

“I think it was really significant that it was a great game in the 100th game for the club, so I thought Sydney were outstanding and for us to come away in a really tight tussle and get a win and for everyone to be here and enjoy it, couldn’t have got much better day, so I think just the occasion was probably the most important thing about the day and the fact that our players showed up and performed at a really high level. Clearly a two-point game so there was a little bit of luck involved whenever you win by a small margin, but the game itself was impressive.”

Sydney coach Scott Gowans:

“I think it was really significant that it was a great game in the 100th game for the club, so I thought Sydney were outstanding and for us to come away in a really tight tussle and get a win and for everyone to be here and enjoy it, couldn’t have got much better day, so I think just the occasion was probably the most important thing about the day and the fact that our players showed up and performed at a really high level. Clearly a two-point game so there was a little bit of luck involved whenever you win by a small margin, but the game itself was impressive.”

Brisbane 7.12 (54) def. Richmond 3.2 (20)

Brisbane coach Craig Starcevich:

“We spoke about the boys performance yesterday and how long it took them to break the opposition so we took a little bit of that ethos into today. So to be tight at half-time, not quite pressuring the way that we would like but we picked that up in the second half and scoring comes off the back of that. All in all you’ve got to be satisfied with 19 scoring shots to five. If someone had of said prior to the day you’d win by 34 points you’d probably take it.”

Richmond coach Ryan Ferguson:

“I thought the first half was a real arm-wrestle and we had some great momentum at time. We were able to lock it in our half and start to use the ball. First quarter we weren’t able to get deep entries. We were able to mark the ball inside 50, but just a bit too far out, and then second quarter I thought we adjusted that and got some deeper entries and got some scoreboard pressure. But obviously second half when we lost our structure and allowed them to get exit and allowed them to get out, then their run really started to hurt us so that was telling.”

West Coast 11.9 (75) def. GWS Giants 5.3 (33)

West Coast coach Daisy Pearce:

“I thought it was a set up off the back of really strong contest work and then valuing defence. The Giants are a team that can really pull you apart using their runners if you let them, but I thought they were really disciplined defensively so coaches always love it when you focus on defence and you kick a big score, so we’ll take it.”

GWS Giants coach Cam Bernasconi:

“Started really slow and finished even slower. We just looked really reactive today. Just our inability to win post-clearance contest was evident that it wasn’t jut got beat in the midfield or behind the ball, I thought across the field their ability to win their one-v-one was the story.”