FINALS spots were earned and others dashed in an intriguing weekend of action. Here’s what the 18 AFL Women’s coaches had to say following their respective Round 11 matches.

Adelaide 6.9 (45) def. by Port Adelaide 7.10 (52)

Adelaide coach Matthew Clarke:

“Obviously disappointing. I thought we fought it out strongly in the last quarter and gave us some chances but through the late second and obviously the third quarter they pretty much owned the game and that put us in a situation where we were having to chase pretty hard.”

Port Adelaide coach Lauren Arnell:

“Obviously really pleased and amazingly proud of our group. It’s obviously the fourth Showdown and to win this one and to have the game on our terms for the majority and sustain a lot of heat in the game I thought showed a really sign of maturity from our players.”

Sydney 6.7 (43) def. West Coast 3.8 (26)

Sydney coach Scott Gowans:

“Obviously very happy with the win, it was really important that we came out and pulled all the levers that we needed to pull to get the game done. West Coast threw a few things at us and we were able to counteract that pretty well I thought and that’s been a bit of a growth for us this year so I’m really pleased with that.”

West Coast coach Daisy Pearce:

“Disappointing result. You come here to win and its always disappointing when you don’t get the result, but there was some positives. I thought we were able to turn the game into a real contest which we were hoping for.

“Sydney can be quite threatening when they get their uncontested offensive game going, and there were periods of the game where we felt like it looked like our game. Probably the disappointing thing was our inability to take chances that we created for us, and when you’re away from home, its so important to be clean and take your moments and to Sydney’s credit, they just did it better than us.”

Essendon 3.8 (26) def. by Hawthorn 7.14 (56)

Essendon coach Nat Wood:

“Particularly in the first half I thought we were right in the game, we were winning contested possessions, winning groundballs, winning clearances particularly in the first quarter, so got the game looking how we wanted to, getting good number of inside 50s. In the first quarter a good number of front half intercepts as well, good number of shots on goal as well.

“Not the goals that perhaps we would have liked, and then probably late in the second quarter and then the second half I thought Hawthorn’s ability to stay in the game cognitively and physically was more superior than ours but the girls stayed really connected, stayed to the purpose of what we were trying to do, we just got outclassed by a much better team.”

Hawthorn coach Daniel Webster:

“I thought our work rate in the second half definitely picked up. I didn’t think it was at the level it needed to be in the first half and especially defensively. We gave them too many uncontested possessions which i think they were well on top of in that first half.

“Lot of that type of stuff, just get the basics of the game obviously with the rain meant that the inside game was really important and our defence as well because I thought we were moving the ball pretty well we just couldn’t get our hands on it enough. So I thought the way we picked up and really got to work in the second half was really pleasing.”

Fremantle 8.10 (58) def. Richmond 2.2 (14)

Fremantle coach Lisa Webb:

“One of these games against Richmond’s always going to be hard, we know they’re a fierce team and its one you can kind of look past at times and I’m really glad we know how important these wins are to bank a few in a row and I didn’t want the girls looking too far ahead which they never have, and credit to them.

“We stayed in first quarter, second quarter and every team we’ve come up against we’ve had to fight really hard. We don’t get wins too easily to be honest, so for them to stay on task and be really brave and keep attacking the game is something I’m really pleased with.”

Richmond coach Ryan Ferguson:

“I was pretty disappointed in our first half. First quarter was a bit of an armwrestle early, but they started to flex their muscle and outwork us and get territory and lock us in in our own half. Second quarter we lost our way a little bit, structurally lost our way, got outworked, just weren’t playing our brand of footy.

“I liked the response after half-time, I thought the third quarter was really strong, we got territory, we looked more assured, we looked stronger, we looked tougher, we were executing bolder with our ball movement, so there was a lot of things in the first half that didn’t look like us. The response after half-time was fantastic, but you obviously don’t want it to get to that point. In saying that, a really strong team that’s going to ask questions of you.”

Brisbane 6.9 (45) def. Melbourne 5.6 (36)

Brisbane coach Craig Starcevich:

“It’s up there, that’s one of our better wins and to get three behind at half-time and come back strongly in the third quarter and finish it off at the end, that was pretty impressive.

Melbourne coach Mick Stinear:

“Disappointed we lost still, but reflecting holistically on the game, Brisbane deserved to win. They jumped at the start, they put on a great event tonight, being a good celebration of women’s footy, we would have loved to be on the other side of it. It’s a spot on comment, that felt like finals footy, a really good lesson for us. We’ll be a better team from tonight. There’s a few key areas we need to sharpen up on, but well done to Brisbane, they deserve the win tonight.

Western Bulldogs 3.8 (26) def. by Geelong 6.1 (37)

Western Bulldogs coach Tam Hyett:

“It was disappointing, I think we’ve been poor with our starts this year for the majority of the year and it was a real big focus, so to give up three goals in the first five minutes in these conditions really, really hurst you. We were just chasing tail for the rest of the game trying to make it up. To the girls’ credit the resilience and the fight was there, but we just left the game too late.”

Geelong coach Dan Lowther:

“It was a fast start, (as for) finals chances, we’ll try and keep winning which is the main thing for us, but a fast start, first three goals of the game really set a tone for us to put some scoreboard pressure which we haven’t done for a while in that regard. That was a really promising start and sign for us, and then for us to maintain that for an extended period was really pleasing, so the girls were really pumped.”

North Melbourne 9.13 (67) def. St Kilda 3.3 (21)

North Melbourne coach Darren Crocker:

“I thought it was a really strong start by the girls. Controlled the first quarter, Saints really challenged us in the second quarter, there was a bit of a breeze blowing to that bottom end throughout the game. Then we reset at half-time and then I thought the second half again it was a really tight game in the second half, but it was nice to be able to put it away and get it done.”

St Kilda coach Nick Dal Santo:

“They’ve been clearly the best team in the competition for a couple of years, and that’s been obvious for the reasons the way they play their football in all phases of the game. We came here well aware of their brand of football and then the next stage is and the greatest challenge is trying to stop it.

“Full credit to them, and we’re going to get some awesome learnings out of this. When you play against the best, you get to challenge yourself and test yourself in different areas. There will be lots that we take out of that, some great learnings, we’ll try and implement it in seven days time when we go back home and take on the Dogs.”

Carlton 12.9 (81) def. GWS Giants 5.5 (35)

Carlton coach Matthew Buck:

“I mean Giants are a proud side and came back out with something to prove, so good on them. I thought we played some amazing footy today, and to bounce back from last week and the last couple of games to be honest. We know our best footy can stack up and we saw some of that today.

“On top of that, we asked some people to do some things that they done haven’t all year, Dayna Finn goes into the midfield and has a career-best day. I think 20 contested possessions and 500 metres gained is an incredible output from a single player, but above all our team brand particularly our offence early I was really proud of.  You’ll review it like you do it all, I think we held them to five goals which overall we’re taking that every day of the week.”

GWS Giants coach Cam Bernasconi:

“Thank god for the lightning. To be the honest, we changed a few things personnel wise so we threw Jess Doyle forward, brought Brodee Mowbray around the ball, so a little bit of personnel change, and then that worked really well for us, but I just think as a collective the girls were just a bit more proactive.

“Momentum was really against us, and to Carlton’s credit, I thought they were terrific in a high pressure game and our fundamentals we just looked a bit panicky. Think we had a little bit of a reset and we were a bit more assertive and I thought we played some really good footy post that little break but there’s a big gap between our best and worst.”

Gold Coast 3.6 (24) def. by Collingwood 5.9 (39)

Gold Coast coach Rhyce Shaw:

“We went in with a good plan, had a pretty tough week after our last game and tried to build on some of the things that we thought we could expose Collingwood with, and we thought we did that for periods of time again.

“It’s just that little bit of polish and little bit of finish to get the reward for all our hard work. If you look at the stats, footy’s such a funny game, you win so many stats and you don’t win the stat that matters the most which is the one on the scoreboard. From my point of view we come out in the last quarter and have 14-7 inside 50s and they score six times and we score zero, so essentially that’s the game.”

Collingwood coach Sam Wright:

“We talk about progression a lot, developing side that we are. Progress in so many different ways, but in the end footy does come back to winning so. it was unbelievable to get the win today. I thought the way the game played out, it was a bit of an armwrestle just talking to Shawry there.

“Especially in the contest, thought both sides really fought in the contest and we just felt we had to reset the game at three quarter time, make a couple of adjustments around the ball but I thought our players were so compliant in that last quarter and once they got the momentum you could see the enjoyment coming back into footy. I thought the fight was unbelievable by the players to get over the line.”