CARLTON had returned to the AFL Women’s finals series following a Round 12 victory over West Coast in Perth on Friday night. The Blues will enter the post-season series for the first time under coach Matthew Buck, following an inspirational 20-point win at Sullivan Logistics Stadium.

“Super thrilled and proud of our group,” Buck said post-match. “It’s been a journey I guess over the three years I’ve had the position, that we’ve chased so much and it started with our high performance habits.

“Credit to our players the way they look after themselves, and Steve Moore our high performance manager sets them up to get them here and we had pretty much a full list to pick from tonight as well so it’s a super proud coach at the moment.”

The two sides were level at three quarter time before Carlton booted four unanswered goals in the last term to record a memorable 6.6 (42) to 3.4 (22) result and ensure a home elimination final.

“We have chased our preparation and making sure that we live the lifestyle of an elite footballer when we’re at the football club and when we’re away and that’s come all the way into this season and they recover just like really professional athletes that they are,” Buck said. “It’s hats off to the players, they look after themselves so well and they’re well educated by our high performance staff which has been fantastic and we see the results of that tonight.”

The Carlton coach said the game was as contested as he expected it to be, and it was just some crucial decisions by the players that went the Blues way in the final term to be the difference.

“It was a really heavy contest game and we probably knew it was always going to be,” Buck said. “We’re pretty evenly matched with the West Coast side and we thought if we could continue to apply that pressure around the football then eventually we might be able to break it open and I thought Erone Fitzpatrick in the last quarter really showed her class ahead of the ball and managed to hit the scoreboard, and the experience of Tara Bohanna was important as well.”

For the first time in quite a few years, Carlton fans can look forward to getting a taste of November finals action and Buck said he hoped to see the supporters pack out Ikon Park.

“We’ll play at our home, our team we know that, so really proud of our team that has been able to manage to get themselves into the finals series to start with, but to do it with a home final now I think we can settle on that, is really fantastic,” he said.

“We’re looking forward to all the Bluebaggers supporters getting down there. Even tonight we could feel the support, we have such a strong supporter base here in WA, so to have that tonight is fantastic, but to have that at Ikon Park next week will be thrilling for everyone.”