HAWTHORN coach Daniel Webster conceded his side was just beaten by a better outfit and that the brown and gold could take “lots of positives” out of the 39-point AFL Women’s qualifying final defeat to North Melbourne. The Roos kicked away in the final stanza with three goals to nil, but ultimately the Hawks were able to keep the raging premiership favourites to two goals for three quarters.

“I thought we battled well especially for three quarters and then we just kind of ran out of bullets there at the end and players obviously going down,” Webster said. “I think at one point towards the end of the third quarter we had one person on the bench so it was looking a bit dicey.

“But I thought the way we fought it out was actually pretty good. “We tried some different things and I thought the look of the game was not too bad. Still some execution stuff we need to tidy up, but they’re a very good side. They pressure well, they use the ball well, they’re physical, they’re strong, and again I thought three quarters we were right there, it was just that last little bit that hurt a little bit.”

Hawthorn was the walking wounded with Emily Everist (concussion test) Aine McDonagh (knee) and Kaitlyn Ashmore (calf) going down. Everist passed and returned as did McDonagh – despite being a little proppy – for the last quarter, while Ashmore missed the entire second half and looks the most serious of the three. When asked if the reduced fitness levels and availabilities affected the end result, Webster was staunch.

“Absolutely… I think we still gave ourselves looks though,” he said. “There was periods in the game where we were quite dominant with territory but we just couldn’t get on the scoreboard so it’s been a bit of a common problem for us and something we’ve been working hard on. We just need to get better.”

Despite players “going down like flies” in the the third term, Webster said it was arguably his side’s best quarter for the match, and the middle two terms provided plenty of positives, keeping the Roos to just 1.4 in that time.

“I thought the second and third quarter we were quite good,” he said. “A lot of the numbers were actually pretty good in our favour, we just can’t get bang for buck around what we’re trying to achieve. Again there’s a lot of positives in that sense, but again they’re very good defensively, they get numbers back, they work very hard, they just do everything well unfortunately.”

The elephant in the room was the fact Hawthorn’s top four finish last season ended in a straight sets exit. When asked if there would be any lingering effects from that disappointment, it was a definite “no” from the Hawks coach.

“We’ve moved on past that, it’s all about again constantly we’re trying to get better as a football club, as a program, so next week’s just another opportunity for us to win our first final,” Webster said.

“As I said, I think there was a lot of positives for us in today’s game so we’ll do what we normally do and we’ll get to work and get better. I thought a lot of parts of our game held up and you’d like to think our players are going to be better for the run and we’re looking forward to next week and go again.”