{"id":140263,"date":"2023-08-30T12:14:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T02:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/?p=140263"},"modified":"2023-08-30T18:35:13","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T08:35:13","slug":"growth-the-goal-for-baby-hawks-says-skipper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2023\/08\/30\/growth-the-goal-for-baby-hawks-says-skipper\/","title":{"rendered":"Growth the goal for baby Hawks says skipper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AS captain of a fledgling side on the newer end of the AFL Women\u2019s scale, Hawthorn\u2019s captain Tilly Lucas-Rodd<\/a> has growth on their mind ahead of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After an up and down debut season in the competition, Lucas-Rodd said that Hawthorn\u2019s ultimate goal is to continue to build on what the Hawks achieved in Season 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think every club just wants to grow and build, and especially being such a young group and still only in its second season we are just in that in that growth stage,” they said. “We still want to challenge teams, like don\u2019t get me wrong we want to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That\u2019s always an objective is to win as many games as possible and to be competitive but within that we want to see growth as a team, growth in our game plan and growth in individual players so that\u2019s the main thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the Hawks only got a few wins on the board in their debut season, Lucas-Rodd was still pleased with how Season 7 turned out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did have a few wins but also towards the back end we had a few close losses too so we were showing that with time and playing together we really gel\u201d Lucas-Rodd noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was really quite positive at the end of the season. We didn\u2019t probably get as many wins as we would have liked, but we showed that our brand of footy can match it with a few wins and close losses. So yes our brand does work, just having it sustaining it for four quarters and sustaining it across the season is a big thing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving into 2023, and Lucas-Rodd said that this preseason had gone very well for those at Waverley Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think coming into the second year of doing it, it\u2019s much nicer because you have that culture and those connections, so you can kind of focus on the footy and I think a lot of us had big off seasons so we worked really hard in terms of we were in the club a lot, making sure we were getting bigger, stronger, faster, more skills so it was nice to easily transition into preseason,” they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on the stark contrast between her two preseasons in brown and gold, Lucas-Rodd agreed that they were “completely different”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat first year you\u2019re just trying to find your feet and gel a whole bunch of players together,” Lucas-Rodd said. “Thirty people coming from all different walks of life trying to gel them together and also create a game plan and have that be successful is a huge ask on a football club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This one has been I think it\u2019s felt a lot more structured and more calculated and I think as a playing group we\u2019ve really got lots out of it that the coaches wanted us to and also having new personnel like Batesy and Greta have been incredible and have changed the way preseason is going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucas-Rodd and the Hawks picked up some big name new teammates in the offseason, namely former Lions duo Emily Bates<\/a> and Greta Bodey<\/a>, and soccer star Casey Dumont<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucas-Rodd said that the inclusion of Bates and Bodey into the group had been really positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell done to the list management and the Hawthorn Football Club staff in getting those two in because they\u2019re some big names in Batesy and Bodey,” they said. “They\u2019ve both been incredible in driving high performance standards and they know what it takes not just in AFLW but to be successful in it and I think what they\u2019ve brought is invaluable in that sense in how to have sustained success at this level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile the Hawks\u2019 skipper praised Dumont\u2019s willingness to learn a lot in her first foray into a new code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCasey\u2019s incredible in terms of I think I\u2019ve never seen someone seek feedback and want to learn so much, she\u2019ll take anything you give her,” Lucas-Rodd said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Even I was thinking back to the praccy game on the weekend [against Melbourne] she\u2019s asking questions in live play, trying to just soak up as much as she can and she wants to be challenged and she wants to ask questions which is incredible and I think that is probably a big teaching to the players is that this is how you get better and this this is the things you need to do to learn and grow and I think she\u2019s settled in really well. She\u2019s obviously just learning the game, and that\u2019s her big thing is learning the game at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawthorn gets its campaign underway this weekend with a second consecutive Round 1 matchup against Essendon on Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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