ADELAIDE has won through to yet another AFL Women\u2019s Preliminary Final, this time comprehensively beating Fremantle to set up a date with fellow perennial contenders Brisbane next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reflecting on the game post-match, Adelaide coach Matthew Clarke<\/em><\/strong> said that the Crows were \u201crapt\u201d with how the game panned out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI thought that probably the first maybe five minutes, Fremantle just looked a bit sharper out of the blocks, but the group responded really well and just worked their way through,\u201d Clarke said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThen clearly the second quarter broke the game open. From there, you know, it was pretty even tussle. But yeah we\u2019re very happy with that outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was not easy conditions to play in for either side, with the temperature getting up into the mid-30 degrees during the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was tough conditions, absolutely,\u201d Clarke agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think we churned through 47, 48 rotations by three quarter time, so we had to manage that a little bit in the last. “I haven’t got the schedule yet, but I imagine we’ll have a seven-day break and they’re very fit. “They work really hard and so on a seven day break, I don’t see it being a massive issue at all. “And you get to this point in the season, the reality is you’ve done the bulk of the work that you need to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe’ll still train with some intensity on Wednesday, but the rest of the week, we’ll have a fairly recovery based focus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conversion in attack has been an issue for the Crows at times this season, but Clarke says that his side is \u201cgetting there\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat was really pleasing was I thought Caitlin Gould<\/a>‘s game was outstanding, but she got no reward, whereas other weeks she’s been clunking everything,\u201d Clarke said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whereas to their credit, Fremantle defended her really strongly. But her contest enabled our smalls to get into the game. That’s probably something which hasn’t happened a hell of a lot during the course of the season. So that was a nice aspect of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the key clashes in the match was the ruck battle between Jess Allan<\/a> and Mim Strom<\/a>, which Clarke thought \u201cwas still a really good battle\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think they got us in the centre, and we got them around ground stoppage, and then probably the aerial battle was probably about square,\u201d Clarke said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut Jess has had a really strong season, and I know that she was really looking forward to the challenge of playing against a strong opponent. \u201cI don’t know who got the points, but it was significant that Jess had a strong game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n