Ahead of the Sydney Derby, senior coach Scott Gowans spoke to the media. He discussed the side’s loss to Collingwood last week, the rivarly with the Giants and more.
On whether it last weekend’s match was a loss the team needed to have
“Yeah, it’s a good question. The coach in me says yes, but then you don’t know until you see how you respond, you know, you don’t want to take anything away from Collingwood that pressure is what you need and that’s a great thing for the competition, it creates that evenness in the contest and then they’re able to move the ball from it. And we just weren’t, so we dished the pressure back to them, but then we found ourselves not being able to get them into that. So it was a good lesson, but the answer will be on the weekend. If we can correct that and get the ball to the outside from being pressured on the inside, then the answer will be yes.”
On what they have changed this week
“Not a lot. We feel as though our game is in good stead. We’re 4-1, we’re 50% ahead of ninth. We’ve had a great start to the season and the energy in the group has been really great this week. So it really is a matter of just getting the game looking like how we want it. And on the weekend, for a number of reasons, some of it was our own fault that we just couldn’t get it going. So we’ve just got to see how we respond.”
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On how he reflects on changes made last week
“It’s a little bit of both, to be honest. We feel as though our journey is one that we’re just starting as a group. The difference is we’re the most inexperienced side of the competition from game to game. So for that, we have to be on the journey to get to the top. And the way to do that is to have versatility and adaptability. Yes, there’s pieces that hurt us last week, but if you just throw it out now and just go back to traditional, then you’re kind of changing your strategy. So we’re not going to change our strategy, so we’ll keep doing it, knowing that there’ll be bumps along the way. I don’t think we’ve earned the right yet as a team to say that we’re advanced on the journey and we need to hold a certain structure or do a certain thing. So we’ll just keep trying things throughout the year against better sides and against any oppositions below us as well. That’s just part of our strategy. We want to build something that’s sustainable. So we’ll stick to that and then knowing that at times it is going to hurt us in games. It probably did on the weekend and that’s fine. Everyone wants to win, we absolutely want to win. We’ve spoken about grand final league and preparing for that. That doesn’t change either. The only thing that really changes is just how we respond.”
On Julie O’Sullivan
“She just came out of surgery about half an hour ago. So I know she’s just waking up, it all went well. Big loss for us. She’s structurally a very sound player for us. Brings the intensity and effort and just an experienced athlete as well. Jules will, like you’d pick anyone to do the recovery to the letter, it’s going to be her. She’ll tap in with Chloe Molloy and see the journey she was on and what she did. The pleasing thing is we were able to get her in nice and early. She didn’t have to wait four or five weeks for the swelling to go down. That’s a great result because that’ll mean she’ll come back at some stage next year.”
On Sofia Hurley
“She won’t play this weekend, Sof’s had a minor setback, nothing to do with her foot. It’s just part of the process with that when you’re trying to put load back into them, other things can get niggly. She’s just got a little niggle and it’s just not worth the risk, she’s only a week or two away. I suppose it’s just where we’re at. It seems funny talking about it for the week we had, but we are in a good position. We’re going to use that to our advantage and not push things with Sof.”
On the derby
“We always look forward to playing the Giants, I’m sure it’s the same for them as well. The story will be in the contest, traditionally they’re close games. The crowd will be unbelievable, we’re expecting over 6,000 people. It’s going to be a beautiful day, it’s really important people come down to the game as well, so we can get these extra games into our season as a W industry. We feel we do our bit, and the Giants are on the journey for that, and that’s fine, it’ll be a great game. I think it’s going to be 23 or something like that. It’s a nice day, bring the family down, come watch the footy.”
On whether the loss to Collingwood was a once-off performance
“I thought Collingwood brought the pressure, but so did Fremantle and Geelong. They tried to do the same thing we got over top of them, it’s just the weekend, we put the cherry on top by not moving out of the contest the way we should. On reflection, the team meeting was really good on the review, and we showed examples of how it should look. We went out and trained it during the week, and it looked really good, it’s a matter of doing that. What it does do, besides bring the contest to us and try to pressure us at that level and get stuck with that, then we will open up the space very quickly and score quickly, which is what happened with Fremantle and Geelong. With Collingwood going, we just didn’t have those momentum swings because we just didn’t do what structurally we should do.”
On whether the side’s recent slow sides have been a talking point
Not really, we discussed it. Our Round One and Two were fine. Then we had a little bit of a lull during the game. We haven’t got four quarters together, which was more the focus. The Geelong and Fremantle games were slow.
The weekend was slow, so instead of three out of the games, two of them were fine. We haven’t really addressed it as anything other than we just need to start well to play four quarters. That’s our big focus. We just want an even spread of contest, ball movement and then a really solid team defence for four quarters. That process alone should keep you in most games and hopefully kick out quickly and score more than the opposition, it sounds basic, but to be honest, that’s what it is.”
Sydney takes on GWS at Henson Park this Sunday afternoon, with the first bounce at 1.05pm.
By turning up you’ll be changing her game. To increase the length of the AFLW season to 14 games, we need to grow our crowds to 6,000 attendees per match. Bigger crowds mean more footy, and who doesn’t want that?
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