IN HIS third season at the helm, Matthew Buck has added a finals win to his CV, as his Carlton side broke through for its first AFL Women’s post-season victory in five years after knocking off West Coast at Ikon Park on Saturday. It seems like a lifetime ago that the Blues won at the same venue, defeating Brisbane by 29 points prior to the global pandemic and the finals series being called off.
Since then, Buck has replaced coach Daniel Harford, and the 2019 grand finalists are two wins away from returning to the biggest stage. There is a long way to go though, but despite Hawthorn and Brisbane standing in the way of the Navy Blues, Buck said he more than happy to let the players enjoy their elimination final win.
“You feel the fans when the Blues win,” he said. “We had a great crowd here considering the weather and already I think about next week with another game here at Ikon Park and can’t wait to feel the fans come in again. Got an ecstatic playing group in the shed who have performed really strongly today so super proud of them and happy for them to soak it right up.”
Despite the time passed since the Blues were in the finals, there was a finals-like physicality about the home side as they overcame the blue and gold for the second consecutive week, this time by 41 points, 9.6 (60) to 2.7 (19).
“We knew there’d be an intensity uplift and we wanted that to come from us,” Buck said. “The weather conditions certainly leant itself to the contest and that’s how we’ve built out our the whole way we want to play, it absolutely starts at the contest.
“We’ll get Abbie McKay and Maddy Guerin and Mimi Hill goes through there and Keeley Sherar leads the way for us as well. Just their ability to hunt the opposition and the ball when its there to be won is just outstanding so and then you’ve got your two rucks that follow it up. Breann (Harrington) leaves a hole every time she goes for it and Goody’s (Jess Good) just as good so it’s all credit to the players around that.”
Carlton did not have it all its own way during the match, only leading by eight points at half-time and only scored one behind in the second term as the Eagles edged closer after a scoreless opening quarter. Buck said the message at half-time was to “stick to our process”.
“You’ve just got to take your moments in the game and we thought if we could get our contest right and continue to take the game forward,” he said. “You obviously had to play the conditions really strongly, but I thought in our third quarter we excelled with the way we way played in the conditions and turned up the contest really strongly but that was the message.”
Carlton takes on Hawthorn at Ikon Park on Saturday night for a spot in the preliminary final.