Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell has reflected on the key takeaways from the club’s trial game against Adelaide, as she prepares her side for this Sunday’s final pre-season practice match against Collingwood.
Speaking to the Adelaide media, Arnell discussed the importance of building consistency ahead of Round 1, fostering maturity and leadership within the young playing group, and what fans can expect from the team this weekend.
Arnell on the trial game against Adelaide
“It was nice to see some good progress off the back of a really strong pre-season from our group. I think you spend so many weeks training against each other; there is naturally a point in time during pre-season where our players just need to play against opposition and test some new elements of our game style while also returning to the brand of footy that our people would be used to. It was nice to see some progress with the things we've been working on. There has certainly been a development in our offence and some strong contest work against a good opposition.”
“The Crows are a three-time premiership team, so for us during the trial game, we wanted to see our younger players get some good minutes in their legs, and we saw that from both teams. We’re quite balanced coming out of it, but there is some real positivity about the style that we saw from our group.”
Arnell on the growth and maturity in the young playing group
“The players are very good at giving me feedback. I'm finding a growing level of maturity in our very young group this year, and a big focus for us has been on collaboration between both players, and players and coaches on-field and off-field. During the trial game, players from the midfield were telling the backline what they needed as we went into halftime. Those are moments in a very young group at AFLW level that we’re only just starting to see grow and be effective – it was a really pleasing part of the weekend.”
“When you come and watch us play, you can expect a certain brand of footy, but it’s the smaller things behind the scenes that our supporters don’t see that are just as important. And as a coach, it’s those little moments that we're going to develop. That then leads into how consistent we can be with those processes that we develop. What we saw in the first trial game was really positive, and the challenge for us for the rest of the season is going to be how consistent we can be in our growth.”
Arnell on developing and maintaining consistency
“We hope that we can start the year off consistent and then maintain that. But we also understand we're playing against Fremantle in round one and North Melbourne in round two, and we've not beaten either team before. There is a nice little challenge for us this weekend in how much consistency we can build from both our trial game (against Adelaide) and the practice match against Collingwood, and then how we use that in the first couple of weeks in the season.”
“We've still only played between 30 and 35 games as a whole team, and we've got a nice core group who've played most of those games together now. We've added some younger players in the last 12 to 24 months, so for me it's about - as a team - what are our processes, and how consistent can we be in the growth we know we've built against each other in the pre-season.”
Arnell on what fans can expect this weekend
“This weekend will be a mixture of what our best team might look like and getting some more time in the legs of some of our younger players and those who've had an interrupted pre-season.”
Arnell on Justine Mules-Robinson’s role as captain
“Juzzy (Justine Mules-Robinson) played as well as I’ve seen her play on the weekend. She's played some ripping games for us, and her trial game against the Crows on the weekend was as good as she's been. Playing that high half-forward role is really challenging for anyone, and she's certainly gone away and worked on her fitness, and she's taken that to another level in the off-season. As one of the most experienced players in our team, to have been able to put that body of work together, she’s really led the way for our young group. Sometimes being a leader, or a captain, is not for everyone, but clearly it is for her. One thing I will say is the role that she plays on the field - some games she'll have 20 touches, and in others she'll have five. But her execution and the way that she goes about her role won't be different. I'm really pleased with our skipper and how she went about last week.”
Arnell on new recruit Ella Heads and the new draftees’ performance
“All our new players showed some really positive signs. Obviously, Ella Heads is a very experienced player coming out of Sydney and still only 21 herself, so that's really exciting. Chloe Gaunt is only 18, and I think we've seen strong signs that she’s settling into our program. Having genuine opposition for Chloe unlocked some real competitiveness that we loved seeing on the weekend. Lily (Paterson) and Jasmine (Sowden) are two players that have shown plenty of potential in the pre-season period and showed really good signs in the first trial against the Crows.”
