Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell said she was proud of the group’s response against the Western Bulldogs, crediting her young side’s ability to implement learnings from the loss against the Saints.
Speaking to the media at Alberton before travelling to Brisbane, Arnell also touched on team selection, the return of Piper Window, and how she’s preparing her side for the Lions clash on Saturday night.
She also reflected on the evenness of the competition this season and outlined her goals for the remaining home-and-away games.
Arnell on team selection and injuries
“Piper Window has come up nicely from a training incident about a week ago. It's interesting - the incident would have probably led to needing syndesmosis surgery, but because she had surgery earlier in the year, it all held together really nicely. She ran around Tuesday and looks pretty good, and we're relatively confident she'll play this weekend. A couple of injuries have come out of that Bulldogs game a bit later in the week. Abbey Dowrick and Kirsty Lamb haven't come up as well as we would have liked post-game, so there's an opportunity there for Piper and another player to come in.”
“I think the competition's evened out a fair bit this year. And so, with any game missing two players who performed their role last week - and Abbey (Dowrick), who certainly has had a strong season, and Kirsty (Lamb), who is in our leadership group - those two will have an impact being out of our side, but I think it creates great opportunity. What we've found this year with a whole number of injuries that haven't really gone our way is that it’s created great opportunity for our players who are healthy, and it will do that again this week.”
Arnell on the win against the Western Bulldogs
“I think it was so important for our group, and I'm really proud of them. Obviously, the fourth quarter against St Kilda wasn't what we were after. For our crew, learning that quickly and implementing the learning so quickly is something to be proud of, and a big step forward for our group. I think if we talk about the Saints’ last quarter, we should talk equally about the Bulldogs’ fourth quarter - I think that's important. The players showed enormous growth in such a small space of time, and that comes from belief and real trust amongst the playing group.
“How we want to conduct ourselves when things are going our way and when things are not has been something we've been working on for a long period of time, and particularly last year. I believe really strongly that’s what gave us that win against Hawthorn in a semifinal. It's been a little bit up and down at times this year, but to respond after something we were really disappointed with in that last quarter against St Kilda and get back to what we know in seven days is something to be proud of.”
Arnell on preparing for the upcoming Brisbane Lions clash
“Craig Starcevich coached his 100th game last week, Breanna Koenen plays her 100th game this week. There's some serious experience there, and a team who have always set the standard in AFLW, so we can't wait to have a crack at them. As I said earlier, the competition's evened out a fair bit this year, and obviously up at Springfield on the Lions’ home deck, it's a really healthy challenge for us, and our group's always been good when we've had those types of challenges in front of us. So, we're really looking forward to it.”
Arnell on the ladder and the remaining games of the home and away season
“I think the most important thing is to look after what's ahead of us this weekend. We've played eight games of footy; we only play 11 other teams in the season. So, with how the ladder stacks up, it will be clear in the next fortnight. We'll give ourselves every chance.”
