On the AFLW Round 1 win:
"It was a great win, a really good club night to see supporters out here. I don’t know whether I should be saying this, but it feels like the home of women’s football at IKON Park and everyone did such a great job. Seeing the whole team out there plus the win was fantastic, playing a really powerful brand of football. It was a great start to the season."
On Sam Walsh's return:
"He’s fit, he’s been scratching at my door trying to get that opportunity. That’s a great sign when you’ve got one of your leaders that wants to get out there, see it through, be part of it and be energised by some of the things he’s seeing.
"Some of the younger players, what they’ve been able to do and the influence they’re having, we’ve been energised by that. He’s really keen to see out the season strong, he’s ready to go so we’ll play him.
"It’s a huge lift: even just saying he’s in the team, the boys get up and about by having him back. He’s pretty excited about playing and to use it as a launching pad for his pre-season."
On Mitch McGovern:
"He’s still well and truly live. It more leans into how positive we’ve been with how the players have been playing in the defensive half, we’ve been able to introduce some new talent in that area and they’ve been quite settled in the last little period of time. There’s nothing wrong with earning your right on the way back in.
"The conversations I’ve had with him is he’s been excited by what he’s been seeing, but he’s also desperate to play. We’ve got two games in a short period of time, so we have to weigh that up as well."
On what the team can still gain:
"You can look at these periods of time through the year when finals aren’t what you’re going to be part of, you can settle yourselves up and launch yourselves for what’s to come next. We’ve taken that on. It took a couple of weeks to get our head around the disappointment of what it was going to look like at the end of the season, but now we look at where the opportunities lie and how we want to finish off the season.
"One thing I’ve learned about this game is you don’t wish games away, you don’t kick them down the road. You cherish that moment, and it’s an opportunity for us to work on something, get better, get something out of it and hopefully that launches us into pre-season."
On building the team's depth:
"The way the year has unfolded, one of the areas coming in was our depth. Over the last little period of time, we’ve been able to get games into younger players who at the start of the year we may not necessarily have been AFL ready. Through development, coaching and them wanting to get better, they’ve found their way into the senior team and been able to establish themselves.
"We’ve got to expect some error and some mistakes as they continue to grow in their roles and their identity within the team - you absorb that, but the investment for us is the short-term and what we want to be able to change now but also an eye on the future.
"What I hope this means is there’s enough people on this list that are energised and feel really close about being in the best team, what it looks like going forward and that only moves us forward and makes it a really compelling pre-season."
On Brad Lloyd:
"The relationship between the GM of football and the coach is pretty close. All I’ve ever received from Lloydy is amazing support, a calm head and thoughtfulness. He’s an absolute pro and I know there’ll be another part of his journey that he’ll go to - I hope that’s in football and he gets another opportunity.
"Disappointed to hear the news, but respect the direction we need to go as a club and we’ll get the next person in to lead us through our next part."
On last time the Blues met the Power:
"We learn a little bit from the last time we played them, but also there wasn’t a lot to learn because we didn’t play very well. It was so unlike us how we started, what we were like around the ball and how they dominated territory around the field.
"The personnel looks a little different for both teams coming into this game, but we also acknowledge there are some real threats through the middle of the ground and behind the ball."
On how to respond to potential movement:
"You can look at it as change or progress. There’s a bit of both in it, clearly. We acknowledged where we’re at, which we’re clearly not happy with. We also need to acknowledge the work over the last four years and take this position as a way to progress.
"There’s going to be speculation on what changes there’s going to be, I stay away from those. We’re at the doorstep of the season finishing, so we’ll make sure we’ll finish the season strong before we take that breath and make decisions from there."
On Jack Silvagni and Tom De Koning:
"We’re at the end of the season and they haven’t signed yet, so if you’re lacking any confidence, it’s probably around that. But in terms of the needs and want to have them here, we’d love for them to stay."
On how the team will approach the next fortnight:
"There’s always the appetite to want to get the best version out of yourself. The standards for us don’t move because certain things have been confirmed, we’ve got the same expectation of ourselves and the same standard we want to play. What I do know is the energy has shifted towards using this period of time is to launch ourselves into the next part.
"Our people have been amazing, standing here every week and answering questions about what could happen and what might happen: I have to acknowledge our people - including our players - on how they’ve approached this period of time and worked through it, trying to stay as present as we possibly can with everyone else taking us in a different direction."
