Carlton AFLW coach Mathew Buck speaks on the compelling game between the Blues and Bulldogs.
Reflecting on Round 4:
"I love the game and the game challenges in a different way, this week as opposed to last week. We want to play an open fast brand of footy, and today the Bulldogs to their credit, were good enough to kind of get a handle on us in that. So we had to kind of win a different way.
"They asked us to go into the contest, we probably looked to take the game forward a little bit harder, and then off the back of that we managed to score. So proud of our team to be able to adjust in game with how we wanted to play, and really glad that they were brave enough to go at it in the first half. "
On competing in contests:
"We always knew that challenges strongly in that area and obviously Jess Good missed out through injury for this game, and Maddie Torpey stepped in and did an amazing job, I think she bought her own fan club as well, which was really nice for the game." he joked.
"The way we compete at contests, we really like and we've enjoyed, and we've hung our hat on that for probably now going into our third season, proud of the girls to see that we could get at them today."
On Dayna Finns performance:
"Dayna has backed up from a terrific game last week and it's credit to Dayna and the work she did over the pre-season, went home to Ireland, she has to slog it out in another winter to get her fitness to where it is. She's now an elite athlete, an elite performer.
"To see what she can produce in-game now, I'm really ecstatic for her, but the credit all goes to Dayna for the hard work that she's put in. She's ruthless in the way she prepares and then she's ruthless in the way she plays, and I think over the last two weeks, we've really seen that."
On transitioning the ball to into the Blues forward half:
"To play some exciting footy in our transition, a big part of that is to win the ball back. We had Harriet Cordner, Maddy Hendrie down there who was just terrific today, and Poppy Scholz as a youngster. Those three big keys for us really control of the air, gives us the ability to win the ball back and then we can look to play off that.
"The way they defend and then the way they support our offense and that's where, Ciara Fitzgerald, Amelia Velardo, and Darcy Vescio get involved, and they give us really strong bounce off there, but they're misly, they don't want any scores against them and they were pretty strong in that area today."
On competing with the Bulldogs:
"We've got some quality players, that wanna make sure the numbers are going their way, they wanted to turn the tide themselves, your captain's in there, Abbie McKay, you go to work with her, Izzy Pritchard's a great player, we love watching Izzy play, but you've got a Curt Taylor at some point. So Abbie had some different stoppages, made sure that that happened and, they put some hard work into her as well.
"So there was a little bit of that and then we backed Madison Torpey in as well, we thought Breann was pretty influential in front of the ball. For a first gamer to go in there and box on with Alice Edmonds, who's a terrific ruck comp, a testament to her, so I think the numbers swung on, on what was happening inside the contest rather than outside."
On Sophie Mckay's performance:
"That's a little bit more like the Soph McKay we've seen over preseason. What freakish ability to fly in the air and take a great contested mark, kick some goals, set up some others...Where she's grown is her ability to defend the ground, her ability to get up and defend and then work back. She's a work in progress, but we're gonna see a lot more of what we saw today from her, she's an exciting player and she's just getting started."
On the importance of Indigenous Round and the Carlton community:
"The two rounds for our indigenous round are really special and put on our indigenous jumper and the players get in there and do that learning, but I think the persistence really shone through today and to hear from an indigenous person and take those lessons is really great to see.
"To do that in front of our crowd here at IKON today, another banging crowd that comes in and watches us play an exciting brand. I've always said we've got a little sleeping giant of a crowd that once we start rolling and play some footy that they want to come see, we'll see them turn up, I think we're starting to see that now, I can't wait to take on the Gold Coast here next week."
On winning three out of four games thus far:
"We're in a strong position now, but of course we'll be a week by week, take it a week at a time. Strong competition against Gold Coast, who had a great win today, so we'll be all eyes in on that one. We're not going well enough where we can project too far forward, so we'll go all in on the Gold Coast and see how we go."
