A STRONG start and a mature response.

Carlton needed to work for the result in the AFLW season opener, overcoming a persistent St Kilda outfit in a 26-point victory.

Producing some eye-catching attacking football, the Blues needed to rise to the occasion at Marvel Stadium when the Saints drew within 10 points in the final term, with a mature finish to the contest seeing the Blues open 2026 with a win.

Here's what AFLW Senior Coach Mathew Buck had to say.

On withstanding a late fightback:

“I think we showed some great maturity in the game. St Kilda is a good side with some great players, and they tested us in the third quarter. To have us hold and have an ability to strike back in the last was important.

“We’ll have some areas of our game which we need to go to work on, but a real highlight for the team was we got our offence going in the first half and did that off great defensive acts. Harriet Cordner was rinse and repeat from last year with her intercepts.

“We were able to execute that for a long while, and then St Kilda stepped it up in the third and challenged our team. It was about turning up at the source and contest, making sure that you put on enough pressure to win the ball back.

“I thought Ciara Fitzgerald across the whole game was great, and probably one of the unsung heroes when we think about AFLW backline players. She does it for the team every week.”

On extra pressure given the occasion:

“Round 1 always feels a little bit extra, and win or lose, it’s still just Round 1 with a whole season of footy to come. But being a showcase game, the only AFLW game of the weekend, we wanted to make sure we played a brand that our fans wanted to come watch and be proud of.

“We want to do that every week. Did we feel pressure to do that? Probably not. We want to people to come watch and say ‘Wow, that was great’. There’ll be things we don’t get right all the time, but they’ll be able to walk away going ‘Gee, how about Poppy Scholz?’ or ‘How about the left foot snap from Lila Keck?’.

“Some exciting footy and thrilling footy is what we want to be, as long as we’re defensively strong, we hold and we have a high bar with our standards.

“There’s a little bit pressure when you come into Marvel for Round 1, but I’m proud of the way we executed.”

On Poppy Scholz’s impact:

“When we drafted her, I knew we were getting a great centre half-back. Her ability to not only intercept but understands moments in games was really strong.

“Then last year, we threw her forward and kicked far too many goals - there was no choice. She goes forward, has a whole pre-season where she’s been fantastic and learning from players like Darcy Vescio and Tara Bohanna who have been in the competition for a long time. They’ve helped her an incredible amount, and we’re starting to see that grow.

“Two days ago, I said ‘We might need you to go in the ruck’. We were talking on Mim’s podcast and she said that she wanted to be a centre-bounce ruck… I told her ‘I might need you to be as well’. She went into her first centre bounce, takes it out and drives forward.

“She grows every time she steps out there. Her confidence is building in what she can do: she’s done things in training that our players and team are in awe of. She’s also part of a team that will look after her with the way we play.”

On the team’s attacking options:

“I think we’re starting to have some pieces that help complement the way we play. Shoutout to Nell Morris-Dalton, who comes in as an injury replacement player a fortnight ago and plays Round 1 at Marvel, hit the scoreboard and competed for us.

“She is a position that we needed to fill as a deeper forward, that piece has been important. Personnel that go through doesn’t really bother me, I’m quite happy for any of our players to play that forward system that we want to see and they’re well-coached by Jess Dal Pos.

“It’s more a system-based thing, which as a coach you want to be the thing that holds up for you. We can throw some special talent through there.

“Lila Keck had nine score involvements and kicked two goals. We love the development program we run at Carlton, and she’s a shining light of that.”