A MATURE performance.

The Blues didn't have it all their own way on Sunday afternoon, but come the final siren, they marked their first home game of the season with a 27-point victory.

Carlton had contributors all over the park, with defenders Harriet Cordner and Maddy Hendrie, midfielder Erone Fitzpatrick and forward Nell Morris-Dalton all earning credit from AFLW Senior Coach Mathew Buck.

Here's what he had to say post-match.

On the game as a whole:

“Credit to Adelaide, I thought they brought some great pressure. Our team had to show some great resilience throughout each quarter, to defend hard at different times. That required some strong contest effort in the middle of the ground, but also for our defenders to get that job done. To their credit, they held up well.

“Harriet Cordner in her 75th game having 11 intercept possessions, she was an absolute rock back there again for us. It’s the combination of those defenders that helps Harriet do those things: Maddy Hendrie plays her role very well, Ciara Fitzgerald put another great game together.”

On Maddy Hendrie’s performance:

“It’s a credit to Maddy to be able to get up - it took from the minute we finished at Marvel to the minute we started today to ensure she could play. She’s a real professional away from the track. To see her get out there and play the way she did… to be honest, it’s the way she plays each week.

“We think Maddy is a special talent, she had a great year last year and she has started really strongly again this year. Jesse Wardlaw into Caitlin Gould, they’re pretty tough match-ups and she might have Eden Zanker waiting on the other end as well. It doesn’t stop for her, but she continues to turn up.”

On Erone Fitzpatrick’s career-high:

“It was a special game from Ronnie. She really hit the metres gained stat and she had a career-high for disposals as well. She has such an impact with her disposals. To have her on the wing, half-forward or even jump into some centre bounces here and there, she’s a nice piece to be able to move around.

“She was put into our leadership group after being voted in by her peers earlier this year, she goes from strength to strength in how she conducts herself from week to week, lifting up her younger teammates around her.”

On the maturity shown in the win:

“You set yourself for Adelaide, who have been a great club throughout the whole competition. We knew they’d come with some real bite today. The maturity in the performance was ‘When it’s your turn, go and hit the scoreboard and play fast, but we’re also going to have to stand up and play smart at different times.’

“That was the maturity in the performance, that when they really tested us, we were able to take some heat out of the game or defend for a bit longer to get through to the end of the quarter.”

On the impact of Nell Morris-Dalton:

“I just shouted her out to the whole playing group, and give a special mention to our entire VFLW program. Nell came in earlier this year into our VFL, and we want our VFL to replicate our AFLW system. What that has meant for Nell is she came in not long ago - only a few weeks - and we haven’t had to teach her much, because she knows how we want to play and what we want to be about.

“Nell turned up in pre-season in great shape and didn’t take a backwards step after being delisted from Collingwood. She’s a great athlete, probably underrated in how great of an athlete she really is. She’s fit in seamlessly into our group and fit into our forward line, giving the likes of Poppy and Darcy room to move. It was a great game from Nell and really pleasing to see, but not surprised.”

On players missing out on the team:

“We’ve got a really strong squad we feel like, and that shone through in our performance. We don’t feel like we’re carrying any players that aren’t contributing. That goes for the players that we’ve had to leave out: Brooke Boileau was incredibly unlucky to miss, she played some great footy earlier in the year, and Tara Bohanna is the same.

“It’s a little bit that you’ll have to take your turn at different times. You can’t play everyone, but when you get your turn, it’s important you turn up and go. We saw that today from Soph and ‘Keels’, who stepped in for their first game. We certainly have a squad mentality, and we know it’ll take a squad to get us through the season.”

On the momentum created at the start of the season:

“I was really happy with our pre-season, and we’ve been set up by a great high performance team who have our players fit and firing. We executed pre-season well, we go to Marvel for a big game which was fantastic, we have a hard-fought win here at IKON Park.

“It was great to be back at IKON Park with our fans, you can certainly hear them. Hopefully we continue to build that momentum across the year.”