A STEP forward.

Carlton brought some of its offensive flair to IKON Park on Friday afternoon, producing its biggest score of the season in a 55-point triumph over Richmond.

In what was the Blues’ second largest winning margin, the home side had contributors everywhere to continue its exceptional form at IKON Park, on a day where Tayla McMillan and Lauren Bella both enjoyed their first wins in Navy Blue.

Here’s what AFLW Senior Coach Mathew Buck said post-match.

On the initial reaction to the win:

“Across the board, it was a real team effort. Everyone committed to their role and I thought our system held up really well. There’s certainly room to improve as well, I thought we overused our handball throughout the day and missed some connection inside 50 which has been an ongoing thing.

“But to hit 70 points today is nice reward for effort, so overall we’re feeling pretty good.”

On recent form, despite not getting results:

“We were pretty buoyed by our last couple of weeks. We felt like we were able to take it to two of the best teams in the competition, but still had some growth in our own game.

“It felt like we could execute a bit better with that, there’s still room with some flow in our game but we certainly saw some evidence today.”

On the biggest positive from the day:

“The breadth of everybody who contributed. You think of a Tay McMillan who came in for her first game and contributes endlessly.

“Our backline holds up well again and only lets in two points in the second half. Harriet Cordner keeps doing Harriet Cordner things, and she was well supported by her other teammates.”

A bit more on the debutant:

“We’ve loved Tay since the moment she stepped in. She had a really great pre-season, but unfortunately towards the very end of it, she got a lower leg injury which kept her out of the first few games of the year. As a coaching group, we’ve been really excited with what we’ve seen throughout her pre-season and her scrimmage matches as well.

“You’d just call her a footballer. You put her out there and she’s going to contribute and turn up for you, she doesn’t waste a possession and she’s tough inside the contest.

“She brought 100 people with her today to cheer her on. Being a Carlton supporter forever, I think she’s sitting in there really proud of herself - and rightfully so.”

On another brilliant Erone Fitzpatrick display:

“I probably take her for granted if I’m being fair, with her and Dayna on the other wing. We’re really versatile with where we can play her, and we chose to play her across the wing with a little bit of mid time.

“Explosive power and speed, we saw that today and she probably handed a couple off where she could’ve gone for them. That’s the type of player and person she is, she’s very selfless and wants her teammates to be as good as they can be. I thought she was outstanding.”

On the ruck partnership:

“A shoutout to Lauren Bella who played her second game, the combination of ‘Goody’ and Lauren is going to be a really interesting one for us. I thought we saw some great impact today.”

On where the team feels as though they sit:

“Across the competition as a whole, we probably don’t spend too much time thinking about that as much as what our best footy looks like and how we can continue to evolve into what we want to be. We had a couple of tough games against the top teams, I thought our contest and defence held up pretty well in those two games.

We come to this one and add the offensive layer which we’ve been missing a little bit, we’ve had some injury interruptions to some of our forwards throughout the season so far. We think our game is evolving, with some significant steps to take again.

“Lots of growing to do, we’ve got a tough game next week against Hawthorn here at IKON Park which is also our Carlton Respects Game.”