THE BLUES bounced back from a disappointing outing in Round 2 to record their second-greatest score and second-largest winning margin over the Eagles in Round 3.
Here's what Senior Coach Mathew Buck had to say following the win.
On the response from last week:
"It’s probably our resilience, to be honest. We wanted to have a response after last week’s disappointing result.
"I was really pleased with the way our team went about that. We were pretty hard at the contest and defended the game pretty well.
"That’s what we went after pre-game and I thought that we got that result."
On an explosive second quarter:
"We spoke about our ball use through the corridor just when we can access that, trying to do that. I thought we took our opportunities early in the second quarter to try and get some flow in the game. With that, we got some great representation from our forwards and managed to hit the scoreboards – so it was pretty pleasing."
On the trip out West:
"You travel to Perth so it’s always going to be tough. We’ve chased high performance in the pre-season so our whole package over travelling to play today has been outstanding.
"I couldn’t fault the girls with how they’ve gone about their preparation and the way they’ve performed."
On ruck combination of Jess Good and Breann Moody:
"We’re so fortunate. We’ve got Jess Good who’s a fantastic ruck and Breann Moody who’s obviously an All-Australian ruck.
"We try to utilise them as much as we can. We probably gave Brea a good hit in the ruck today and I thought she was outstanding with her connection with the midfield.
"She managed to hit the scoreboard as a forward as well. Jess Good provides a great contest around the ground but, Breann’s centre-bounce work is exceptional. It was great to see them play well.
On the opposition:
"I thought West Coast were really tough in the first quarter and they’ve got some great young players who were breathing fire early.
"We just stuck to our method, the message didn’t really change at quarter time. We wanted to make sure we were great teammates and supported each other with how we played and we managed to get the ball from inside to outside a bit better in the second, which supported our game."
On the backline and support from the wing:
"Our wingers really support our defensive players really well. I thought Brooke Vickers had an outstanding day and Marianna Anthony continued to run strong patterns supported by Mua and Harriet Cordner who were really strong in our backline.
"Gab Pound played a bit of a role for us today. I pointed out some individuals, but the team performance – from our defensive players, they were just outstanding. I’m really pleased."
On Keeley Skepper:
"Keeley’s on a great journey at the moment. She’s got a lot of talent but what she’s doing now is matching that with great work ethic on the field and off the field.
"She’s well supported by our leaders. Our vice-captain, Jess Dal Pos, puts in a lot of work with Keeley Skepper and we’re starting to see that bear fruits now.
She deserves the goals she got today just through the work she’s put in. She plays a variety of roles for us, so we know she’s pretty dangerous forward with that penetrating left foot.
"She’s also creative up around the ball. We try to find a balance between those two roles throughout the game, so she’ll always play a couple of different roles just to free her up."
On the Carlton game style:
"When you play for Carlton you sign a contract in a way. You’ve got to play a certain way. We hope we represented Carlton Football Club really strongly today.
"We were definitely really cheered on really well by our supporters over here and Carlton is an exciting place to be at the moment and I’m glad we could add to it.
On the next week:
"The Carlton Respects game is a big one for us. I’m so proud to be able to represent the Carlton Respects game.
"I’m really looking forward to our players running out in their orange and learning about what Carlton Respects means throughout the week... it will be a big one.
"We loved our fans who came out in Round 1 and can’t wait to get back to IKON Park to take on the 'Tiges'."
