IN THE wake of the Club’s first win of the 2024 season, Maddy Guerin and Mimi Hill have a lot to be excited about, particularly with Guerin snapping the game-winning goal to secure the one-point win over the Suns.

The two players, who both walked into the doors of IKON Park together at the end of 2020, held a lot of praise for their teammates for staying competitive against a surging Gold Coast.

"I’m really proud of how everyone played their role really well," Hill said.

"It was a really good game: I was really pumped after."

While it took a whole team performance to secure the win on Sunday, two standouts came in the form of the two inclusions: Marianna Anthony and Club debutant Tarni Brown.

Co-vice captain Hill lauded Anthony's work off the ball, while Guerin noted Anthony was able to have an immediate presence in her first game of the season.

"I thought 'Mez'’s pressure was just unbelievable," Hill said.

“She just came onto the ground and was just so impactful,” Guerin said.

“She’s so fast, you just know she’s going to get there and have a crack.”

Brown, who previously played 34 games with Collingwood before coming to Carlton in the last off-season, impressed her teammates instantly with her speed and agility with the ball.

“She had some moments where I thought, ‘she’s just going to keep getting better each game’,” Hill said.

“Some moments where she’d attack the ball and give a little spin move, I was just like 'damn'.

“Having those two in the forward line really helped with our speed – scary stuff when they’re near the ball.”

While there's the emotion of the first win of the year leading into the Blues' opening home game, Guerin noted the team couldn't underestimate a "hungry" Cats, who are coming off a draw against last year's Grand Finalists in North Melbourne after a narrow defeat to Melbourne in Week 1.

Saturday will also mark another special occasion for Carlton, with the Week 3 match up also being the Club’s eighth annual Carlton Respects Game, raising awareness for domestic violence and gender equality in Australia.

“It’s probably my favourite round of the year,” Hill said.

“I love that it’s at IKON Park too because it’s where the first game of AFLW was played.

“Women’s sport and women’s footy alone is just an amazing step forward for Australian sport and society.”

Guerin is hoping that seeing women play at the highest level will help spark conversations about gender equality.

“You can see us out there and I think it just brings some good conversations to the table who might not have really thought about it before,” she said.

“The fact that we can get on socials and promote it a bit is amazing, the videos the Club have been doing as well that we can share is what we love about it, so we can spread awareness for those topics.”

Hill added how important it is for athletes to use their platforms for these initiatives.

“You always hear people saying, ‘keep politics and sports separate’, but we’re in a position where we have a platform to promote these things and it’s just a really important initiative,” she said.

Get your tickets to the game here.