Our women's side will kick off their 2023 AFLW season this Sunday against the GWS Giants. Head coach Scott Gowans appeared in front on media on Wednesday, August 30, and discussed pre-season preparations, strategy and Round 1. 

On a potential first win this weekend

“The essence of time gives us the ability to plan and strategise and there’s no doubt the group has improved. Our ability to train and get fit and be able to contest is the difference. It’s an exciting time to come and watch a game of footy. Hopefully we put on a show.”

On the focus for pre-season

“Really the process, to be honest with you. The slogan (for AFLW) is ‘we the ready’ and it’s pretty asserted to us. It’s something we want to display. There’s a saying, let the dancers dance, and we plan to do that. We’ll put the better players in the positions that they’re used to and just let them go.

It’s been all about offence, you’ve got to have team defence, but we want to score. We want to take the game on. It will be an exciting brand of football. That’s a big difference as well – our ball movement.”

On scoring

“18 a side would help to be honest and hopefully we can get to that stage. 18 a side will help us move the ball on the bigger grounds and get a bit more connection. If I wasn’t coaching and I wanted to watch a game of football, I’d want to see scoring. There’s a few sides that throw numbers behind the ball and try to bottle it up and get stoppage after stoppage but that won’t be us. When sides get momentum we’ll try and get that back by playing some good footy. That’s the brand we want to build.

It's not about the first win, it’s not about the second, it’s about building something for the future so we want to build a sustainable profile that sells memberships and gets people to the grounds and builds the game of AFLW.”

On the playing GWS

“You always want to take on your local family member and do well against them. The girls are looking forward to it – a few of them know each other – and we have a few ex-GWS players. I think it’s as simple as that to be honest. They’re an inaugural side and they have some interesting stats when you look at their profile. They’ve had three coaches since their inauguration. They’ve played 56 or 57 games of football and if you divide that up that’s about 18 games per coach. They’ve got a bit of work to do…

We know we’re on the right path and it’s really important for us to realise that we’re not coming up against a side that’s performed really well. No disrespect to them but they’re the least performing side in the inaugural clubs. We think we’ll get there quicker than them.”

On the timing of the season

“I think the timing is exactly right to be honest. I think we could get back into the men’s season with more games which we’ll get to. I like the fact that the men’s finals are on when we start and then we get to finish the year, pack up, have trade periods, the draft, have Christmas, get through the New Year and then get squads sorted.

The downside is the second-tier competitions. That’s where it makes it difficult and that’s a work in progress with the AFL and how we can get better at developing players in NSW. It’s not just us, it’s any teams out of Victoria because we don’t have a VFLW side.”

On expectations on the team

“We spoke about building. We want to build something that we can compete, similar to the men’s side at our club, which is playing finals footy. That gives you the opportunity to then compete at a Grand Final. We’re right at the early stages of that. I keep saying to the girls that the first win will be a relief, but I’m really focussing on how big the gap is between win one and win two. That will tell us where we’re at. If it’s seven or eight weeks between wins, then we know we have a lot of work to do. We’re really focussed on building that consistency of performing and the results will take care of themselves.”

On co-captains Lucy McEvoy and Chloe Molloy

“Both are clearly high-profile players, and it was a goal for us to get the right people in those positions. We could have gotten some others that didn’t fit the way we wanted to play and we’re really firm in what we wanted. We missed a few that we did want. Chloe and Lucy are very different captains – Ying and Yang. Chloe is very explosive, we want the ball in her hands, we want her to do what she’s always done which is take the game on and Lucy is your steadfast, hard at it. You can put her in any line and she just does her job. I think we have a nice balance of leadership off the field with them both as well, that’s really exciting going forward.”

On the Sydney rivalry

“It’s like anything. I’ll go back to when I was coaching in Melbourne, there’s certain clubs that you’ve played against that you love… It’s a healthy rivalry, it’s a respectful rivalry. That’s great for the game of footy. Post-season we’re happy to work with them and build NSW footy, because I do think it’s important that we work together. As far as the two press conferences, I think that’s a scheduling thing on their part. If you book things far enough in advanced you usually get what you want, but if you do it five minutes in advance you’re probably not going to get it.”