Sydney Swans AFLW senior coach Scott Gowans spoke to the media on Wednesday, see what he had to say about the growth of the AFLW competition and the Swans' first game of the season against Richmond on Friday night.

On playing Richmond this Friday

“We’ve trained long and hard, and we are ready to go. It's an exciting time. It comes around quick, but if you think back, mid-February we started some voluntary training and then a bit of a break and then into pre-season, it is a long lead-in”

On the expansion of the AFLW

“Expansion is based off metrics in the AFLW, which is good to do with broadcasting and attendance, but it is really important for the quality of football we all want to see and play that the natural progression is that we advance quite quickly with the number of games to somewhere in my opinion 16 or 18 as quickly as we can.”

On the acceleration of AFLW 

“The problem at the moment, which is a strategy question for the AFLW, is the ground availability and the timing of the season. So, the AFL has announced that they have fixed the grand final, so that gives us clarity that the last week of November will be the grand final. But that does throw a further problem when we go back with the men’s with ground availability, second tier competition and things like that.”

On the team's connection

“We've made nine changes to our list over the pre-season from last year. Interestingly, I thought the connection would take a bit longer, and we may be proven wrong, but so far so good. It's actually been really great the way the girls have come together and training their ball movement drills. It seems to have synergy, but of course we haven't played in the heat of a game for points yet.”

On expectations for the 2025 season

 “We’re talking finals, we are really comfortable talking about how we want to make finals. If you’re not prepared to say that I don’t know what you are doing here.  I just think you may as well say it because we all think it, and quite comfortable in saying that. It's an expectation. Our benchmark is finals this year and we've planned for a 16-week season, so we've planned to the grand final.  Everything we do, we talk about it, we try to do imagery with it, what it would look like, what it would feel like, so that if it does happen, we're ready.”

On where the team needs to improve

“Team defence was a big area for improvement over the pre-season. We were able to score fairly easily against sides we should score against. However, against the better sides, you need to score off turnover, and we just couldn’t create the turnovers to then get the scoring opportunities. So, it would be nice to add in, because from stoppage we've been fine. Benchmark, I think we sit eighth for that, so we're about the middle of the ladder, and we have been for the last three seasons, but it's been the scores from turnover, and that's where our big improvements come.”

On the practice game against Brisbane

“The match against the Lions was good. I mean, it's hard to get a read on practice matches because both sides are trying different things. The thing that stood out for me, though, was that our intensity and effort was there from quarter time. The first quarter we were a bit slow to get a start, and we addressed that at the break, from there we really competed quite well.

On the next generation of AFLW players coming through

“When you watch the Coates League, and those girls go into Vic Metro, Vic Country, in our case Allies. State footy now is highly skilled, but it’s also the game sense. In our case look at Zippy Fish, look at her ball handling skills and her decision making with ball in hand is fantastic. That will be something for the fans to watch. But it’s also what she does off ball and how she set us ready for the next play.”

On Zippy Fish 

“We have match committee tomorrow, but there’s a fair chance that Zippy will be there tomorrow. She’s done everything right over the pre-season and she’s a rare talent, she’s going to be an exciting player to watch. But also, she will draw people to the game and NSW footy need that.”

On Montana Ham

“We took her as the first pick for a reason, she’s just had a bad run with injuries, she’s fully fit this year. She's put on a bit of size, which she needed to do to play the inside mid role, and so far, in the training match against Brisbane, she was a very hard person to tackle. So, I'm looking forward to seeing Mon come back.”

On Chloe Molloy's injury

“She’s driven a lot of that herself, her rehab, just to make sure that she can fall back on something mentally and know that she’s done the work. It's hard to describe to people, but the extra stuff that she's done off-site to make sure that she has that peace of mind is extraordinary. I know she's done a lot of work with Erin Phillips and spent some time talking to her as well and that's helped a lot. So, yeah, she couldn't be more prepared. Of course, we've all got our fingers crossed and everything like that with every player that comes back from an ACL, but particularly the better players in the competition. You want to see them thrive so that the AFLW thrives.”

On Richmond

“Richmond is an interesting side; the last three seasons have been really strong. Their form line is 18-11 for the last three seasons, but their average percentage is the third best in the competition over the last three seasons. So, it tells you that they're right there. Finals last two years, so there's no reason why you wouldn't think they're going to be thereabouts and as we said before, if we want to make finals, they're the exact team that we need to come up against and beat. And that's a clear expectation this Friday night.”

Be there, as we open our season with Friday night footy against Richmond, at North Sydney Oval on August 15.

Secure your tickets HERE.