Sydney Swans AFLW co-captain Lucy McEvoy spoke to the media today, ahead of Sydney’s Pride Round match against Carlton at Henson Park on Sunday.
She spoke about the team’s mentality heading into the finals-defining clash, Pride Round and the importance of fans continuing to turn up to support the side after more than 7,000 attended the Sydney Derby in Round 6.
On whether this weekend is a do-or-die match
"Yeah, it is. We're treating it as that. I think every game from here on out is a bit of do or die for us. We've put ourselves in a position where we started really well and the last four weeks haven't been what we wanted. So, this weekend's a really good chance to be able to put our best foot forward. And Carlton are in some really good form, so we imagine that they'll be in the finals. So, if we want to make the finals, we have to beat the teams that are going to be there and it starts this weekend with Carlton."
On Pride Round
"Pride Round is always such a great event at the Swans, and to be able to participate in it and really make the game something for everybody and invite everyone along to our games is something that we're really proud of. And we had a great crowd the other week against the Giants and we expect to hopefully pull a really big crowd again. And I think there's a half-time performance by Royston, which is going to be amazing. Football's a place for everyone and we really want to make it known to the competition."
On why having a Pride Round is important
"Yeah, I think we've seen over the last few years really how important it really is, particularly to the Pride community and how it makes them feel and being an ally and supporting them is really important for us. There's a couple of girls on our team that are part of the community and we want to make sure that everyone feels really welcome and football's a space for everybody and it really is. There's no place in our society for anything that's untoward that and this weekend's a great representation of what it can really look like."
On drawing a big crowd this weekend
"We love it. I speak of it so often and so regularly, even at our away games. It's so fantastic, the crowd that we pull and they support us so well and there's no doubt that they'll turn up again in numbers and it really gets us going."
On Zippy Fish
"Yeah, she's been super for us. Such a great addition, still so young and what she's been able to produce at such a young age is really impressive. The challenge for her is to really get that balance of her game on offence and on defence and she's really making an effort to do that for us. She's one of the best ball-movers in the comp, let alone our team, so why not give it to her and let her do her thing? She's got lightning pace and we're pretty lucky to have her on our team and we look forward to seeing what she can do in the future for us as well."
On what the team need to do to get the win on Sunday
"It's just getting back to the way that we play. We've gone away from that the last four weeks or so and the opposition that we've played has been really good at taking that away from us. But for us, it's how do we respond to that when they do take it away from us? Part of that is getting back to our ball movement, the see-it-hit-it style that we do and taking pride with ball in hand and not just giving it up so easily. Then on the flip side to that, our defensive game needs to be really strong and we know that we can do it. We've seen glimpses of it and we've been able to do it the first half of the season. It's just getting back to that style of game that we love and we enjoy playing. As I said, we've gone away from that a little bit. If we can bring that back and make that our focus, we should put ourselves in a really good position."
