Sydney senior coach Scott Gowans appeared in his weekly press conference on Tuesday. He gave an update on Chloe Molloy, Cynthia Hamilton and Sofia Hurley, gave an insight into the team’s mindset for this weekend’s must-win match and paid tribute to inaugural co-captain Maddy Collier who announced her retirement yesterday.

On Chloe Molloy's injury

"The decision process was more of a medical process, to be honest with you, and today we confirmed that she'll have surgery on her back. We really won't know anything more than that until the surgery's done. It's similar to last time, but we just don't know the details yet. It's very disappointing, she's clearly one of our better players. We've had a bit of bad luck with Sof Hurley as well, she's only played the four games. It doesn't make a difference, but the good thing is the squad's healthy. We won well on the weekend without her and Cynthia going down as well, I think it showed a significant growth in the group that we were able to cope with that. Maybe in the past we haven't coped as well just being a younger group. It's like when your leader's not there and you're a big voice on the field, you just lose that little bit of, I suppose, footy IQ. But I felt we dealt with it really well on the weekend and I know just at training with the girls, we just had a chat then at our pre-training meeting and they're really focused just to step up and do what's right for the club.  So, I've got full confidence, it is disappointing, but it very much is just that, we've just got to get on with it now."

On Cynthia Hamilton

"The latest on her is that we're still assessing. It's the knee and her ankle, it's not as bad as first thought. It did look really nasty, but it's definitely one of those ones that could have been a lot worse. She's just been into medical then and she's in a brace, which makes it look worse as well. It's definitely not the end for Cynthia this season until something gets confirmed with a further scan, but we're just waiting for swelling to go down."

On the confidence he has in the side to step up

"Absolutely. I think that's the way we've built the program is to cope with those things. It is frustrating and disappointing, but it's also really pleasing to see that. We saw it in 2023, even when Bec Privatelli went down in the final as well, we were able to cope with that against Gold Coast. I think it's something that you want in a team. It's not something you want to have to go through. We've had some bad luck with key players in key moments in the season, but the positive, of course, is that there are players that need to step up. It's probably been the growth of Cynthia and Montana Ham and Sofia Hurley because of the 2023 experience. Then losing to Adelaide like we did, learning what it's like to be really tired and have to play a game of footy against a really good footy side. We took a lot of learnings out of that loss and probably put it into practice a little bit this 2024 and then into this year. The Chloe one last year obviously hurt us so early in the season, but again, people step up and you probably don't see the benefits of that until this year and next year because you need to go through those experiences to learn. Once we can keep those players on the park for longer, then you hope that your leadership depth is much better in the squad as well because of the experiences. I know while we're in a development phase it's frustrating, but it really does almost fast-track our learning and our leadership amongst the rest of our squad. So that's probably the silver lining."

On the calculations to make the finals

"We haven't really spoken about any permutations or anything like that. I had a go working it out myself and made myself ill. So the players, we're just clearly focused on us. We've got a little bit of a history of dropping games like this, and we did this year with Collingwood and Giants and no disrespect to them, but from a ladder position where we are versus them, you would say that they're games we should have done better in. Last year, against Bulldogs and Essendon, and then in 23 it was the Hawthorn game and the Carlton game when they weren't travelling that well. So it's something that we just need to develop as a group to be able to focus on what we need to do. This week is solely on us. It's about our standards, our preparation, and just delivering what we value as a team. If we do that, and we do that well, then the results will just take care of itself."

On Maddy Collier's retirement

"Yeah, she's one of the toughest footballers I've come across and she's had so many setbacks with her body and she just keeps fronting up. Her leadership, she was co-captain year one and really drove the standards amongst those three captains we had in year one. I love her as a person as well, I just think she's so good for the group. We'll hopefully keep her around in an off-field capacity at some stage as well, which is an important part of our legacy that we want to do as well. But yeah, Maddie, probably by her own admission, not the top echelon of talent, but what she did do was get the most out of her talent and to be an inaugural player and play through the clubs with Giants and with West Coast then to us. It wouldn't have been an easy decision to come to an inaugural team and take on the challenge of captaincy as well, but she did. She put her hand up when we asked her and I'm really proud of what she's been able to do in her ten seasons. It's hard to see her go, but I'm also really looking forward to what she can actually do to help the group moving forward."

This weekend, our AFLW side is travelling north to Coffs Harbour for the final game of the regular season. You’re invited to join us at C.ex Coffs International Stadium on Saturday, November 1 from 5:05pm to cheer on the team against Essendon. TICKETS.