Sydney AFLW senior coach Colin O’Riordan spoke to the media on Wednesday. 

He gave an update on injured ruck Ally Morphett, how the team plan to cover the loss of the tall and the side’s upcoming Pride Round match against Carlton on Sunday.

On Ally Morphett's ACL injury

"She's as good as she can be going. She's obviously devastated, but she sat in the team meeting and just did a review on the game. Ally actually shows up every day with a positive impact on her teammates, so it's a credit to her and that hasn't changed this morning. She's putting on a really brave face, but obviously it's devastating for her."

On four ACL injuries to talls this season

"Yeah, it's not great for me, but sometimes you're lost for words to be honest, because you're trying to still process Ally's one. It just happens to be that every single player on our list is told who's done their ACL. It's not great and it gives us a lot of food for thought as a coaching group what that looks like this week. It's just something for us to think about, but overall it's devastating for all four of them to be honest."

On discussions at the club to prevent ACL injuries in future

"We always have discussions, whether it's with medical team, high performance or coaching and we always look inward really quickly after every event, whether it's a small injury or in this instance four substantial injuries. What could we do to prevent it? We're confident that we have a lot of preventative measures in place. And I think with ACL injuries, sometimes you have the ones that you can control, you have the things you can't control. Unfortunately, I think you see it in the wider competition. I think of our own team, Alli's the 27th player this year to have an injury. I think that's probably the concern.
As a competition, as an AFL, are we happy with 27 in round eight of the competition? What can we do more as a collective to understand it more? What resources need to go into this? We're obviously suffering with four of them, but I think there's probably a discussion that needs to be had about what it looks like going forward and what level of support you can give to bring this onwards. Because yes, we are four. The fact that I think it's 27, it could be 26 maybe, but it's somewhere along that number which is, in my eyes, just astronomically high."

On the team's ability to re-focus on the game after Ally's injury

"I think it's just a level of maturity our group have got to. Again, I said this post-game, but it's not an excuse at all. We're the third youngest list in the competition. We've lost a lot of experience over the past six weeks, whether it's Ally at the weekend, self-hearty, Brenna Tarrant, Alice Mitchell. I think it's our ability to handle those moments now as a group and our maturity level amongst the group is actually really impressive. Ally straight away came to the bench and, like I said, just wanted to provide energy and asked how she can help the team. We're all devastated for Ally and at the time you were absolutely devastated for the player, but at the same time you have a job to do and we have to keep coaching. The players have to keep playing.I think the beauty of that is Ally understood it. She wanted to help the team because she knew we were in a battle in a contest, but also the players understood that. I think that's a real level of maturity that we've got to."

On not letting Ally's injury impact the rest of the season

"She's one of the best rucks in the competition. As a coaching group now, we have to put our hat on and look at what that looks like for us. We have to come up with new ideas and plans to counteract that. We have some resources we can call on that haven't played, but at the same time, the playing group, which we've just discussed in a review meeting, we've had an attitude all year where it's the next person in. We're stronger than one player. We're stronger than two players and we're probably at the point now where we're losing a few players. I hope it doesn't come across that we're diminishing the impact or the injury on those players, but at the same time, we have 32 on our list and have incredible trust in every single player on our list to play their role. If we can keep that attitude where it's the next person in approach and we'll tweak a few things from a coaching perspective to allow us to play the way we want to, given the level of players we have out, I think that's what will set us up in a good stead for the rest of the year."

On how the team will cover the loss of Ally

"We have a couple of options we can give. Obviously, we saw Tay Smith play a lot more ruck at the weekend and she was really good. Maddie Quinn played a lot more ruck and again, she was really good. We have a couple of leavers there we can pull. We have a couple of people who didn't play seniors at the weekend that we can look at. It's just on us as coaches to come together and see what that looks like for this week and going forward."

On the positives out of the loss to North

Our defence were really strong. I think it was a testament to them and the dam wall probably broke in the last a little bit, but they were under the pump. But for three and a half points, I thought they handled it really well. Our whole defensive group and our defensive system to stack up against the best in the competition, I thought we handled it well.I think they took their moments a lot better, especially on the side of 50, where there was a set shot from the boundary. A couple of other things and decisions I guess that went their way and that's not to mention the ball still had to get there. But at the same time, I think they took their opportunities and our defensive group actually still played really well. We just didn't deal with it. Defensively, they were actually pretty sound for a large part of the game against the best team in the comp for the last couple of years. They're going to punish you if you're not at your A game every single time. The best thing that probably comes out of it is we did well for three and a half quarters, but how can we get our game to the next level and improve for the fourth quarter? So that's the challenge."

On Carlton this weekend

"I think, like I say, every week starts from scratch. We respect Carlton as much as we respect every other team. They've had a tremendous start to the year. I think they're 6-2 as well. They played some really good footy. They had a really good win against Hawks last Thursday night. We'll watch their games. I'm sure they'll watch our games over the next few days. Preview them accordingly."

On Pride Round

"It's awesome. Everyone should come to the footy feeling safe. That's our mantra and that's what we want to do. Create that inclusive environment for everyone. I guess to be in the game against Carlton I know it seems like we play them every year in a program which is a real staple now in our calendar. It's awesome that we can be part of that. Hopefully people come to the game and feel safe and included to be part of such a special event."

On Zippy Fish's contract

"We're working through that at the minute. We love Zippy at our footy club. I love coaching Zippy. She's a phenomenal talent. We're working through that as we speak, what that looks like."

On her second year in the competition

"I think we saw it on the weekend when she gets the footy in her hand. She brings a level of flair and a level of spark to a team that very few players can bring. I think one thing she's done really well this year is her ability to go from defence to offence. She's really added that strength as well. I guess outside the four walls people think of Zippy as this offensive weapon, but inside we see the defensive work she's done, how she's worked on her craft defensively, which has actually helped her in offence as well. She's a phenomenal player, phenomenal person, someone we love at our footy club."