Yartapuulti senior coach Lauren Arnell was impressed with the gutsy effort of her group in a nail-biting draw against Gold Coast on Saturday afternoon.
It was a hotly contested, free-flowing game, and Yartapuulti brought everything to the table against a top-eight side in the Suns.
“The girls worked so hard, that was pretty gutsy but yeah, a draw's a draw isn't it,” Arnell said after the game.
“A little bit flat but some pride in some of the progress we keep making. You'd like to think we (were going to) win that game. Losing is worse, there's no doubt about that but we certainly gave ourselves every opportunity to win the game and then about two and a half minutes to go, credit to the Suns. They're a top eight team for a reason and they were able to execute pretty well to bring themselves back into the game.”
With accuracy and composure an issue over the last few weeks for the Power, Arnell was pleased to see her side hit the scoreboard with more certainty.
“Accuracy has been an issue for us, we've left goals out there (the last few weeks) with lack of accuracy and that was better today, seven goals three in a bit of a rubbish wintery (day),” she said.
“I'll keep talking about offence and our ability to score and Suns are a good team (and we were able to score against them). So, there's those positives but also you want to win those games, you want to win every game.”
Both teams were battling with windy conditions at Alberton Oval, and the home side was able to capitalise on the breeze in the second quarter, producing a four-goal term to lead at half time.
Young forward Julia Teakle booted a career-high three goals, with Arnell particularly pleased with the 20-year-old’s progress over the last 12 months.
“Teakle, for her to kick three goals straight...that’s a kid who could have stayed in Perth last year and gone to one of the Perth teams through the draft but she pre-signed with us," Arnell said.
“She battled to find her spot last year and had some pretty abrupt feedback from me at this point in the year saying this is how many you're behind and this is the work you've got to do to get into the team and she's one who really set the tone in the off-season for our group this year and she's forced her way into this side and forced her way into the type of form that she probably could have only dreamed of 12 months ago.
“(She) is now an emerging leader in our group and there will be some things that she reflects on from this game but you ask for growth from these young players and she's leading the way in that space.”
Arnell highlighted the team-wide spread of effort, with multiple players making important on-field contributions.
“The main message for the team is around, there are 21 that play on the day, but we've got a squad of 32 and it's taking that many to turn up, look after yourself every single day, train at an intensity that's at the level (you need), execute your week at the level of high performance and win on game day,” she said.
“If we are going to ask everyone to be in on winning, we can't be pinning a draw or a loss on one. We're all in this together and we’ve got to learn from some big key moments that hurt us and we'll do that through the week.”
The final two minor rounds will see Yartapuulti take on Hawthorn and Greater Western Sydney, with Arnell keen to see the playing group continue to apply learnings from every game.
“There's just constant learning for our group…it stings to not be able to execute at the back end but we can see some really obvious growth and we just have to keep learning.”
