Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell is pleased to see her group get some reward for effort, noting the commitment from players and staff alike this season. 

In a tight fixture, the resilience and maturity of the players has shone through, along with the improvement in fitness, and the ability to run out games. 

Arnell spoke in a press conference on Tuesday, discussing the win in Perth, the growth of her young players, and celebrating Pride Round at Alberton this Thursday night. 

Arnell on winning against West Coast in Perth 
“I think the four points are obviously really exciting and symbolic of a lot of hard work from a lot of people. And for our playing group, it's so nice for them to get reward for effort, and also our staff. It's been such an enormous block in this fixture, four games in 16 days, and now turning around from a Saturday game in Perth into a Thursday at Alberton again, it's so nice for our whole group to get reward for effort.” 

Arnell on the maturity and resilience of the group 
“Again, it's been an absolute team effort on and off field to get two really strong results off the back of four games in 16 days, and three of them being travel games. And I think looking back to the North Melbourne game, which was the first of the four, some shocking conditions on a Friday afternoon at Whitten Oval in Melbourne. And you know, we started that game poorly against what looks to be the premiership favourites at the moment, and then to look like the team that, I think we won on the scoreboard in the whole second half. And you know, the conditions were gross, but that's significant for our group. And then you go into the Richmond game again a few days later, and they got the jump on us with some pretty classy mids in particular, and to look like the team that was fitter and stronger in that second half against what will be a finals group in Richmond, and then to feel and look really, really strong in that third game at Alberton, and then go to Perth and have so many reasons to underperform. (We were) three goals one, down a quarter time, the maturity in the group that you're talking about is enormous. And again, some real confidence in our team on and off field to know that there's a lot of resilience building in our group, and performances are really coming for us now. So it's really positive.” 

Arnell on flying under the radar a bit  
“Obviously, we're based in Adelaide, and there's 10 teams in Melbourne, and at times we do go under the radar. And for the most part that serves as well. So we will keep worrying about ourselves and our process, and we do need to be really diligent. We've got Collingwood, who have shown their best footy is really competitive, and I know that they're a strong contested team. It’s pleasing for me to hear other coaches, and I've heard Daisy (Pearce) speak about us being a strong contest team, and what that tells us is teams are prepared for that, and so we need to be really diligent and focused on each game that comes. And so being absolutely ready for the contest for from the very start will be a key focus for us going into Thursday.” 

Arnell on the team review from the West Coast game 
“I think offence has been something I've spoken about a lot in the last two and a half years, and so returning to a very aggressive style of offence has been important for us in the last couple of weeks, particularly coming out of the North and Richmond games. And so we feel our contest and our team defence has grown a lot since last year. We were 17th pressure factor team after the season last year, and right now we sit second, just behind North Melbourne and prior to the West Coast game, we were first in the comp for a couple of weeks. So they're absolute bedrocks of our game. And then we know we're closer to our best when we're really aggressive offensively, and we've still got work to do in that space.” 

Arnell on the growth of her young players 
“Yeah, obviously we've talked a lot about our draftees from last year, and Molly Brooksby and Shineah Goody being Rising Star nominees. And we've seen Piper Window be really consistent and better each game. And then you look at the crew that have been in one or two or three years, and yeah, you mentioned Scholz and Dowrick, who are really finding their form and some consistency in their preparation, which I think is really helping their game. And Caitlin Wendland, I couldn't be more happy for. (She’s a) Port person, through and through. And yeah, that was easily her best game pf AFLW, she was outstanding. Justine Mules-Robinson's 75th game, hits the scoreboard a couple of times, and brings amazing energy and resilience to her group. So, you know, I could go on. To be fair, I thought our forwards, it was their best performance of the year so far. And so all the little rocks that we've been working on for a long period of time, we're starting to see come together, but we have to understand that each game has to be key focus, and we have to shift really quickly into being prepared for Thursday night at Alberton against Collingwood.” 

Arnell on the pay-off of the improvement in fitness 
“It’s certainly been something that our group and coaches, to be fair, we've been frustrated by for the first couple of seasons in this comp. And then there's this balance of building a level of fitness and strength to compete against older and more experienced bodies in this comp takes time. And so to see so much of it unlocked this year, I think it is a real reflection of a lot of our staff and our players’ hard work over a long period of time, not just over the last nine or 10 months. And I think also a really nice incentive and fuel to the fire going into future off seasons. So our group now really does understand what's required. And I think there's more to unlock in this space too. I think we're only just beginning around where we can get to in our aerobic capacity, our repeat sprint and our strength in the gym is translating on field. How much has been unlocked this year is, so far, exciting. We've still got a lot of work to do.” 

Arnell on playing Collingwood on Thursday 
“Yeah, they’ve certainly been rocked by injuries, Collingwood. We do put a good amount of time into our opposition. So we've seen they've brought in a couple of their stronger players in the last game or so, and so we do our homework on them, and again, prepare well early in the week, and then put a massive focus, basically from today into our style of game and how we need to perform, regardless of our opposition.” 

Arnell on AFLW Pride Round 
“It’s obviously a really special opportunity for players to design the guernsey, and for the group to wear it on their behalf is pretty special. And you know, seeing Abbey in particular talk to the group a week ago about where the design has come from, and the inspiration and what Pride Round means to her is almost more important. Hearing Abbey speak about the impact that it can have on the people that are close to her, I think that can't be lost. Pride is such a well celebrated thing now compared to when a number of us grew up. And so to see the young people, this generation confidently speak, as a freshly 22-year-old in front of the group around what it means and why it's important, for me, that’s the impact that it’s having now, and that's really special.”