Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell said the message all year to her group has been about continuous improvement and using every opportunity to get better.
And now, in an 11-game season, Arnell’s team showed enormous growth, winning seven games and qualifying for its first ever AFW finals series.
Arnell spoke to the Adelaide media on Thursday about the excitement of finals, the recent six-game win streak, and what to expect from Richmond.
Arnell on the excitement of finals
“We’re obviously elated to be playing our first final series and to have a home final at Alberton on Sunday arvo, it's awesome. I know that ticket sales are going really well, so I just encourage all our Port Faithful to get out here on Sunday afternoon.”
Arnell on her players enjoying the moment
“I have absolute confidence our players will enjoy the moment, particularly with our crowd here. I'm sure you've been here in a home game, it's a special thing, and I know that our group enjoys every opportunity they get to play, and it is pretty limited in this comp, having 11 game fixtures and now being able to play a final and hopefully more than one, it's something I have confidence the players will enjoy. And, you know, there'll be some natural nerves, but that means you care.”
Arnell on earning the right to be in finals
“I think that's probably an external narrative around (making up the numbers). For us, our narrative all year and each week has been around, how much better can we get as a team? And what I was referencing earlier is, you do get such a limited time on field against genuine opposition to get better and play good footy together. And you know, you look at the AFL men’s season just gone and Brisbane being incredible premiership winners. I think Round 10 for them, from memory, they were about 13th in the comp, and we've just played Round 11. So I think what's in front of us as an AFL W team is how much better can you get with every opportunity that you play? And for us to get another one, and we hope more, the lens still has to be how much better can we be? And we've got areas after each game that we focus on, and hopefully we see some more improvement again after this weekend.”
Arnell on taking on Richmond this Sunday
“I think if you go back and watch our Round 5 game against Richmond, it was a Tuesday in Melbourne. We played Friday in Melbourne in horrendous weather against North, and lost that one pretty heavily. And there were elements against Richmond that we're confident we've grown from since Round 5 and referencing again, the fact that we look to be a better side each week that we play, there's certain areas we've definitely been better in. Particularly in attacking our offense, I think Richmond play a pretty similar style to us in that they’re very good on turnover offence, and we gave them the footy back far too much in the middle of the ground last time we played, and it allowed them to play really quickly off turnover and score a lot early. So that's something we can address pretty quickly, and six straight wins after that.”
Arnell in winning the last six games
“Winning six straight games in our third season as a team is something you take great confidence from. And if anything, for the players, it's such a young group, and each win in a short fixture builds enormous confidence, and particularly when you come out of a more challenging space of our fixture early in the season. You know, we lost Round 1 to Adelaide, Round 3 to Fremantle, and then Round 4 and 5, Richmond and North Melbourne and so to come out of that having won six in a row, yeah, you'd expect a fair amount of confidence from a from a young group.”
Arnell on the trigger for the six-game streak
“I do think it's natural maturity and time together as a group like you tick into a sixth game of the year, I think that does make a heap of difference. Like having had the five games and we had a couple of trial games with where we mixed the team around a fair bit, but finding some continuity with the group that we had on field. Julia Teakle has been injured for a chunk of that, but beyond that, we've had a lot of continuity in our team, and I think that matters. So there are some things that you take out of each game and the Richmond game, I honestly just think playing that next game after and having Carlton here at home was just an opportunity to put more things in place and embed more of our game style that we've been working on up to that point.”
Arnell on the home ground advantage
“I think, to be fair to Ange (Foley), there were some words put in her mouth that were never even said if you watch the press conference (from Tuesday). So I think what needs to be said is that we have absolute respect for Richmond. They beat us by 21 points in Round 5. And yeah, I think if you watch the press conference back you'll notice Ange is referencing our people and our crowd and how special it is to play in front of our people here at Alberton. So yeah, we absolutely have respect for Richmond. They've been an incredible team for a couple of years now, and we're confident they'll put their best foot forward, and we'll have to bring our absolute best footy on Sunday to beat them.”
Arnell on settling the nerves for the players this week “We've done a lot of work over the last three years on how to work with nerves, because we do have a young team, and so without a heap of experience in the group, you work with that anyway, week to week. So a lot of it, for me is a mentality of, if you're nervous, you actually care about what you're doing, and then you lean on some different things that they've learned about how to help each other on field, because a lot of it is the energy that you provide for your teammates. And there's small things we can do as coaches on game day, but ultimately it's how the group comes together and looks after each other on game day. And we've made enormous progress with that, that to the outside eye, probably isn't overly noticeable, but to us, it's huge this year. So I'd welcome the nerves from the playing group, because they deeply care about their performance.”
Arnell on her x-factor players
“I think both teams have heavy x-factor. You look at Conti and McKenzie and Brennan in particular, and you know, that's absolute star power. So for us, I noticed there's some been some All-Australian predictions of teams in bits and pieces, and there's not a lot of Port Adelaide players in there. And it disappoints me in a way, because we have won seven games out of 11, and we've got a young group performing to a high level. And you can't just purely base that on the stats. We're a low possession team on purpose, and so I'd love for people to notice our performers are consistent across the group, and perhaps maybe not a heap of girls that are going to roll out and get 30, but a wide range of contributors across the team. So that's something that also builds confidence in our group.”
Arnell on six players being named in the 22under22 squad
“It’s super nice for the six who were named in that squad of 44 for the 22under22 in the PA (Players’ Association). So really exciting for them, exciting for us. I do think there's a couple more to come, like Lauren Young's rehabbing an ACL at the moment. Piper Window’s had a really strong season. And again, if you look at a stats sheet, it's underestimated. And I know a lot of people that pick those teams aren't based here in Adelaide. And you know, I'd like to think that there's a couple more in our group that are going pretty well. So pleased for them to be noticed. And you know, ultimately, the attitude from that crew is they just want to be good teammates and play well for the group.”
Arnell on Scholz, Dowrick and Teakle
“Matilda and Abbey, again, I saw some stuff that suggested they were rested last week against the Giants, which is inaccurate. Both were not fit to play last week, and expect them to train well tonight and put their hands up for Sunday. And Julia is in the same boat. She's done an exceptional job of being really diligent with her knee, and she'll have an opportunity to train well tonight and hopefully put her hand up for selection on Sunday.
“I think all three have shown they're clearly in our best 21 and so particularly Julia being out the last few weeks, there's been opportunities for others to step in and , to be fair to the group that's come into the team, they've really contributed and played their role. And Julia has been a really consistent contributor for us over the last few years. So you know, you would have noticed some difference around stoppage for us against the Giants without Matilda and Abbey there. So yeah, feeling positive that they'll train well tonight, and put their hands up.”
