AFLW 2024: West Coast Eagles ready to bounce back against GWS Giants after heavy Brisbane defeat
After being “exposed” by Brisbane, West Coast coach Daisy Pearce is looking for her side to not repeat the same mistakes against Greater Western Sydney.
The 45-point loss to Brisbane was a reality check for Pearce’s Eagles who are enjoying a record-breaking season.
While the loss was heavy, Pearce said the defeat to the reigning premiers had set them up to deliver against the Giants at Henson Park on Sunday.
“It’s another really good opportunity to keep developing, Brisbane exposed a few things in our game that we need to keep working on,” Pearce said.
“The Giants will try and shift the ball, possess the ball and take the ball off the line like the Lions were able to do, and go around us.
“We’ve done a lot of work this week on making sure that we maintain our shape around the ground so that teams can’t do that.
“It’s awesome that we get another opportunity to practice it against a side that will try and do a similar thing.”
Pearce said West Coast would look to nullify key Giants’ players but also not compromise their ability to play to their strengths.
Camera IconDaisy Pearce, Senior Coach of the Eagles celebrates with Emma Swanson. Credit: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos/AFL Photos via Getty Images
“We’ll probably have a few roles again, but beyond that, hold our structure,” Pearce said.
“We want to be adaptable and versatile and be able to have both up our sleeves to go into it anytime. But we will back in our system this week against the Giants and have a few plans for some of their really dangerous players as well.”
Giant-turned Eagles inaugural skipper Emma Swanson GWS midfielders Alyce Parker and Rebecca Beeson
“They’re key ball winners in their midfield, which will be a massive test,” Swanson said.
“I think Parks (Alyce Parker) had a pretty quiet game last week. I know her pretty well and she tries not to have two quiet ones in a row, so she’s definitely going to be someone we will have to watch.”
“Across the whole ground, if we just bring our pressure, and as Daisy said, they play a little bit like Brisbane, and we’ve been able to take some real key learnings from Sunday’s game, so hopefully we can put them into practice on the weekend.”
Young gun Ella Roberts has continued her rapid rise as one of the most exciting players in the competition and Swanson says its ‘awesome’ to watch her go about her business.
“I think we all say it, but sometimes you kind of sit back and watch her do something and you’re like geez, I didn’t know people could do that.”
“She brings a lot of talent and energy to the group and the best thing about it at her age and where we’re at with with our team is we just asking her to go out and play footy and that’s what she’s doing really, really well.”
“She’s developing this real key hunger to get better and improve every week and this year in particular, in the last couple of weeks, we’ve just seen a game get better and better.
“She’s really implementing stuff that she’s learning and coming out and training it as well, so her development’s been huge in the last few weeks and I love playing with her.”
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