Hawthorn AFLW Senior Coach Bec Goddard has expressed pride in her playing group following the completion of their inaugural season.

The Hawks finished the season in 15th position with three wins and seven losses. All three victories came back-to-back-to-back while two of the defeats were under a goal, highlighting the team’s progression in just 10 rounds of AFLW.

Speaking post-game after Hawthorn’s narrow five-point loss against Fremantle, Goddard was optimistic about the future of the team.

“Every coach will say that they want to win each week but then you have to temper the expectations with the growth and where the competition’s at,” Goddard said.

“Taking the win-loss record out of it, we’ve seen some amazing new talent come into the competition this year and it’s been really important. We’ll keep going places.”

Goddard was particularly bullish about the younger Hawks brigade, highlighting their rapid improvement in such a short space of time.

“We played all 30 on our list this year,” she said.

“I think in the first six rounds we had 18 debutants who had never played AFLW before.

“We’ve got five players who were 17 when they came on to our list, they had done five weeks of pre-season training. Some of them didn’t regularly step foot into a gym so I think in another 12 months’ time, I’m really excited to see where they go.”

Despite going down in just their second official AFLW interstate trip, there were positive moments in the game. The Hawks led at the first and third changes, and by as much as 17 points during the third term. Although they couldn’t get over the line in the end, Goddard said the result was another important step in her team’s AFLW journey.

“We are a first-year team who has been learning as each week has gone by about how to deal with really experienced players like that,” Goddard said.

“We had some significant changes to our side this week with four of our Year 12s staying home in Victoria for exams.

“We put up a hell of a fight against some experienced players who had the wind in the last quarter and wanted to get the job done.”

While it was Hawthorn’s final match of the season, it was also Jess Duffin’s swansong. Goddard said the Hawks vice-captain will go down as a legend of the sport.

“We didn’t get the result on the scoreboard but Jess doesn’t stop being great just because we didn’t win the game,” the Hawthorn coach said.

“She’s had some amazing moments as an athlete in this sport and internationally.

“She led by example when she came into Hawthorn, she showed the girls how to give and receive feedback, she showed what high standards were on the training track and those things, you can’t even measure in terms of output.”

When summing up the season overall, Goddard kept it simple.

“You never want to be content with losing a game,” she said.

“We know how we feel in the changerooms right now but we know we’re making progress. We’re really proud of our first season in the AFLW.”