Hawthorn VFLW Assistant Coach Brett Alexander said he was ‘ecstatic’ after the team’s important win over Richmond on Sunday.
“We’re incredibly happy both as a coaching group and you can see by the reaction from the playing group after the game, how much it means to get a win going into the bye,” Alexander said post-match.
After a loss and a draw, the Hawks were searching for a win ahead of their bye round.
“We did a big review during the week on areas we wanted to improve and the girls just really stepped up and delivered in all those areas that we wanted to tick off.”
The VFLW side defeated Richmond by 13 points on Sunday, a major confidence boost for the Hawks with the Tigers sitting third on the ladder.
Alexander said the focus heading into the game was to bring the pressure to the top three side.
“We wanted to be ruthless in our pressure and when we got the ball, make sure we were one to use it and be more proactive with more inside 50’s.
“At the same time when they got the ball we just wanted to have that constant ruthless pressure so they didn’t have that thinking time to use it.”
Phoebe McWilliams had a huge impact on the side’s win, kicking four of the Hawks’ seven goals, whilst also racking up 17 disposals.
“We did some restructuring of how we wanted our forwards to play and our backs to play.
“This meant that if we can get that ball inside 50 then our forwards, their role is to kick goals obviously, but it gave them better opportunity to do that and Phoebe getting those four goals, well the scoreboard pressure is always nice.”
The Hawks now have a week off with a bye round and will look to reset before their last run of games ahead of finals.
“They’ll do a review tomorrow night and then they get the rest of the week off to physically and mentally freshen up, but they're also going to do some community club appearances and then we’ll reload.
“We’ve got four hard games coming up and pretty much our destiny is in our hands and if we can keep ticking boxes like we did today, I think the vibe will be great coming off the bye.”
