Richmond AFLW coach Tom Hunter was encouraged by the Tigers' best performance to date on Saturday afternoon at Queen Elizabeth Oval, Bendigo.
Despite the 22-point loss to Geelong, Richmond notched up its highest ever score and booted more goals in just two quarters than the previous three weeks combined.
“Bar our second quarter, it really looked like the way we wanted to play, there were more patches, more consistency,” Hunter said post-match.
“They looked awesome when they took the game on and just played footy, and that was all we asked of them this week, to play the game.
“It really stood out that that’s the type of footy we can play.”
Hunter conceded the Tigers got “beaten around the ball” in the second quarter as the Cats piled on six goals, but was pleased with his side’s response in the third quarter, kicking four unanswered goals.
“We’ll do a little bit of work on that during the week and we did tinker with that at half-time and it had a good effect in the second half,” he said.
“We gave our forwards better use of the footy…and the pleasing thing was they went back and finished the work up the ground.”
Hunter praised Monique Conti for her dazzling display, the young gun racking up a game-high 28 disposals and five tackles.
“She played fantastic today, she does things that we look at and think ‘that’s incredible’,” Hunter said.
He also commended bookends Courtney Wakefield (three goals, 10 disposals) and Phoebe Monahan (20 disposals) for their efforts.
“Court had a fantastic day in front of goal, Phoebe down back was sensational…the way she took the game on this week and gave us great drive off half-back was fantastic,” Hunter said.
“Alice Edmonds as well, the way she competes in the ruck and gives our midfielders first use, she sent it to the right spots.”
Bendigo products Kodi Jacques and Grace Campbell did not disappoint in front of their home crowd, as Jacques produced a classy third-quarter goal to go with a game-high six tackles and Campbell recorded 10 disposals and four tackles.
“(Kodi had a) fantastic finish in front of goal and with Grace, we love her intent, we love what she brings around the contest,” Hunter said.
“They loved playing here and we love playing up in Bendigo, I’m really pleased that they did well.”
As the Tigers turn their attention towards their next challenge, the Giants in Wagga Wagga, they will continue to focus on building consistency over four quarters.
“It’s a hard thing to practice because we don’t get that much time on the track, but just reiterating the messages and showing the girls what they’ve done really well…and hopefully get more patches of that against GWS,” Hunter said.
“I love the way that they played (against Geelong).
“We’re a big process over outcome side, so I thought the process and the way we went about it was fantastic.”
