West Coast Head of Women’s Football Michelle Cowan has praised the Eagles’ resilience over the past few weeks as the AFLW’s condensed fixture continues to be the subject of heavy debate. 

Over the past few weeks the condensed fixture has been a point of contention in the AFLW world, with clubs playing 11 games across a 10 weeks, including midweek games to ensure the alloted number of games for 2024 is met. 

AFLW clubs, including West Coast, wrapped up a chaotic period in which they played four games in 15 days including two back-to-back games in Melbourne against the Western Bulldogs and Collingwood. 

However, the high volume of games within a short period has contributed to numerous issues across the competition, including increasing numbers of injuries, list availability issues, and low crowd numbers – particularly for midweek games. 

Speaking to Sports Breakfast ahead of West Coast’s clash against Port Adelaide this weekend, Cowan said she felt for the coaches and players but was proud of the way the side took on the challenges presented by the fixtures. 

“I felt for the coaches in particular Dais. There was one day during that fixture where she had to do the review and the (opposition review) in the one day of training to move on to the next game,” she said. 

“There’s been a lot of commitment and organisation on the coaches side and then for players, to make sure they prep themselves and recover. The recovery side has probably been the paramount for us as opposed to the training. 

“We only got one training I think in that week of condensed rounds because we were playing so much footy, which is great, the more games we can play the better, so we absolutely loved it. 

“To go on the road and play those two games in Melbourne and come back with both victories was really impressive with the way the group just embraced it.”

The end of this jampacked period was marked by a victory against GWS on the road which saw West Coast shatter yet another record under Daisy Pearce’s leadership. 

During the third quarter, Kellie Gibson booted a major to break the Eagles’ record for their highest ever score recorded in a game – one that has stood unbeaten for three years. 

With records tumbling down around them, a maiden finals berth isn’t completely out of the question for West Coast who are placed seventh on the ladder, although they have difficult games against crosstown rival Fremantle and Hawthorn looming ahead. 

Cowan attributes much of last weekend’s performance against GWS players taking onboard some changes implemented by the coaching group following the 45-point thrashing against reigining premiers Brisbane. 

“There’s certainly been a lot of hard work that’s gone in behind the scenes and the work that the girls are putting in, there’s no surprise that we’re at where we’re at,” she said.

“When I look at the application and the willingness to improve which is daily with this group and has been really impressive. 

“We’ve come off that loss against Brisbane and the coaches educated really well over that week to implement some changes and then we run out against GWS with that being implemented and we get that result. 

“The group that we have are really adaptable, really coachable and really driven, and certainly for us, we were quite bullish that we had to improve, we wanted to improve. 

“What Daisy’s bringing out of this group is a lot of belief, a lot of drive and a lot of professionalism and embracing these elite standards. 

“If you want to have success you’ve got to work hard and there’s not one player here that’s on the easy road, they’re all working really really hard and I guess that’s going to lead to challenge for spots as well which is a good position to be in.”

West Coast are facing Port Adelaide this weekend at Mineral Resources Park, and will be desperately looking for a win to improve their season win-loss record at home. 

This record goes against the grain, as it is expected teams win more home games than away. However West Coast has won one of their three home games, and remains undefeated on the road.

“We’ve been up against some really good teams, so Brisbane, the reigning premiers and Essendon who took that 16-point victory,” said Cowan.

“We’re still impressed wity the way we went about both of those home games and the Richmond one, to get up by one point was a great way to start our season as well. 

“Port has been over here a couple of times and we’ve got the victory there and hopefully we can go again this weekend.”

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