Western Bulldogs AFLW head coach Nathan Burke has challenged his side to have a strong finish to season 2022.
Despite relentless efforts and patches of control, the Bulldogs suffered a 25-point loss to Collingwood in Indigenous Round on Sunday afternoon.
“I challenged the girls in there – we’ve got two games left, so we can be concerned about the bigger picture or we can say ‘we still have a long way to improve when we play against the better sides’,” Burke told media post-match.
“We had a gameplan in place we wanted to play, which was to nullify Collingwood and play on our strengths - but we just weren’t able to execute that for long enough and paid the price unfortunately.
“It makes (our run to the finals) really hard, there’s no doubt about that.
“We’re going to have to win some in big ways, and then some will have to lose by a lot. That will take care of itself.”
Burke said the fatigue of playing seven games in 30 days played a factor in the result, but couldn’t fault his side’s attitude and determination.
“I’m not making excuses here, but when you’re playing a team that gets more of that outside run, and you’re generally fatigued as a team – (Collingwood) took advantage of that and that really hurt us,” he said.
“I’ve got no question about our effort whatsoever. They came to the bench and you could just see in their faces a lot of them were blank.
“What happens sometimes is that when you give everything, your decision-making is the first thing that drops off.
“Today necessarily wasn’t our decision-making with the ball, it was should I push over and get that player? For that split second, if you hesitate with that – she’s got the ball and suddenly you’re chasing. I think that was the pattern of play for us all day.
“Conceding 10 goals wasn’t good – we don’t want to concede that many, and we gave them too many easy ones. There were reasons for that, but I certainly can’t question their endeavour.”
The Bulldogs will look to bounce back in round nine against West Coast at Optus Stadium on Saturday night.
