Western Bulldogs captain Ellie Blackburn says the team’s never-say-die attitude came to the forefront in Saturday’s maiden win of the 2023 season.
Blackburn led by example in the eight-point win over West Coast, registering a career-high 32 disposals to go with nine marks, five tackles and a game-high 665 metres gained.
She said knowing her team was in front when the final siren went was a moment of “pure relief”.
“It’s been a long and tiring season for so many different facets – through injury, obviously not winning games, and things just not falling the way we intended them to – so to finally hear that siren go and know we were ahead on the scoreboard was honestly just pure relief,” Blackburn said post-game.
“I was just so happy we were able to walk off the ground and celebrate with smiles on our faces.”
Blackburn said the fact the team never gave up, even when the season escaped them, made her especially proud.
“I think what makes me proud isn’t necessarily the win, it’s just the ability to continue to show up and be present,” she said.
“It’s the willingness to learn and get better at every single opportunity we get. Easily a couple of weeks ago we probably could’ve thrown in the towel – but the group continues to show up every single training session and every single game with the intent to get better, learn and improve.
“We were able to display that today and I thought it was probably our best team performance we’ve had all season.”
Coach Nathan Burke echoed Blackburn’s thoughts, particularly pleased his side was finally rewarded for the months of hard work and dedication.
“I might be a little bit croaky actually. It was quite emotional,” Burke told media post-match.
“Mainly I’m just so pleased. They’ve worked (so hard), but we just haven’t had any reward for it until now.
“Their dedication, perseverance and resilience - all the stuff that they’ve needed to get to this point in the season - today it all comes flooding out. There’s a bit of emotion going on.”
Burke was also proud of the way the group handled the last quarter.
“I noted before the game that when we play sort of difficult conditions – I know it can get a lot hotter here but it was still fairly warm – they actually rise and play well in these games,” he said.
“When it’s hard and tough, that’s when they really guts it out.
“That’s the first point, but the second point is that I think we played smarter today than we probably have (all season).
“Where we kicked the ball, the numbers we had around the ball, how we orchestrated a loose one in defence – you can only have the runner go out three times (for the quarter), and we burnt those fairly early in the last so we just had to leave it up to the players, and they made all the right decisions which was great.”
The Bulldogs’ final challenge of the 2023 NAB AFLW Season will come against North Melbourne this Saturday afternoon in Pride Round.
Tickets for the match at VU Whitten Oval are on sale now.
