Western Bulldogs coach Tamara Hyatt said she was proud of what her playing group had achieved in the AFLW season.
The Bulldogs finished their season on Sunday with a loss to Walyalup (Fremantle) Fremantle, but were in the game for the first three quarters.
There were just five points in it at three quarter time, before the Dockers did all the scoring in the final quarter to win, 4.11 (35)-3.3 (21).
Hyatt said they probably didn’t get their hands on the ball enough to create enough scoring opportunities to get the win.
She said the message at three quarter time was that they could still win the game.
Sarah Hartwig, Izzy Pritchard, Heidi Woodley were the goalkickers for the Bulldogs.
The result caps off an up and down season for the Bulldogs.
The side was heavily criticised at times for its lack of scoring as they went goalless in multiple games, but managed to win four games and finish in 12th spot.
Hyatt said the group had taken some massive steps forward.
“Really proud, that is an understatement,” she said. “I think the growth that we’ve had and we just spoke about it with the families in the rooms.
“From round one, we were basing things on hope and hoping we did well and we finished round 10 after 11 games with real strong belief in this group.”
Hyatt said matches against Walyalup and the Brisbane Lions, who will both play finals, showed they were on the right track.
She said parts of their game stacks up
“We know that we’ve made big steps, probably still have areas to grow and that is exciting with this group,” she said.
“It is a real launching pad. We’re only 11 games into where we want to get to. We see it as a comma, not a full stop on the season.
“I think being a new group, early on there were probably some teething issues.
“Once we started to spend more time together, not just on the training track, but then game day and things like that, I think there was cohesiveness and we connected better.”
Hyatt said heading forward into 2025 they would need to improve in all three areas of the game, contest, defence and offence.
She said there were parts of all three they had done well throughout the year but said they needed to have some more polish when they had the football.
