Hawthorn AFLW Coach Daniel Webster is excited about the prospect of facing reigning premiers North Melbourne for the first time on Friday night at Frankston.

Speaking to the media after the Hawks’ 30-point win against Essendon, Webster said that “these are the games you want to play”, as the team prepares for its second straight finals campaign and its first-ever AFLW game against the Kangaroos. 

The Hawks Coach also spoke about Aine McDonagh’s dazzling form, Nat Exon’s debut and how the club’s first-year players have stepped up in the face of adversity. 

We summarised the key points from his press conference below. 

On the game against Essendon

“I think our work rate in the second half definitely picked up. I didn’t think it was at the level it needed to be in the first half, especially defensively, we gave them too many uncontested possessions, which I think they got well on top of in that first half. Obviously, with the rain, it meant that the inside game was really important and our defence as well. I think we were moving the ball well, we just couldn’t get our hands on it long enough. The fact that we picked up and got to work in the second half was really pleasing.”

On Aine McDonagh’s performance

“I think I’ve been talking about her each week, just how good she’s going this year. She’s very dynamic, she’s doing it in the air, she does it at ground level, she’s set up a few as well, her tackling pressure, she’s playing very good football, and it’s great to see. It’s no surprise to us because she puts in a mountain of work on her game. She’s someone who constantly wants to get better and find ways to be the best she can and score as much as possible for us.” 

On Nat Exon’s debut 

“She’s been training with us all year, so once the opportunity came to add her to our list, it was pretty straightforward for us. Depending on how she went in the scrimmage last week was the big thing for us, and with that type of player, we’ve probably struggled a little bit without (Emily) Bates and (Bridie) Hipwell in the midfield and having that bit of extra depth there. Nat can play in multiple roles, and obviously, we use her as a forward and going inside as well. That was one of the big things for us, getting another player of that type in our side. I think that helped kind of settle down the forward line because we’ve been playing (Aileen) Gilroy, Greta (Bodey) and Kashy (Kaitlyn Ashmore) at times on-ball, and it’s probably thrown out our mid-forward connection. Nat’s been a midfielder all her life, so it was easy enough for us to throw her in there.”

On Lucy Wales’ health 

“I can update that she’s back in Melbourne. In terms of the timeframe, we’ll work on that in due course. We’ll have to see how she recovers.” 

On some of the club’s first-year players 

“Elli’s (Symonds) playing second ruck and forward, which is not an easy task to do in your first year, but she’s a competitor, she’s very strong, she’s happy to throw her weight around in contests as much as possible, and the way she competes is awesome. To see her get the goal and the celebration at the end was good. Daisy (Flockart), again, same deal, when you’re playing as an inside mid in your first year, she’s trained really hard to get to that. I think she was the last of our draftees to get a game this year, which is always hard as well, but she’s just kept working at her craft and understanding what the requirements are. She’s on a steep learning curve, but she’s doing incredibly well and again, just watching those two, how powerful they are, it’s really exciting for us and the future in particular. Grace (Baba) is electric. When she gets the ball, her sidestep and her kicking ability and all of that, we think they’re three players who are going to have massive careers for us.”

On facing North Melbourne 

“They’re the games you want to play. I think part of the challenges of teams trying to work their way up and trying to build their way up the ladder is getting game time against the best teams. I think I might have mentioned it some time last year at some point, the traditional four (teams) get to play each other every three or four weeks, so they’re constantly getting a reminder of what the elite standard is, so for us to get more of these games has been really good for us. We’re super excited for it and we just can’t wait. It’ll be a good test and we’re super excited.” 

Watch Daniel Webster’s full post-match press conference below