Hub Exclusive: “I think we can take a lot of positives out that game“ - Molly McDonald

The Saints challenged the Crows in the second half of their Round 6 clash in the AFLW. St Kilda ultimately fell short, as the Crows hung on in an absolute epic.

“I mean, we came here needing to work on some stuff off the back the last two weeks,” Saints coach, Nick Dal Santo, began.

“I think we are getting caught up on the results, but our previous two weeks to where we lost those games hadn’t been great football and we felt like we had a lot of growth within our group.

“We knew clearly tonight was going to be a really big challenge, we respect the Crows, as we do everybody.

“I thought we really stuck at it. It was a really hard-fought game and a lot of the areas that we wanted to focus on internally we worked on it and got a little bit better.

“I understand the disappointment from the result, but we’ve got to improve and I thought we took a step forward tonight.”

Star winger Molly McDonald echoed her coach’s thoughts when she spoke exclusively to Hub post-match;

“We probably haven’t been playing the football that we wanted to be playing and the defence that we want to be playing. I think we can take a lot of positives out that game.“

St Kilda lifted heading into the second half, and McDonald elaborated on the mood inside the rooms at the long break;

“He [Dal Santo] just went over that our energy needed to lift.

“[Re-affirming] the trust in our character and our culture that we’ve ticked off in our first two quarters, and we need to lift again in that third quarter, hopefully be a bit more competitive.

“I think as a group, we knew we were still in the game and we really fought to the end.”

St Kilda’s pressure, especially in the second half, was elite and it forced the Crows into many a turnover;

“I would’ve liked a few more [turnovers], that’d been great,” Dal Santo joked.

“Saying that, the Crows use the ball well. They’ve got exceptional players.

“I thought we did it relatively well, and I thought the Crows did it exceptionally well.”

With a combined 3.7 at half-time, and 6.12 for the game, scoreboard accuracy was a real issue for both teams;

“We’d like to kick more goals, ideally,” Dal Santo said.

“We are here to try and score at times. We’re still working on that. I don’t even know what we kicked, but we’d like to score more goals.”

One player who did end up with a goal was Molly McDonald, who talked through the first of the evening;

“We talk about wing push and wing slide as a wing and I saw my opportunity, so I took it,” McDonald said.

St Kilda, despite the feeling of progress within the group, didn’t get the win and Nick Dal Santo was remorseful over the missed four points;

“Yes, we are here to win games of football. It is what it is, we knew it was gonna be a challenge and I thought we were up for the fight.

“[There were] signs of growth, but disappointed we didn’t get over the line.”

Nick Dal Santo certainly sung the praises of Tyanna Smith post-game, mentioning that the young Saint has traits similar to that of Crows’ guns Ebony Marinoff and Anne Hatchard.

“You speak about Marinoff and Hatchard, very seasoned bodies that can do it week in, week out.

“Smith is a young player that’s making her way and doing some really good stuff and she’s growing. She has to do it against the best in the comp and I thought she did a pretty good job tonight.”

The Saints take on the Giants in Frankston on Tuesday night, as the AFLW’s 11 games in 10 weeks takes its toll;

“We have trust in our support staff and our strength and conditioning staff, McDonald said.

“We’ll recover well and have a fit side coming into Tuesday and Sunday.”

Catch Hub’s exclusive chat with St Kilda winger, Molly McDonald, here;