AFLW: West Coast Eagles captain Emma Swanson backs winning belief after Essendon loss

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AFLW: West Coast Eagles captain Emma Swanson backs winning belief after Essendon loss

West Coast captain Emma Swanson says her side still holds plenty of belief off the back of their 16-point loss to Essendon at Mineral Resources Park on Saturday.

The Eagles were flying high after their thrilling round one win but were humbled by a dominant ******** outfit who were out to make a statement without injured captain Bonnie Toogood.

Trailing by as much as 20 points in the second, the Eagles clawed their way back to within five points of the ******** in the third term and Swanson says her side was confident they could replicate their gutsy performance to get the win.

“At three quarter time we knew we could do it, we got that belief last week,” Swanson told The West ***********.

“We know we can kick three or four goals in a quarter so we never thought for one second we couldn’t do it,

“Even in that last quarter just peppering the ball inside 50, all it takes is a couple of things to go right and the scoreboard starts to look a bit different.”

Camera IconBeth Schilling of the Eagles in action. Credit: Paul Kane/Getty Images

While the opportunity to clinch back-to-back wins for the first time didn’t eventuate, the 29-year-old says it was the way the Eagles started the game which was the biggest letdown.

“I think we’re probably more just disappointed in our first quarter, like we had seven per cent time in our half, in the first quarter, which let them score two goals,” Swanson said.

“And we probably gave away a couple easy goals in that last bit.

“I thought in the second and third quarter our hunt and our pressure was pretty good but obviously just couldn’t match them.”

The skipper returned after missing the season opener last week with groin soreness and started forward failing to get a touch in the opening term.

While the move raised questions about whether the Eagles veteran was fully fit, Swanson says the move was based on combinations.

“I tell Daisy I’m just a unicorn and you can throw me anywhere and it depends on our match ups,” Swanson said.

“We’ve got plenty of backs and I think we just went for more depth in the midfield in terms of our selection so there’s a few versatile players.

“I think at one stage me, Bella (Lewis), Ella (Roberts) were forward so we’ve got the magnets to be able to do that and the depth which is really good.”

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Camera IconEmma Swanson. Credit: Paul Kane/Getty Images

The veteran had plenty of praise for teammate Jayme Harken, who made her debut after back-to-back WAFLW best and fairest medals.

“I call her Dusty Harken, she’s a bit of a bull around the ball which is really good, she makes a difference,” Swanson said.

“She’s a great hunt player and she’s shown that at WAFLW level for a really long time and I think today she showed today she can do it at AFLW as well.

With a short turn around until their next match against the Western Bulldogs, Swanson says her side will need to refocus and move on pretty quickly if they want to get back on the winners list.

“We will look at our first quarter for sure, look at around the contest and our hunt,” she said.

“And then probably the good things, we had a lot of really good passages of ball movement that we can take away and we know that when we do it it looks really good and we can get the ball inside forward.”

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