Lowther on the two debutants

It is pleasing to have two new players start for their first game against the Kangaroos.

Emma Kilpatrick will debut, she will play up the ground and in defence for us.

She is from South Australia, a West Adelaide girl and she has had an immediate impact on our group. She came here quite late actually as a bit of a replacement player, but her impact has been really positive.

Piper Dunlop will debut as well, she had two really good games in the practice series.

She also had a great year last year in the VFLW, I think it is no secret that we are crying out for a tall player in the ruck. She has filled that position really well, so she will debut as well. 

Lowther on team selection

Probably three or four weeks ago, we were scratching our heads around having enough numbers to fill a team, that has been pretty common around the competition with injuries.

Credit to our strength and conditioning staff and our medical staff to get the group to a point now where we have to leave players out, which is a good thing in regards to the depth of our squad.

We were very tempted to play Lexi [Gregor], but she will get her chance eventually which is great. 

Lowther on the early challenge

We have to embrace it, we have had them in early stages of the season pretty consistently, last year in Round 2 and this year in Round 1.

For us to play them at the start is a good gauge for us in regards to how we have prepped through our pre-season, the things we are chasing from a tactical and strategy perspective.

To test ourselves against the best, so to get them now is a really good challenge for us.

Then the Crows the week after as well, so really good first two weeks to see where our group is at. 

Lowther on the young Cats to watch in 2025

There is a few to get excited about, it has been a really good pre-season from a number of our younger players.

Bryde O'Rourke is someone who will play her second game, she didn't get much of a chance in her first game with a bit of a shoulder injury. She has trained the house down all pre-season, so she has deserved her crack at playing.

I mentioned Chantal Mason, she is not in the team this week but she is going to be in the team pretty quickly, off the back of a long rehab but she is firing as well. Piper [Dunlop] as well, Caitlin Tipping is doing good things, Caitlin Thorne as well as had a really good pre-season.

We are testing the depth of our group which is important. Everyone knows that our midfield is pretty strong with the likes of Nina [Morrison], Georgie [Prespakis] and Amy [McDonald] rolling through there, along with Julia Crockett-Grills but we need to keep building our depth across all lines. Kate Kenny is another one too in that bracket.