Lowther on the challenge of taking on the Crows in Adelaide

They've had a loss, we had a loss. It just goes to show the improvement over the competition over the last couple of years. The Saints are striving for consistency like the rest of us and they played a great game against the Crows. You'd say the Crows were down on their performance over their history, perennial finalists and top of the league team, so I'm sure they'll come out firing this weekend to prove a point that was just a bit of a blip in the radar. Just like our game last week - we want to bounce back and be far greater in the game from quarter one to quarter four. We're expecting a really tight game over there. Historically, the last couple of games have been fought in the same vein. Throw Chelsea Randall back into the mix and a bit of fight and fire there as well, I'm sure they'll be up and about, just like we need to be, too.

Lowther on the lessons learnt from Adelaide's loss to St Kilda

That's the challenge from week-to-week, is to make sure that you're matching inside firepower with fire, and then your element of control on the back of that can support moving the ball in the right direction efficiently. The Crows had 50 inside 50s and didn't score. That's a threat that we need to make sure we're prepared for. Their contest work and going forward was fine, if they can get those pieces of the puzzle together, they're going to be really hard to play against again.

Lowther on team changes this week

Chantal Mason will come in this week and play as a forward. She's played one game (of AFLW). That one game against Brisbane was with a stress fracture, which no one knew about, so she hobbled her way through but got through it, but she's done a great job over pre-season to get herself in a position to play and support. Erica Fowler will come in for her first game as well to support our ruck with her height.

Lowther on Development Coach Tom Atkins playing his 150th AFL game this weekend

It's been awesome (having him as a development coach), to the point where we're like, "Really? It's 150 games?" He just doesn't say anything about his own accolades or his own personal gains. He's added a sense of balance to our group in regards to, if you want to be a great AFLW player, you need to be consistent, and it's these kind of things that support consistency and that's what, as a program, we're working towards. He brings this straight-laced, this is what you need to be doing A, B and C, and it gives you a good chance to be the best version of yourself. And his story speaks for itself, just doing the same thing, coming from local footy into VFL men's, and then all of a sudden he's playing exactly the same from local footy into AFL, which speaks volumes for the guy he is.

I was his midfield coach in the VFL, when he was playing with Geelong in the VFL, and he's the same guy now he was five or six years ago. His principles haven't changed and his approach to the game hasn't changed. It's no wonder and no surprise from our end why he's such a bloody good player and been consistent for the club. He's a huge asset for our program, a huge asset for me in regards to perspective around midfield culture and principles. I'm learning a lot and the girls are learning a lot, too.

Lowther on the 'Centra Bounce'

(It's) phenomenal. It's amazing to have that be so widely looked at now across the men's and women's (competitions) as a cultural perspective. I don't follow TikTok and those sorts of things as broadly as the rest of the group, but it's certainly galvanised men's and women's footy for the period now. This new group of players coming through from last year's draft, and going forward, they're just going to make the competition go from strength to strength. I know we've been practising it at training behind closed doors - I can't do it, but the girls are pretty good at it.

Lowther on Kate Kenny's role on the wing

Just experimenting with her strengths. She's a tall, strong, fast player, she's a great kick of the footy. We just thought that maybe playing her as a forward was holding her back in regards to the things she could do on the field. As opposed to keeping her condensed at one end, opening the field up for her to use her attributes more, and we saw that during the pre-season. She's a metres-gained player, so getting those metres through run and carry and driving a long kick into our front half is probably more influential than playing closer to goal, even though she's got those attributes to play.