Lowther on the focus this week

I am not going to lie, I think you always look ahead a little bit to see how things are unfolding.

Similar to last year, we need to win those games late in the season and rely on a few things to fall our way.

We need to make sure that we are the master of our own domain, and we haven't been the last few weeks. West Coast showed last week that they were fighting for a similar position and a similar opportunity to play in the post season, they played that way.

The response for our group this week, miracles aside, is to control what we can which is responding the right way against the Dogs who are again, you can pose the same question to them. 

Lowther on the takeaways from last week

There are a few areas. West Coast brought a lot of physical pressure from the outset, it took our girls a bit to absorb that pressure and then make good decisions off the back of it.

You look at the goals that we gave away, there was a 50 metre penalty and a downfield free kick, some one-on-ones that we lost. If we compete harder for longer in some of those scenarios, you take those opportunities away. We gave them a few goals, that is not to discredit West Coast because they deserved it.

But we had our scoring opportunities as well, the first quarter we missed three late and scoreboard pressure means a lot.

One part was that, the other part was the fact that our fundamentals weren't up to standard.

That is something we have addressed this week around our attention to detail and standard at training, so if we can get a combination of our contest method and our fundamental, it will hopefully steer us in the right direction. 

Lowther on where the Cats have failed

The last few seasons we have made some significant strides in the right direction, in terms of consistent performance. Scoring is one thing we have always been talking about, to make a bit of a dent in the competition which I think we have done pretty well over the past couple of seasons.

But there are games, even last year there were games where we just can't move the ball or get the footy. It comes down to getting the footy, our contested method a lot. If we get the football and then move the ball the right way, generally pretty good things happen off the back of it.

I think at times it is our inconsistency around our ability to win possession, particularly when we win the ball in our back half and how we can exit the footy in a way that then gets the ball going with a bit more territory. It can be our Achilles heel at times.

It does feel that way at times, you make some positives strides like our three wins in a row this year, a win against Port Adelaide away who are a strong team to beat anywhere.

Then you drop a game where you think you should be more competitive for longer, so it is just about finding that part and getting the group to respond the right way. 

Lowther on facing the Bulldogs

We have played only a few times over the last few seasons and we have done okay. We had a good game against them a couple of years ago, hung on to win by a point.

Their form, they started off pretty slow and found their mojo as the season has progressed, which is similar to their season last year to be fair. With added draft picks and good talent, they have had some good time to gel which is great to see.

Blackburn is great playing some good footy, Edmonds has been really strong in the ruck and Pritchard has had a standout season. They have got some really good firepower in the midfield, they are scoring pretty well when they get that run and flow.

They are pretty stingy in their defence too, which we can hopefully take advantage and change that script a little bit around our scoring power.