Adelaide Crows AFLW coach Bec Goddard believes it’s up to coaches to bring attractive football

PREMIERSHIP coach Bec Goddard has underlined the responsibility resting with all AFLW coaches to deliver an attractive spectacle rather than a win-at-all-cost approach to women’s football.

Erin Phillips and the Crows enjoy winning the Women's AFLW Grand Final.

PREMIERSHIP coach Bec Goddard has underlined the responsibility resting with all AFLW coaches to deliver an attractive spectacle rather than a win-at-all-cost approach to women’s football.

As she prepares for the beginning of the Crows’ flag defence with a grand final rematch against Brisbane at Norwood Oval on Saturday night, Goddard said the coaches owed it to the players and the stakeholders of the game to create the best possible spectacle.

Super defensive, flooding tactics would hurt not only the interest in the game, but also the players’ prospect of one day being full-time athletes and for the game to generate lucrative broadcast rights.

It is why Goddard was in support of anti-congestion rules to avoid multiple stoppages and has an open mind to the game being tweaked to become faster-flowing and higher-scoring.

Goddard sought to play a fast and daring game as Adelaide conquered the inaugural AFLW premiership on the Gold Coast last season and would not stray to that approach in 2018.

“Coaches have got a massive responsibility,” Goddard said.

“With game plans and how that looks to the viewers.

“The AFLW is still in its infancy.

“We want to draw big crowds, we want the girls’ to earn a full-time wage out of what they’re doing and the only way they’re going to do that is if people come and watch and want to watch it on TV with the sponsors and get that done.

“So the coaches have got a huge responsibility to make sure that we’re playing fast, free-flowing, high-scoring football.”

Goddard also warned opposition teams the Crows will respond firmly to the expected attempts to rattle them with physicality and bullying as they begin their premiership defence in a grand final rematch against Brisbane at Norwood Oval.

Fremantle got showed how Adelaide is likely to be targeted this season as the reigning champion — by trying to put it off its game — but Goddard was confident the players were prepared for the tactic.

“Our girls have actually been really focused on bringing that level of uncomfortableness to the game,” Goddard said. “That won’t change — you’ll see that in Crows football this year.

“We saw in Darwin in our practice match two weeks ago Fremantle did try to bring a bit of that bullying tactic to us and I think we’re really comfortable that we can actually just concentrate on the footy and do what we can to make them uncomfortable too.”

Goddard’s call came as she had implored her players to forget about last season and look to improve in 2018.

It’s a way to deal with the expectation of another good year head-on.

“We’ve been really focused on looking forward, not looking back,” Goddard said. “We’ve had a real focus during the off-season on, ‘Why can’t we?’

“It’s a bit of an open-ended question.

“Why can’t we do extras? Why can’t we run faster? We can’t we kick further? Why can’t ‘Perko’ (Sarah Perkins) kick another 10 goals.

“Why can’t Erin (Phillips) play even better than she did last year?

“We’ve all had our little goals that we’ve been working towards so we’re all better and I can’t wait to see how the girls do on Saturday night.”