Carlton AFLW coach Daniel Harford realised Grand Final occasion was bigger than football

Erin Phillips was tearing Carlton to shreds in the AFLW Grand Final before her knee buckled. Everyone’s heart sank — including the man who tried to mastermind her team’s demise. LAUREN WOOD watched the dramatic final from the Blues’ bench.

31/03/19 - AFLW Grand Final. Adelaide vs Carlton at Adelaide Oval. Adelaide's 13 Erin Phillips comforted by Carlton player. Picture: Tom Huntley

Erin Phillips made her way slowly to her bench on crutches.

Just minutes remained in the AFL Women’s grand final and she had to pass her Carlton counterparts on the way.

Only a quarter earlier, the Sherrin for her free kick had landed in the dugout where the Herald Sun had been invited to cover the match.

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They made her venture into enemy territory to retrieve it.

There were to be no favours.

But as the competition’s best player limped across the western wing — felled with the cruellest of football injuries in the unlucky 13th minute of the third quarter — it became about more than football.

Greg Phillips, former footballer and father of Erin Phillips, give his daughter a hug after her knee injury. Pic: Getty Images

Carlton coach Daniel Harford, his team trailing by eight goals, threw his headphones aside and marched toward the player who had been his side’s kryptonite for the previous hour.

He embraced Phillips in a moment of solitude amid the bedlam.

In his pre-game speech to the players he said: “Be who you are, be what we are.”

He was living that statement.

The Blues came to the city of churches as underdogs. They knew that.

But this was as comprehensive and convincing a defeat as any.

“Go to Phillips — need to get there,” was the cry from the bench in the second term.

Harford, his crew back in the coaches box and football general manager Nicole Graves had to stem the flow.

Territory local and relative of the Riolis and Longs — with Michael in the crowd to watch — Danielle Ponter broke the dam wall in the second quarter as the Crows piled on five unanswered goals.

Erin Phillips was having a huge say on the game before her left knee buckled. Pic: AAP

It was a mauling at the contest and the Blues simply had to attempt to get their hands on the footy.

They had to give themselves a chance. They couldn’t second-guess, Harford told them at half-time. They had to be composed.

Be bold, he declared. Acknowledge the challenge. And they could do it.

But with Tayla Harris crunched at the first bounce of the premiership quarter, left sidelined for almost the entire term with her knee wrapped in almost an entire roll of tape, it got chaotic.

She could go back on, but it hurt. She had little power. They’d put her deep and see how she went.

The unprecedented crowd rose with the Crows, forcing Harford — almost back to his local coaching roots at the boundary from siren to siren — to jam his hands over the headphones just to hear his fellow coaches speak from upstairs.

The Blues lost Tayla Harris, and others, for a period during yesterday’s decider. Pic: AAP

Then Jayde Van Dyke copped a heavy knock to the nose and Jess Hosking a hit to her throat that left her without a voice.

Frantic, for players and medicos alike.

Unrelenting, and with Harris out of the contest, the Blues refused to fold.

“We will build and be better again,” he told them in a post-match rooms brimming with tears.

“Remember … what you’ve done for yourself, and what you’ve done for your team, and what you’ve done for your footy club.”

Harford spoke of how significant yesterday would become in the history of Australian Rules football. In AFL. In women’s sport. For Carlton.

It was bigger than football.

The Herald Sun’s Lauren Wood watches the AFLW decider from the Carlton bench. Pic: AAP/ Keryn Stevens

Originally published as Carlton AFLW coach Daniel Harford realised Grand Final occasion was bigger than football