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“When all those things come together we can perform, so the most pleasing aspect has probably been our players’ willingness to invest the time and the effort to be as good as they can possibly be. “Also the way they look after each other, they care for each other, they try to help each other get better and all those things have been really enjoyable to watch.”
Special milestones have also been celebrated this AFLW season with inaugural draftee Ebony Marinoff becoming the first AFLW player to amass 1000 possessions in the Round Seven victory against GWS.
Marinoff also became the first AFLW player to reach the 50-game milestone – alongside two players from Brisbane – when she lined up in the Crows’ Round Nine match against Collingwood at Norwood Oval.
The 24-year-old was recruited from Morphettville Park and was the Crows’ first selection at the 2016 AFLW Draft. She is a dual AFLW premiership player, having featured in the 2017 and 2019 Grand Final wins, is a three-time AFLW All Australian and is Adelaide’s reigning AFLW Club Champion. Clarke described Marinoff as a workhorse and said she deserved all the accolades she had received.
“In AFLW, 50 games is an unbelievable achievement and to get there so quickly is incredible considering the length of the seasons and going back to season one when it was a six-game season plus a grand final,” Clarke said. “She hasn’t missed a game so she can’t do much better than that.
“Beyond that, I don’t think she’s missed a training session in my time, anyway, she’s an incredibly hard worker and deserving of everything coming her way.”
As the minor rounds came to an end following last weekend’s clash with St Kilda in Melbourne, Clarke is looking forward to the final series. “We’ve still got a fair bit of work to do because the top six or seven teams are all pretty even so the finals series should be really exciting,” Clarke said. “On any given day anyone in the top six has the capacity to beat anyone else.
“The trick for us will be to be at our best come those finals matches and the good news is we’ve played really high quality opponents all the way through the season and therefore we are well aware we can’t afford any drop off.
“When you get to finals, there’s no second chances, so we will do our absolute best and see how we go.”
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