A-League Women’s coach Jeff Hopkins spoke to the media post-match after his side’s win over the Central Coast Mariners
On the performance…
“In terms of the performance for the way that we played in terms of what we did with the ball and in possession.”
“But for character, for grit and determination, to keep going there until the last minute of the game was fantastic.”
“Over the last few weeks it’s our football that got us over the line. Today, it was our ability not to give up.”
On backing up from the intensity of last week…
“The Perth game probably took a little bit more out of us than we’d thought.”
“The travel, the heat… We looked at our GPS last week and that was up there with the hardest we’ve worked.”
“So it’s a good opportunity for us now over the next couple of weeks with the international break to have a bit of a longer break.”
On Kurea Okino’s first goal…
“I think as a striker, the first thing you want is to grab your first goal.”
“She’s off and running now and I think you could tell the whole team are really pleased with her.”
“She worked really hard today. She closed down and was a big part of our defensive strategy.”
On Alana Murphy’s performance…
“I’m sure if you asked Murph [Murphy] that she wouldn’t be happy with her performance.”
“In the first half when we were trying to get the ball through her… Even when she made mistakes she kept coming back and looking for the ball.”
“She was confident to keep playing and trying to play forward and the one or two mistakes she made in the first half didn’t faze us.”
“She kept going and kept doing to the right thing and she put in a really good effort today.”
