West Coast Eagles Head of AFLW Michelle Cowan explains how copying North Melbourne blueprint led to finals

West Coast’s surge up the ladder and into their first AFLW finals campaign followed a decision to do a deep dive on what turned North Melbourne into the competition powerhouse at the end of last season.

The Eagles will play their first final on Saturday when they face Carlton at Ikon Park, ending six seasons of frustration after entering the competition in 2020.

North Melbourne won the flag last year after going through the season undefeated and finishing runner-up the previous season. The Roos have maintained that form this season after not losing a game.

West Coast realised they had to do more than just try to play finals. They understood the need to compete with the best teams, so they conducted an intense investigation into why the Kangaroos are so successful.

“They’re a great side. They’re certainly at the pinnacle for AFLW,” Eagles Head of AFLW Michelle Cowan told The West Sport Show.

“They’re fit, they’re strong and their fundamentals are great. That’s who we focused on.

“When we saw who was the best and at the top of the game in the competition, it was them. We had a look at our stats versus their stats and how we match up.

“It’s been really good. We’ve bridged that with our KPIs that we set for ourselves. Whether that be inside 50s, time in forward half this year. We are number one in contested marks in the competition. That was something we really focused on through that fundamentals. Taking contested marks in this competition can go a long way.

“Come February this year, we really doubled down on our fundamentals and our strength and conditioning. We wanted to make sure we one of the strongest and fittest teams in the competition but our ball use was cleaner as well.”

Cowan said the increase in professionalism throughout AFLW had also made a huge difference to how the players were able to train. Clubs now have access to players for 22 hours per week which is more than double what was occurring when the league was formed.

Cowan said the club had been constantly looking for ways to improve.

“There’s been building blocks every single year as to the growth of the resourcing of the program and the direction we are heading in,” she said.

“Nissie was incredibly invested in our program and now Don (Pyke) is incredibly invested in our program. That flows right through the entire footy club. We’ve got John Worsfold now as Head of Football. He’s been fantastic for Daisy and myself to bounce off. He’s got a wealth of experience in coaching and management and it’s been really good working with him.”

But nothing beats getting stars into the club. Daisy Pearce brought an immediate aura when she arrived as coach while Ella Roberts has quickly turned herself into one of the competition’s best players at just 20-years-old.

When the team runs out on Saturday, it will be a moment that has been years in the making, and Cowan wants everyone to soak it up.

“Games are hard to win in AFL and AFLW,” she said.

“Making finals footy is really difficult.. It took us to our seventh season to get there. It’s important to smell the roses along the way. I think we got a lot of things right and we had a lot of things we needed to improve along those seven years.

“Not once did we ever stop evaluating our program and looking at how we can be better - whether that be our list, our staff, our people, our program or our whole of club. To get this reward right now for a lot of people is really, really special.”