System may be flawed, but no Roo excuses

THE conference system might be fatally flawed, but you will hear no excuses from the North Melbourne-Tasmanian Kangaroos should they be bundled out of the AFLW tonight.

The Roos take on Fremantle in Perth, with the winner to join Adelaide in the controversial cross-conference finals system and the loser to be out.

Both the Roos and the Dockers have five wins from six games going into tonight’s match (as does Adelaide, but the Crows have a superior percentage), having won two more matches than both Carlton and Geelong — the top two teams of Conference B.

But only two teams will progress through to the semifinals, making tonight’s clash at Fremantle an elimination final.

Roos coach Scott Gowans said his side was ready to go.

“Internally we are fit, we have got 29 of 30 players available, all our key statistics we work on at training are right at where they have been since Round 1, so there are no excuses,” Gowans said.

“It is a matter of execution now.”

The conference system has brought widespread criticism because of its uneven spread of teams, with the fourth-ranked Conference A team, Melbourne, having won one more game than the top two teams of Conference B — yet is no chance of making the finals.

Gowans said it would be discussed post-season.

“It is the same with Adelaide, Fremantle and Melbourne, everyone has known what the system is, it is just a matter of trying to position yourself in these earlier games in the first six rounds,” he said.

“The good thing for us is we are in a healthier position compared to a Melbourne, we are not relying on anyone else’s results, we control our destiny.

“The advantage of looking glass half-full, it puts you in a really good spot if you do get through as you’ve already played a knockout final — it sharpens you up mentally.

“For the loser you are always going to reflect, for us if we do lose to Fremantle, you look back on the season as a whole and see we lost to Adelaide and Fremantle so perhaps we weren’t good enough.”

Tasmanian small defender Nicole Bresnehan returns for the game, having missed the past three with a wrist injury.