My last dance is irrelevant, says Crows AFLW coach
Matthew Clarke says the fact it’s his last season as Adelaide’s AFLW coach is irrelevant.
Dual AFLW premiership coach Matthew Clarke is downplaying attention on his final season as Adelaide’s mentor as “irrelevant”.
Clarke will step down as the Crows’ coach at the end of a season starting with the perennial powerhouse taking on St Kilda on Sunday.
The 51-year-old has been Adelaide’s women’s coach since 2018 and delivered two of the club’s three flags, but says nothing feels different entering his last season.
“Not at all, to be fair,” he told reporters on Thursday.
“Obviously it has given us something to talk about in the off-season which is nice. But internally, it has honestly been business as usual.
“Your focus always is really quite narrow … I’m really focused on what’s happening now.”
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Clarke said his feelings were mirrored by his players, including co-captain and seven-time All Australian Ebony Marinoff.
“I saw Noffy the other day and she goes: ‘I keep getting asked about that’,” he said.
“And she goes: ‘Really, I just want to say I don’t care’.
“I said, good answer. They should just be wanting to play because we’ve finally got the opportunity to play after nine months.
“It’s really irrelevant, genuinely irrelevant.”
The Crows, beaten preliminary finalists last season, again loom as a force with Clarke boasting a talent-laden squad at his disposal.
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And he noted significant improvements through this pre-season compared to his first at the helm.
“The volume of work that we’ve been able to get into them – a little bit of that is because the shift towards professionalism, we’re not fully there yet, but certainly you’ve got more access to the players,” he said.
“And then the other bit is the multiple pre-seasons.”
Clarke also noted young talent were more prepared for the demands of the AFLW when entering the competition.
“The kids coming in through the talent pathway are just more ready and more prepared to be able to do the work required, rather than having to manage them and make sure we don’t break them,” he said.
“We’re able to get a lot more work in, no doubt – and across the competition, that’s not just us.
“So hence the standard continues to improve.
“In terms of the skill execution from the first year to now, chalk and cheese, to be honest.”
-with AAP
