ROUND three against Brisbane away from home. It was the win where everything clicked for the first time.
Carlton travelled north to face the Lions fresh off an exhausting eight-point loss to Hawthorn. A five-goal second quarter flurry put the Blues in the box seat for a buoying win over the Lions, and it was all preceded by a video message from the club's AFL head coach Michael Voss.
A champion of the Lions, the oval at Brighton Homes Arena is named after Voss, and the message was for the AFLW side to do him proud.
Now, they're preparing to return to Voss' namesake venue for a do-or-die preliminary final in the hopes of reaching their first Grand Final since 2019.
"I think (the video) just sort of leans into the enjoyment (I get) when I'm watching how they've gone about their whole campaign, and I'm going right back to pre-season. We were going through … a rough period of time, but you looked across the halls and you've got people dancing and smiling and having fun and bringing energy to training," Voss told AFL.com.au.
"It's just been infectious and if nothing else, it's probably just been built organically, and found its place. It's really coming through in the way they play, and I think that's important. How people connect into that, and you can see that comes across on screen, comes across when you watch them."
The Blues have set the League alight since that round three win thanks to a youthful exuberance and fun, attacking footy. On that day, the face of that young group, Sophie McKay, kicked her first AFLW goal. Since then, she's kicked 16 more to record the most goals of any player in their first year on a list.
Her goal celebrations have become a drawcard for the Blues, as has Poppy Scholz's shift from defence to attack, and Mimi Hill's quirky off-field antics which included burying a sausage before the side's elimination final against West Coast.
It is an energy that has bled through the club and, importantly for Voss, there is a consistency in the group's response, win or lose.
"This has just been really noticeable and that's important because sometimes what you can do is walk in and because the team's lost, you've changed your behaviour. Whereas it's not actually what footy clubs are all about. It's finding that normality between the weeks and consistently between the weeks, and still feeling free to come in and be yourself, and they've been able to find that really sweet spot," Voss said.
And that has been the key. Since things came together on that evening at Michael Voss Oval, they've won eight of their 11 games. A 53-point loss to juggernaut North Melbourne in round six was somewhat of a reality check, but they lost no fans in the process. It was back-to-back losses to Sydney and St Kilda that had questions being asked externally.
But internally, that consistency was still there, because they knew what they were capable of, and it allowed them to re-establish their winning ways and propel toward a preliminary final.
This year, they have won three games by 46 points – their third-highest winning margin across 94 AFLW games – and averaged the highest score across their 10 seasons.
"I think in previous seasons you kind of had to manufacture hope. But I knew it was real this year, and there was a moment in pre-season where (assistant coach) Jess Dal Pos and I just stood back, and she was like 'We're really good at footy' and I was like 'Yeah, we actually are'," Hill said.
So, the Blues are going to keep walking that line. Having fun, choreographing dances and goal celebrations, burying sausages, and soaking up positive energy from the fans, but also knuckling down, doing the work, and getting the small things right.
