SYDNEY had planned to turn the AFLW's leading goalkicker into a defender well before its elimination final started, with coach Colin O'Riordan revealing the Swans had trained all week to send Chloe Molloy behind the ball.
After starting up forward, Molloy dropped back to counter the strong breeze in the second term and rotated through defence during the second half of Sydney's 29-point elimination final victory at Henson Park.
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Molloy excelled behind the ball, gathering 16 disposals, 14 contested possessions, two clearances, 12 intercepts and five rebound 50s to help the Swans hold firm, before returning forward to kick a third-term goal.
It was Sydney's first goal since the opening quarter and continued Molloy's strong run of form. She entered the game having kicked 12 goals across her previous three matches to win the AFLW Leading Goalkicker award with a record 28 goals in the home-and-away season.
But O'Riordan revealed the move had been conceived well before game day.
"We came up with a plan at the start of the week as a coaching group to identify that, and if there's a wind, what do we do?" he said.
"She reads the game so well. In the second quarter you don't want to give the opposition any opportunity to get back into the game, so we kind of just had to batten down the hatches for a quarter of footy.
"We knew if we came in with a healthy lead at half-time, we could keep going in the third quarter. In the second quarter, it wasn't necessarily about scoring; it was about ensuring they didn't score too much. The conditions were very testing."
O'Riordan praised Molloy and Sydney's defence for executing the plan.
"Chloe is the one who has to actually execute it," he said.
"Credit to the back five beside her."
O'Riordan said it was "really pleasing" to see Sydney execute a scenario it had spent 25 weeks preparing for.
Molloy read the play superbly, directing the defence and winning key contested possessions while Sarah Hartwig tracked her loosely.
The Bulldogs attempted to drag Molloy away from the play, with Vaomua Laloifi among those trying to occupy her, but struggled to capitalise on Sydney's spare behind the ball.
Asked why the Bulldogs had not addressed Molloy's influence earlier in the second term, Tamara Hyett said her side's decision-making and ball use prevented it from exploiting the set-up.
"No, some of the decisions we were making with ball in hand were poor. So, we probably, I mean, she's a good player so she's going to attract the ball, but we needed to take it off the line a little bit more and use a bit more shape to use that open side," she said.
"So we probably didn't help our cause by some of the decisions we made. We still thought the look around the arc was what we wanted, and ideally, if you're clean and possess the ball well the plus-one behind the ball shouldn't be an issue, but we weren't able to do that."
Meanwhile, star midfielder Sofia Hurley returned from an ankle injury but was restricted to 25 per cent game time.
Hurley returned after reintegrating into training and passing Friday's fitness test, having been sidelined since fracturing her left ankle in the final quarter of the Swans’ round five victory over Greater Western Sydney.
"Yeah, it was nice to have her back," O'Riordan said.
"We knew she was always going to be on minute management. In the fourth quarter, we made a call just to hold her off and see how the game played out. She was good while she was out there, and it was just great to have her back after missing last week."
