For Bess Keaney, Essendon’s AFLW trip to Darwin was about more than just the four Premiership points up for grabs.
While the Bombers’ 42-apiece draw with Richmond was one of the more tense finishes of the campaign to date and could play a role in shaping the final week of the finals race, the moments surrounding the game itself were every bit as important.
The result was fitting in Keaney’s eyes, given the shared nature of the Darwin experience for both clubs in the inaugural interstate Dreamtime fixture.
“We shared a plane up with Richmond, we split the points with Richmond, (there's been) a lot of sharing this weekend,” Keaney said.
“This is one of the most special sporting experiences I’ve ever been a part of. Just getting out into the community and learning about what football means to them up here in the NT, the significance of Dreamtime to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, it’s been a phenomenal few days. I’ll remember it forever.
“If this can become part of the furniture of the AFLW season, it would be huge. It’s a privilege to be one of the clubs that gets to play in it, the men have their significance of Dreamtime at the ‘G and that’s become such a phenomenon in itself.
“I think we saw over the last few days that there’s real groundswell for that to be the case up here with the women’s game.”
Although the Dons were frustrated not to take full points from the clash, their ability to stay in the hunt and respond to the challenges of a capable Richmond outfit has stood out coming away from the game.
Factored in with the group having to overcome the concern for ruck Steph Wales’ injury in the dying minutes, Keaney was proud of the stability shown from the players.
“We definitely came up here wanting to come home with the four points and that is a disappointment, we were up and would’ve loved to have kept that momentum,” Keaney said.
“A real show of maturity from our team, particularly in the last couple of minutes after an injury to one of our near-and-dear players (Steph Wales). Just to stand up and get what we needed by way of a draw, two points is still influential in the context of our season, so we’ll take it.
‘We were talking about it during the game and post-game, that we can think through those moments now as a group and we kind of know what we need to get from those moments as well, so we were really pleased we were able to wrestle it back.”
The Bombers look ahead to a clash with Carlton on Saturday night at IKON Park to determine if they’ll feature in a second consecutive finals series.
