Lowther on the Cats Strong Defensive Unit

Meg McDonald has had a ripping start to the season, but so has our entire defence.

There are some great stats around how we don't give up much of a score in first quarters, and across all three games so far. 

Our defence has been really strong, and they have been for a couple of years to be honest.

It's been a point for us to be strong down there, so we can build off the back of that. 

To have players like Meg with stability, experience and leadership back there as our captain really helps us to grow. 

We have some emerging players back there which will support our future going forward.

Lowther on Meg McDonald’s Milestone

For me walking into this program a few years ago, straight away you could see a cultural shift in the way standards are measured and the way Meg leads those from the front. 

Then you see her inspiring the next generation to follow her lead, it certainly made my job easier to come in as a first time coach at this level.

To have her support and to see her grow in that space has been super. 

It is a great story and great for our program to have someone like Meg, I'm very proud of her. 

Lowther on Port Adelaide 

Last week shows that Port Adelaide continue to improve, it was an extremely resilient win.

They were down at three quarter time, to fire up and come back to the get the victory was impressive.

They will be buoyed by that, so we need to make sure that we are up for the challenge.

They are a strong contested team; they have a really good midfield group and emerging rucks that support their drive. Then they have some talent up forward too that we need to be wary of.

As long as we bring our contested work and our A-Game around decision making and fundamentals, I think we’ll go okay but it will be a really strong test for our group.

Lowther on Learning from the North Melbourne Clash

Our first half was really strong, our contest work was great, so was our composure and decision making.

I thought that was the area we lacked in after half time, we were winning the ball back okay in our defence but then lacked that composure entering our forward half. 

Just a bit of stability around the way we use the footy after winning the ball back would have been really good, but that was the difference between the two halves. 

We addressed that strongly this week, we have no issues going into the Port Adelaide game and will be looking for improvements in those areas.