North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos coach Scott Gowans will encourage his players to embrace a "once in a lifetime opportunity" in the club's inaugural AFLW fixture.
The Roos' team will make history on Sunday, as it plays its first game for premiership points against Carlton at North Hobart Oval.
“It is an inaugural match, everyone has one chance to be a part of it or come and see it,” Gowans told The Mercury.
“I just think there is a really big piece that it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience something like this.”
Gowans said North is in for a tough encounter against the star-studded Blues, in a day to remember for Tasmanian fans.
“They (supporters) will see players who are superstars of the competition in (Carlton trio) Darcy Vescio, Bri Davey and Tayla Harris and playing against good opposition like that at North Hobart Oval, it won’t happen again,” Gowans said.
With only seven games in the home-and-away season, Gowans is all for maximum impact in the short season.
“I just think the way to go is to play with a little bit of flair, we picked players to play that way, that’s what I’ll live and die by to be honest,” he said.
“We all have a responsibility to promote the competition, talk about the competition and make the competition better, hence the reason why I think we should play an attractive brand of footy even at the risk of being scored off.
“That’s fine as long as we score more goals than the opposition, I’m happy.”
The new rules introduced by the AFL to create a faster style of play have been embraced by the clubs.
“My observations around that are more around the opportunity to win and I’m a really big believer it is a more enjoyable brand of footy to coach in the short time frame we’ve got with the players if you are trying to score, whereas if you are hammering them with defensive systems as we did a little bit at Carlton, it is not only tougher to train it is also a little bit less enjoyable,” Gowans added.
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North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos v Carlton
Sunday, February 3 - 1.05pm
North Hobart Oval
