Mel Caufield says she won’t be spending the week living off her historic first goal for Fremantle in the NAB AFL Women’s competition.

Instead, Caulfield and her teammates will put their focus squarely on the Brisbane Lions, with a win in Sunday’s clash crucial to get Fremantle’s AFLW season on track. 

“It was an awesome feeling,” said Caulfield about her goal during Saturday’s 32-point loss to the Bulldogs.

“It was a good assist by ‘Juddy’ (Kara Donnellan), she hands it out and I chucked it on the boot. It looked like it might hit the post but then it popped in and that was a great feeling.

“But the moment has sunk in and gone, it’s done now.”

“We have to reset and start again, this week’s a new week and we’ve got to focus on what’s at hand.”

“We need to get to playing footy as a team, which is the way I know we are capable of playing.”


Caulfield and Kara Donnellan celebrate the historic goal (Photo: Phil Barnes)

A total of more than 50,000 people attended the four AFLW opening round fixtures, and Caulfield is excited about the prospect of playing in front of a home crowd at Fremantle Oval.

“There was a lot of build-up, and running onto the oval was just an unbelievable feeling,” Caulfield said.

“There’s a lot for us to learn from from the week though, we’ve just got to relax and go from there.

“I expect this week to be a bit easier, we don’t have to travel for one, and we’re already at home. We’ve got home ground advantage, the fans will be there and we get to play on Fremantle Oval.”

“We’re going to be busy, we’re training tonight, Wednesday, Friday and then play on Sunday. It’s very exciting, but we’ll get down to it and train well.”