Ownership and optimism are the driving forces for Bonnie Toogood relating to her side’s push to bounce back in 2026.

This season marked the first since their inaugural campaign that the Bombers missed out on a top eight berth, succumbing to a frustrating eight-game losing streak in the wake of injuries and a struggle for continuity in their performances.
 
Despite the slip, Co-Captain Toogood is taking some positives away for the Club, who in the form of breakout youngsters, promising debutants and yet another improved season from a veteran, have plenty to look forward to next season.
 

Toogood on… reflections, banding together
 
Obviously, we haven't gotten the wins on the board which is disappointing, but I think I'm a pretty positive person in the sense of seeing all these harder and more challenging times as real growth areas for us.
 
The most pleasing thing for me as a leader is that it can sometimes be easy during these times to splinter or have cracks and point fingers, where we've actually really galvanised as a group and owned our part in it.
 
We know that we have a real deep determination to get better and perform better than what we are.
 

Toogood on… the emerging talent, a midfield standout
 
That's really what I've seen over this past season, is that we've been able to have so many debutants play the game, we've had the second-year players continuing to improve, as well as our veterans of the game.
 
Even in the case of ‘GNans’ (Georgia Nanscawen) having an amazing impact for us as well, there's been some real positives that have come out of some challenging times.
 
We probably didn't realise just how much turnover were going to have and we’ve been fortunate enough to have such amazing people come into our program, first and foremost, they are amazing people.
 
Their footy is there to match as well. Watching Holly Ridewood's determination, her relentlessness and her aerobic capacity out on the ground is pretty spectacular at such a young age, and then I could go through all of them really.
 
Grace Belloni’s craft in contest and her strength through there, Grace Brooker as someone coming from rugby, who’s been able to have an impact and take on some really crucial roles in the games that she played.
 
Taya Chambers intercepting, being the ‘pest’ as a defender. There was a lot to like.
 

Toogood on… her perspective as a leader
 
As you go through your career, you do have a bit of a perspective shift - we've got the knowledge and the experience to share and that’s what you like, as particularly when I was in the early stages of my career, I wanted all the information, all the knowledge I could get and really leaned into the experienced players.
 
It’s great now to be on the flipside of that and to be able to provide more knowledge. There is a big jump from the Coates Talent League to even play VFLW and then move into seeing your footy at AFLW level. So it's like, how can you close that gap?
 
‘Not as easy’ isn’t the right term, but you want it to be as seamless as possible of a transition for those players. 
 
At the end of the day, we're all real competitors and we all want the best out of ourselves and this team, and that's really come to the forefront with the discussions that we've had as a leadership group.
 
It’s about leaning into that experience as well as staying upbeat. It's one thing to say that you're staying positive in these times, but you have to do that with your body language, you have to do that with the tone in your voice and the expression on your face, how you present yourself.

Toogood on… presenting strongly
 
All of that is super important and as a leadership group we've wanted to lead that, we've demanded that from the playing group - we want to be a strong body language team where we are super supportive, we celebrate the little things.
 
Placing an extra importance on those little things, particularly when things are tough and the scores aren't coming or, you know, it's not reflective on the scoreboard and we're not getting the wins. It's like, what are we doing really well?
 
And it has to be those little things, because in the long run for our culture and what we've built is they become like a habit or a behaviour and you use those behaviours to instill your culture.
 
That's definitely been a big focus from our leadership group and we’ve been really pleased to see how our coaches have been able to help with that senior leadership team from a staffing perspective as well.
 

Toogood on… her individual campaign
 
Yeah, the suspension was a little bit of a momentum stopper, but I was also able to grasp a very different perspective, particularly working with the coaches in an unofficial role and observing up in the box.
 
I think it helped me when I got back out on the field because I was able to see it from a different perspective – knowing different areas in our structure and being able to use that knowledge to then help influence out on the field.
 
I've been finding my way up the ground at different stages, whether it's through the midfield or popping down back for a moment or two. I will do whatever I can for this team to help succeed and get us where we want to.
 
If ‘Woody’ (Natalie Wood) taps me on the shoulder and says move up the ground, I'll say how far do you want me to go?
 
I'm willing to do whatever I need to do in order to impact and have felt that I've been able to do that, which has been really good.
 
As the competitors we are and in terms of that desire for excellence in ourselves is to want to be able to do that - impact up the field, not lose that ahead of the footy and still have really strong scoreboard pressure, which is super important for me to continue to develop.

Toogood on… the group
 
I couldn't be more confident in this group and our hunger and desire. I know this season won't sit well and will fuel a lot of the hard work that we're going to have to do in the off-season, which we're willing to do.
 
This is one of the most special groups I’ve been a part of in the sense that we will own what we need to own - we're not afraid to be brave in that, and we also have brave expectations of ourselves, which I have no doubt moving into offseason will motivate us a lot.
 
We’ll make sure that we are exactly where we need to be when it comes to day one.