Sydney co-captain Lauren Szigeti refuses to be disheartened by the club's start to AFLW life, despite the Swans kicking off their debut season with six consecutive losses.
"We're in the competition to get wins on the board," Szigeti assured reporters on Thursday.
"But the scoreboard isn't really our main focus. We've seen so much growth compared to round one, round two. That's where our success is."
Victories have so far eluded the Swans, who are still searching for their first win after six rounds of the season.
They go into round seven's clash with top-eight hopefuls Gold Coast off the back of a 66-point thumping by Swans coach Scott Gowans' former side North Melbourne last weekend.
Gowans said it can take time for a new team to develop a winning strategy, especially when compared to sides like Melbourne and Adelaide who have been in the competition since its inaugural season.
"You can't look up YouTube and see how to win," Gowans said.
"At North Melbourne, we had 18 months (to develop a program) and even then towards the end you felt rushed because you're diving into the unknown."
The standard of the competition following some low-scoring and unbalanced games has been in the spotlight recently after a Herald Sun opinion column by The Project panellist Steve Price.
Price claimed schoolboys play better football than that on display in the premier women's league.
Gowans felt that comparison was unfair, saying that only after three to five years can you "look back and say 'did it work?'".
"The time frame we were given to build the whole (Swans) program was ridiculous," Gowans said.
"You can have the best strategy in the world but when you're under pressure to get the best people in every single role - some of it really takes years.
"I don't even want to go back to when the men's game started. I'm sure there's similarities."
As the women's game continues to develop, Szigeti said the coverage of the AFLW is integral to its future.
"Girls getting to grow up seeing girls playing on the TV is going to build the strength of the competition," she said.
"All of a sudden, in 10 years, the girls that are playing would have played all their life whereas now that's pretty rare.
"On field, it takes playing games with each other to learn. Next season will be a real curve up for us because we get to start with a connection."
