AFLW AFLW Season 6, Mega Thread

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Is she playing tonight?

They've returned her to defence with Featherston out of the team

They had played her up forward all season, so should have left her up there - I would almost look at playing Kearns in defence instead
 
A McD's want to focus on handballs as her primary form of disposal has been a liability tonight - I've watched on & off over the first the quarters, and it seems she's been caught holding the ball or incorrect disposal at least 3 or 4 times

No doubt she's great at finding the ball and an important member of the team, but until she trusts herself to kick the ball and takes the first option when it it's by foot rather than looking for a handball, she's not going to be able to take the next step

Appoint Tuohy as a specialist kicking coach and get her doing kicking drills all winter long
 

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Might have been some close games during the season but the last couple of games against weak opposition has been really disappointing. Not sure I can look at the year as a success.
 
Unless injured they should of continued with Featherston

She was rested from all matches this week and is in the VFLW team for tomorrow - guessing they were concerned about pushing her with a long season

I'm curious what role she'll play in the VFLW - will she continue to play in defence or will we see her up forward as in her junior days
 
Very disappointing end to the season.
Made some good strides throughout the season, but the last 2 games have been a real letdown.

Will be an interesting post season with the expansion clubs and we're likely to lose a few players. Hope we can keep the youngsters and the only players we lose are some of our underperforming senior players (Ivey, Crockett-Grills, Keryk).
 
After such a promising looking start, it was a disappointing end to the season when we played in some very winnable matches

One does wonder if we got a few of these teams - the Suns, St Kilda, GWS or the teams we beat in WCE & Richmond at the start of the season when we looked to show some real promising signs, that if instead of just 2 wins, we may have won 2 or 3 more. Worked our ass off in the matches against the tough opponents and didn't have enough left come seasons end maybe - will look into a bigger review in coming days

Though in a positive for the club from this season

 
Went tonight for my first look at AFLW... Mixed thoughts/reactions

Early on obviously good, great intent and movement... When we tried to move the ball and overlap run we looked really good. Nina sees the game a step ahead and another who does is young Moloney.. I'd be banking games in the VFL for her in the middle so she can play there next season.

We have too many players though that are so slow of mind, they try hard, they get the ball and they kill any intent and momentum thinking about what to do next.
Prespakis isn't as fit as she needs to be
SVDH is useless, the type that looks good on paper but really doesn't do enough, doesn't want it enough and doesn't put the body on the line..

Amac finds the ball well but literally every possession she tries to spin out or burst though, I'm calling her the arsonist cos christ she burns people.

Scheer is an absolute gem, geeze what a player she could be.. Strong, but uses her body so so well.. The reason she gets a shit load of free kicks at goal is all her positioning, she takes front position and then can't be moved and they infringe or if they don't she lands in the contest and goes again as we saw with a couple of snaps.

Overall they were more competitive than last year but it's not a huge success... They kill their own momentum the way they try move the ball and how often the fumble, GWS were cleaner, faster and worked harder
 
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Prespakis isn't as fit as she needs to be
I think this is a broader issues for young teams, especially in the semi-pro environment. I remember in year 2 or year 3 of the comp teams started talking about having only just achieved the fitness to be able to run out games. Be interesting to see how the shift to August impacts that - if we can get the young core playing VFLW until the end of May, and then a break, and then preseason, they might be better placed.
 
After such a promising looking start, it was a disappointing end to the season when we played in some very winnable matches

One does wonder if we got a few of these teams - the Suns, St Kilda, GWS or the teams we beat in WCE & Richmond at the start of the season when we looked to show some real promising signs, that if instead of just 2 wins, we may have won 2 or 3 more. Worked our ass off in the matches against the tough opponents and didn't have enough left come seasons end maybe - will look into a bigger review in coming days

Though in a positive for the club from this season


This makes me laugh you saying GWS is a easy team they had 3 of there best midfielders out last night and still beat the cats. and Gws have a lot of new kids in this side
 
This makes me laugh you saying GWS is a easy team they had 3 of there best midfielders out last night and still beat the cats. and Gws have a lot of new kids in this side

Please show where in my post I said the bolded - I don't see any comments referring to any team as an "easy team", nor did I say that the teams which beat us didn't deserve to win those matches

We had a lead at quarter time & half time last night, but couldn't go on with the job with GWS running over the top of us in the end - well done to them, but we were in with a chance to win that match and if we did win we would have actually finished ahead of GWS on the ladder. It was a winnable match for us, but we failed to stay in the match.

All I was simple pointing out is that 3 of our first 4 matches were against teams which are going to play finals - the other match was against Carlton, who replaced the Bulldogs as our opponent when they were forced to pull out due to covid protocols. Of the 6 teams we have played starting in round 5, 5 of them won't be playing finals & while Bulldogs are a chance but they need to beat the Lions & Collingwood needs to lose

That then leads to the question - if we reverse our season fixture and start with 5 or 6 games against teams not playing finals, are we better positioned to win 3, 4 or 5 games having got some early season momentum, rather than starting with much harder opponents where we did put up a solid fight in those matches, but then faded as the season went on
 

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Please show where in my post I said the bolded - I don't see any comments referring to any team as an "easy team", nor did I say that the teams which beat us didn't deserve to win those matches

We had a lead at quarter time & half time last night, but couldn't go on with the job with GWS running over the top of us in the end - well done to them, but we were in with a chance to win that match and if we did win we would have actually finished ahead of GWS on the ladder. It was a winnable match for us, but we failed to stay in the match.

All I was simple pointing out is that 3 of our first 4 matches were against teams which are going to play finals - the other match was against Carlton, who replaced the Bulldogs as our opponent when they were forced to pull out due to covid protocols. Of the 6 teams we have played starting in round 5, 5 of them won't be playing finals & while Bulldogs are a chance but they need to beat the Lions & Collingwood needs to lose

That then leads to the question - if we reverse our season fixture and start with 5 or 6 games against teams not playing finals, are we better positioned to win 3, 4 or 5 games having got some early season momentum, rather than starting with much harder opponents where we did put up a solid fight in those matches, but then faded as the season went on
Was us getting hard games first just a random fixture result or should the AFL have been aware of it and spread them more evenly over the season?
 
Was us getting hard games first just a random fixture result or should the AFL have been aware of it and spread them more evenly over the season?

Our original fixture (pre-covid in season changes) was
Rnd 1 - North, 2021 finalists
Rnd 2 - Bulldogs
Rnd 3 - Collingwood, 2021 finalists
Rnd 4 - Brisbane, 2021 premiers
Rnd 5 - WCE
Rnd 6 - GC
Rnd 7 - Fremantle, 2021 finalists
Rnd 8 - Richmond
Rnd 9 - St Kilda
Rnd 10 - GWS

Due to covid the changes were:
Rnd 2 - Carlton
Rnd 7 - Bulldogs
match versus Fremantle scrapped


As a team who won only 1 match last season & that was against the wooden spooners in the last round (ie, the loser got the spoon), we had an extremely tough start to the season with 3 matches scheduled against finalists from last year, including the premiers. And while neither Bulldogs or Carlton played finals last year, both finished 1 game & percentage outside the finals - so it's not exactly like they were a struggling team

Surely the AFL should have been aware of that and done a better job of spreading out those matches - I know we pushed most of those sides when we faced them, including a 2 point loss to last years premiers and we actually fared better than we did against some teams we probably expected to beat, but it seems an uneven spread in the fixture.

I think it would have been good to start with a rematch against GC - last years 2 bottom dwellers face off first up, but this time on our home ground ;)

You do wonder though if getting some early seasons wins, rather than just "honourable" losses would have made a difference with some later games
 
Our original fixture (pre-covid in season changes) was
Rnd 1 - North, 2021 finalists
Rnd 2 - Bulldogs
Rnd 3 - Collingwood, 2021 finalists
Rnd 4 - Brisbane, 2021 premiers
Rnd 5 - WCE
Rnd 6 - GC
Rnd 7 - Fremantle, 2021 finalists
Rnd 8 - Richmond
Rnd 9 - St Kilda
Rnd 10 - GWS

Due to covid the changes were:
Rnd 2 - Carlton
Rnd 7 - Bulldogs
match versus Fremantle scrapped


As a team who won only 1 match last season & that was against the wooden spooners in the last round (ie, the loser got the spoon), we had an extremely tough start to the season with 3 matches scheduled against finalists from last year, including the premiers. And while neither Bulldogs or Carlton played finals last year, both finished 1 game & percentage outside the finals - so it's not exactly like they were a struggling team

Surely the AFL should have been aware of that and done a better job of spreading out those matches - I know we pushed most of those sides when we faced them, including a 2 point loss to last years premiers and we actually fared better than we did against some teams we probably expected to beat, but it seems an uneven spread in the fixture.

I think it would have been good to start with a rematch against GC - last years 2 bottom dwellers face off first up, but this time on our home ground ;)

You do wonder though if getting some early seasons wins, rather than just "honourable" losses would have made a difference with some later games
Thanks. It is hard to recover from such a tough start when playing in a short season.
 
Congratulations to Bec Webster, Georgie Prespakis, Nina Morrison and Chloe Scheer for all making the 40 player squad for the AFLW Under 22 squad.

Prespakis seems a bit lucky to be there - no doubt a promising start to the season, but she did have a few quiet games towards the end

Easy to forget the other 3 are eligible for that as they've been around a few years

AND how good was it to see Nina play a full season, and she's one who seemed to get better the longer the season went & the more games she got under her belt. Definitely one to want to keep watching over coming seasons
 
Congrats to Nat on her appointment as Essendon's inaugural senior coach in the AFLW



And while it may be hard to tell from that image, it's from Nat's days at Geelong

 

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