AFLW Practice Match vs Geelong Saturday 18 December, 2pm AEDT, Swinburne Centre

Remove this Banner Ad

RFC 1st Q replay
our defence really loose at the start of game, conceded 3 easy goals
we stabilized mid term, Molan, Kiely, Reid cracking in, Seymour winning ruck, Conti getting a very hard tag
Kelly showing good signs in the ruck when she re leaved Seymour
Wakefield's mark & 1st shot on goal directly in front fell short from 20m out with the breeze :rolleyes:, made up for it with a snap for our 1st goal
quality of game = both teams aren't finals contenders, poor kicking, handballs going everywhere, no flow of possessions
Breeze no excuse to be honest
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Won’t completely lose hope for this season, but it’s a setback as I imagined our improvement curve would be on a sharp ascent still. Cats were woeful last year. Anyways early days but it signals much work to do and our senior players are needed desperately. Ps ,,don’t like sound of med term for Ellie mck, be lucky to start the season
 
RFC 2nd Q replay
Brennan, Conti, D’Arcy getting into the game more
geez Yassir & Kiely crack in hard, going to be good players for us
Wakefield strong mark & goal, please , pretty please don't retire, otherwise we're ****ed up there :praying:
Brancatisano, Bernardi, Stahl, Jacques, Dargan, Burchell, J Hosking & Dempsey unsighted
field kicking & general play horrific by both clubs, very, very poor considering the good conditions
Cats just able to string a few possies together, Tigers non existent
 
RFC 2nd Q replay
Brennan, Conti, D’Arcy getting into the game more
geez Yassir & Kiely crack in hard, going to be good players for us
Wakefield strong mark & goal, please , pretty please don't retire, otherwise we're f’ed up there :praying:
Brancatisano, Bernardi, Stahl, Jacques, Dargan, Burchell, J Hosking & Dempsey unsighted
field kicking & general play horrific by both clubs, very, very poor considering the good conditions
Cats just able to string a few possies together, Tigers non existent
Bernardi, Stahl, Jacques, Dargan, are below AFLW std ,,,,,branc started to improve late last year , burchell generally does a couple a nice things that you think , ok...then unsighted rest of game . Sounds to me our tail is still a long one
 
RFC 2nd Q replay
Brennan, Conti, D’Arcy getting into the game more
geez Yassir & Kiely crack in hard, going to be good players for us
Wakefield strong mark & goal, please , pretty please don't retire, otherwise we're f’ed up there :praying:
Brancatisano, Bernardi, Stahl, Jacques, Dargan, Burchell, J Hosking & Dempsey unsighted
field kicking & general play horrific by both clubs, very, very poor considering the good conditions
Cats just able to string a few possies together, Tigers non existent
I get the feeling Wakefield is maxing her time out there , loves the game and realises she’s a long time retired. One of the best overhead marks you’ll see in AFLW
 
RFC 3rd Q replay
Kiely, Conti, Kelly & Molan having a good Q, still the game hasn't risen to any great highs, would call it scrappy at best
Sansonetti 50m free = goal, Burchell head high tackle free = goal, both simplistic errors
Seymour playing fwd while Kelly rucks, about the only new positional tactic that i could see up till now
Locke, Lynch, Houtsma had a few nice cameos, Reid & Yassir still most noticeable of the draftees
not a lot of confidence in team mates from both teams, trying to do too much by themselves
too many missed targets by hand and foot
 
Last edited:
Bernardi, Stahl, Jacques, Dargan, are below AFLW std ,,,,,branc started to improve late last year , burchell generally does a couple a nice things that you think , ok...then unsighted rest of game . Sounds to me our tail is still a long one

yeah Bojangles17 that's still the big problem, too many running around with not much going on, left to too few to do anything in the game
it staggers me after watching 3Q's that i've noticed Kiely, Kelly, Reid, Yassir & even Locke, Lynch, Houtsma do more than
Brancatisano, Bernardi, Stahl, Jacques, Dargan, Burchell, J Hosking(injured 2nd Q), McClelland, Sansonetti & Dempsey
 
Last edited:
RFC 4th Q replay
well if i recorded this game, i'd be erasing it pronto
not much exciting in the last, much like the 1st 3 Q's terrible skills from both sides
read the RFC wrap up of the game and i had to re read it 3 times to see if Assistant coach Andrew Browne was talking about the same game that i watched

Browne said the hit-out would be a valuable learning experience for the group.
"It was a really good hit-out, in periods we had some really good pressure, we fought pretty hard, and we were able to stay in the game for the most part," Browne said.
"Unfortunately we lost Jess Hosking halfway through the second quarter which made it hard numbers-wise on what was a pretty hot day.
"It was a great learning curve, the challenging thing is only having one practice match which doesn't make things easy, but we fought it out pretty well."

he's kidding, surely,
1) a valuable experience?
2) a good hit out?
3) lost J Hosking in 2nd Q & made it hard number wise?
being down 1 player for 2 Q's?
4) a great learning curve?
what have the coaches been teaching, doing the last 2 or so months?
i'm shocked that he's deluded or playing possum about how much work needs to be done
the praise he gives M Kiely is justified as she was our best along with Conti & Kelly who rucked well all day and gave aerial cover down the line
Molan played the best game i've seen her play, Beth Lynch played well but disposal let her down
connection between backs, mids & fwd's wasn't good at all, kicks and handballs going all over the place, just nowhere near team mates
missing in action, a whole heap of the same players, Stahl played OK in midfield but butchered the ball
pleasantly the draftees all played a role, as did Locke, Lynch
anyways as we all know unless we have our best team, no injuries, out on the park we won't win many games
don't expect miracles, ie playing finals, we're a season or 2 away from that
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

RFC 3rd Q replay
Kiely, Conti, Kelly & Molan having a good Q, still the game hasn't risen to any great highs, would call it scrappy at best
Sansonetti 50m free = goal, Burchell head high tackle free = goal, both simplistic errors
Seymour playing fwd while Kelly rucks, about the only new positional tactic that i could see up till now
Locke, Lynch, Houtsma had a few nice cameos, Reid & Yassir still most noticeable of the draftees
not a lot of confidence in team mates from both teams, trying to do too much by themselves
too many missed targets by hand and foot
How did kelly look , good enough to impact games you think , or just a contributor at this stage ,prob way early I guess
 
RFC 4th Q replay
well if i recorded this game, i'd be erasing it pronto
not much exciting in the last, much like the 1st 3 Q's terrible skills from both sides
read the RFC wrap up of the game and i had to re read it 3 times to see if Assistant coach Andrew Browne was talking about the same game that i watched

Browne said the hit-out would be a valuable learning experience for the group.
"It was a really good hit-out, in periods we had some really good pressure, we fought pretty hard, and we were able to stay in the game for the most part," Browne said.
"Unfortunately we lost Jess Hosking halfway through the second quarter which made it hard numbers-wise on what was a pretty hot day.
"It was a great learning curve, the challenging thing is only having one practice match which doesn't make things easy, but we fought it out pretty well."

he's kidding, surely,
1) a valuable experience?
2) a good hit out?
3) lost J Hosking in 2nd Q & made it hard number wise?
being down 1 player for 2 Q's?
4) a great learning curve?
what have the coaches been teaching, doing the last 2 or so months?
i'm shocked that he's deluded or playing possum about how much work needs to be done
the praise he gives M Kiely is justified as she was our best along with Conti & Kelly who rucked well all day and gave aerial cover down the line
Molan played the best game i've seen her play, Beth Lynch played well but disposal let her down
connection between backs, mids & fwd's wasn't good at all, kicks and handballs going all over the place, just nowhere near team mates
missing in action, a whole heap of the same players, Stahl played OK in midfield but butchered the ball
pleasantly the draftees all played a role, as did Locke, Lynch
anyways as we all know unless we have our best team, no injuries, out on the park we won't win many games
don't expect miracles, ie playing finals, we're a season or 2 away from that
Valuable with respect to draftees with some game time ,,,great to hear kiely looked good will add to the midfield , though without McKenzie we’ve lost a stack of firepower
 
How did kelly look , good enough to impact games you think , or just a contributor at this stage ,prob way early I guess

AFLW quality, best 22 for sure, impacted the game more than i expected, great at centre bounce & solid around the ground, moved well, didn't lumber around like Sab did, upgrade on Sabs easily
will help Conti, Kiely & McKenzie at centre bounces & around the ground
won the ruck & broke even around the ground, great get for RFC
allowed us to try Seymour at FF, didn't work as we couldn't get it down there enough, but worth persisting
 
Valuable with respect to draftees with some game time ,,,great to hear kiely looked good will add to the midfield , though without McKenzie we’ve lost a stack of firepower

yep one more of McKenzie, S Hosking or even Lavey would have helped, all 3 we would probably win, Cordner was sorely missed down back, you could tell the other defenders especially Miller, were all at sea without her
we had Kiely, Conti & Molan at centre bounces most times, after a slow start, they broke even with the Cats mids
problem was when Brancatisano, Dargan & Jacques etc rotated in there, that's when things seemed to break down
a valuable experience
yeah for the draftees it was, but for the usual suspects it was same old, same old
the silver lining is that each year we get better players, which as a sum of all parts we will get better, no doubt about it
Kiely is ready made, Reid & Yassir will be rippers sooner rather than later
 
RFC 4th Q replay
well if i recorded this game, i'd be erasing it pronto
not much exciting in the last, much like the 1st 3 Q's terrible skills from both sides
read the RFC wrap up of the game and i had to re read it 3 times to see if Assistant coach Andrew Browne was talking about the same game that i watched

Browne said the hit-out would be a valuable learning experience for the group.
"It was a really good hit-out, in periods we had some really good pressure, we fought pretty hard, and we were able to stay in the game for the most part," Browne said.
"Unfortunately we lost Jess Hosking halfway through the second quarter which made it hard numbers-wise on what was a pretty hot day.
"It was a great learning curve, the challenging thing is only having one practice match which doesn't make things easy, but we fought it out pretty well."

he's kidding, surely,
1) a valuable experience?
2) a good hit out?
3) lost J Hosking in 2nd Q & made it hard number wise?
being down 1 player for 2 Q's?
4) a great learning curve?
what have the coaches been teaching, doing the last 2 or so months?
i'm shocked that he's deluded or playing possum about how much work needs to be done
the praise he gives M Kiely is justified as she was our best along with Conti & Kelly who rucked well all day and gave aerial cover down the line
Molan played the best game i've seen her play, Beth Lynch played well but disposal let her down
connection between backs, mids & fwd's wasn't good at all, kicks and handballs going all over the place, just nowhere near team mates
missing in action, a whole heap of the same players, Stahl played OK in midfield but butchered the ball
pleasantly the draftees all played a role, as did Locke, Lynch
anyways as we all know unless we have our best team, no injuries, out on the park we won't win many games
don't expect miracles, ie playing finals, we're a season or 2 away from that

Bit harsh Stanley. On Browne's comments, it's not his role to put the team's effort, or lack there of, down. The adjective "really" with the "good hit out" was perhaps over the top, but it was a good hit out and we did have game pressure at times, just not enough. I thought we fought hard but not smart. As you've rightly said there were some dumb plays. No question it was a learning curve, probably more for the coaches as the players ;)

Geelong's run and carry looked light years ahead of ours. We seem happier kicking it long. When we did use it and found players short it looked better. Geelong simply had more blonde ponytails! And who was that channeling her inner Garry Hocking????

I still get amazed at the overt praise for Mon Conti sometimes. Now don't mistake this. She is a very good player, but the consequence of her work can be awful at times. When you compare it to say Geelong's McDonald, it's a different set of outcomes. Love Mon "at and around" the ball, just not thrilled "with it". Had a hard tag, but that needs to be coached better - it can benefit the team still.

Kiely is so courageous, but she will get injured doing some of the things she does. I hope she receives good fortune. She was easily the best early, and was consistently good throughout.

Poppy was quite amazing. Not pretty to watch but gee she was effective more often than not. Reminds me of the female version of Andy Goodwin. If that releases Gabby to do some damage elsewhere (FP) - we are a mile in front.

Agree with Molan. She is looking more self assured with the ball and her pass is neat more often than not. I'd be having Conti get the ball to here as much as possible.

Stahl is a confidence player. She needs an early run where the ball is - get her pulse rate up and few touches. That lazy one-handed ball use has to become two hands until she does enough. It's costing her I'd say. Get four or five quality touches into her early and she is all the better for it.

Yassar is a gem. She was my must have in the draft and she shows she is worth it. Great first game. Stella was very good too, just a different thoughtful sort of a game. Locke was OK from what little opportunity she had - not a waste out there. Jacques was a waste out there, as was Sansonetti after a spirited first quarter.

Rebecca Miller stuck to the task and just needs better help still, Houtsma (I think it was) seemed solid enough at times and I liked Lynch - needs better presentations by her teammates but she seemed hell bent of moving it quickly and came undone. Brennan just didn't get enough of it.
 
Last edited:
Bit harsh Stanley. On Browne's comments, it's not his role to put the team's effort, or lack there of, down. The adjective "really" with the "good hit out" was perhaps over the top, but it was a good hit out and we did have game pressure at times, just not enough. I thought we fought hard but not smart. As you've rightly said there were some dumb plays. No question it was a learning curve, for the coaches as much as much as the players ;)

Geelong's run and carry looked light years ahead of ours. We seem happier kicking it long. When we did use it and found players short it looked better. Geelong simply had more blonde ponytails!

I still get amazed at the praise for Mon Conti. Now don't mistake this. She is a very good player, but the consequence of her work can be awful at times. When you compare to say Geelong's McDonald, it's a different set of outcomes. Love Mon "at and around" the ball, just not thrilled "with it". Had a hard tag, but that needs to be coached better - it can benefit the team still.

Kiely is so courageous, but she will get injured doing some of the things she does. I hope she receives good fortune. She was easily the best early, and was consistently good throughout.

Poppy was quite amazing. Not pretty to watch but gee she was effective more often than not. Reminds me of the female version of Andy Goodwin. If that releases Gabby to do some damage elsewhere (FP) - we are a mile in front.

Agree with Molan. She is looking more self assured with the ball and her pass is neat more often than not. I'd be having Conti get the ball to here as much as possible.

Stahl is a confidence player. She needs an early run where the ball is - get her pulse rate up and few touches. That lazy one-handed ball use has to become two hands until she does enough. It's costing her I'd say. Get four or five quality touches into her early and she is all the better for it.

Yassar is a gem. She was my must have in the draft and she shows she is worth it. Great first game. Stella was very good too, just a different thoughtful sort of a game. Locke was OK from what little opportunity she had - not a waste out there. Jacques was a waste out there, as was Sansonetti after a spirited first quarter.

Rebecca Miller stuck to the task and just needs better help still, Houtsma (I think it was) seemed solid enough at times and I liked Lynch - needs better presentations by her teammates but she seemed hell bent of moving it quickly and came undone. Brennan just didn't get enough of it.

yeah maybe a bit harsh re Browne's comments, as what's he going to say "geez that was a s**t performance"
our ball movement, as well as the Cats, was horrible, kamikaze like hand balls & kicks going all over the place
15 metre kicks not hitting simple targets, handballs a couple of metres away to a team mate under extreme pressure, a rolling scrum of players around the ball was the normal state of play, very junior footy standard
i'd be very interested to see the stats for DE & clangers for this game, at a guess DE would be around 25-30% & clangers thru the roof

the Cats strung a few more consecutive possies together & were a bit more cleaner with the footy than us
we again got sucked in to everyone in the defensive half & 1 or 0 players fwd of centre, which isn't going to allow a score or a winning game

but overall a U/19 boys team would have annihilated both teams, probably U/17 as well
that's the elephant in the room with the AFLW comp ATM, with the bottom teams GC, Geel, WC, GWS, StK & us being whoa fully behind the top 6-8 teams

Lastly everyone please don't mistake my posts, as a giving up on our team or AFLW
i'm just being realistic as to where the AFLW comp & our teams position is
i'm trying to give constructive criticism & not sugar coating or being deluded of the state of play
there's too many media scribes giving glowing season team previews, which sell hope, but aren't truly realistic

finals is not in our squads reach this year, that's fact, 3-5 wins would be a realistic goal & i'd be very happy to be proven wrong
we are still 4-5 good players short of a finals competitive team
 
Last edited:
yeah maybe a bit harsh re Browne's comments, as what's he going to say "geez that was a sh*t performance"
our ball movement, as well as the Cats, was horrible, kamikaze like hand balls & kicks going all over the place
15 metre kicks not hitting simple targets, handballs a couple of metres away to a team mate under extreme pressure, a rolling scrum of players around the ball was the normal state of play, very junior footy standard
i'd be very interested to see the stats for DE & clangers for this game, at a guess DE would be around 25-30% & clangers thru the roof

the Cats strung a few more consecutive possies together & were a bit more cleaner with the footy than us
we again got sucked in to everyone in the defensive half & 1 or 0 players fwd of centre, which isn't going to allow a score or a winning game

but overall a U/19 boys team would have annihilated both teams, probably U/17 as well
that's the elephant in the room with the AFLW comp ATM, with the bottom teams GC, Geel, WC, GWS, StK & us being whoa fully behind the top 6-8 teams

Lastly everyone please don't mistake my posts, as a giving up on our team or AFLW
i'm just being realistic as to where the AFLW comp & our teams position is
i'm trying to give constructive criticism & not sugar coating or being deluded of the state of play
there's too many media scribes giving glowing season team previews, which sell hope, but aren't truly realistic

finals is not in our squads reach this year, that's fact, 3-5 wins would be a realistic goal & i'd be very happy to be proven wrong
we are still 4-5 good players short of a finals competitive team

Get it completely Stanley - after what we all thought was a good draft and some decent trades, we were probably expecting more from the established players like Jacques, Burchell, Branc, Stahl, and that would have meant being more competitive. Instead too much was left to too few. The positives though was the smart play by Stella Reid, she looked more seasoned than a lot out there, Yassar will be great forward and in time on the ball, and Kiely, once the Hosking girls are back, she will be a great rotation for Conti with the same "see ball get ball" attributes (but without the Conti step and slide perhaps).

Bojangles is right - before we write the season off on one practice game Stanley, let's see what getting close to our best side will produce. We had some really weak links out there yesterday and not only do you eliminate them, we can being in class like EMcKenzie, Twinnies, Cordner and perhaps Lavey. They are massive ins for Sansonetti, Stahl, McLelland, Houtsma and Jacques / Burchell.

I hope we hit the draft hard at the end of the season because it is obvious the skills coming through are going to be superior to what we are trying to develop in some on the list still. I know we are already in poaching mode of some really young talent.

Can I give a big shout out to Rebecca Miller. If she is not one the most improved big girls in the whole competition I'll go he. Still a way to go but she was so important yesterday to us still being in the game for as long as we were. Give her someone better than Sansonetti next to her and she will go to another level yet I think!
 
Last edited:
Gutted to hear that cats run and carry was way ahead of ours as I thought we made real progress in this dept last season with aggressive use of handball ,,,anyways we re prob over analysing first hit out with some gen qty out and we know depth ain’t great at AFLW
The Cats would have been hurting massively after last season almost going winless and they showed up yesterday after we embarrassed them last time as you would expect they would do. They had a strong team and always going to give that extra effort. Geelong’s pressure was manic and not too many times we handled that well, e.g Jaques kick being smothered by player on the mark when she just had to fake to kick and step her. D’arcy showed a step to get past them a couple of times but more too often than not our players panicked. The cats were cleaner than us hitting up players on the move which helped consistently propel them forward. Our handball was putrid. The blustery conditions can forgive some of the kicking from both sides but not the handballs. We need to prioritise this at training. This and our kick out options from defence. Who is our AFLW defensive coach?

We can’t start that poorly again and end up chasing score into a breeze, the fact we levelled scores after half time was promising but the game was on their terms and we couldn’t take advantage after this and mid way through the 3rd quarter I thought we would struggle to win as their midfield was well on top and it always looked like they had an extra player or two running around in defence, and they had the wind in the last.

We do have a decent team when we have no injuries or omissions. Having Ellie in, and Tessa would have given us more class and grunt. Sarah and Harriet also, it's a shame that Jess got injured. Players like Burchell, Jaques, Dargan and Bernadi look like spending a good amount of time in Port Melbourne’s colours this year.

Based on what Megan Kiely and Poppy Kelly showed yesterday along with a couple of the younger players cameos in Mllsy and Stella, and the fact we are still yet to see Maddie Shevlin, I think our recruiting / list management gets a tick, these players should play a fair bit in the team this year. I though Houtsma was OK also but will need more time which will be fine as the youngest on our list.

After Brancatisano got us going forward out of the middle with some good work to finally get us some clearance, she faded out of the game. Her best position for us would be in the guts but she needs to show more than the odd glimpse. It’s evident the physical attention that Mon is now getting at stoppages and she needs help. We have found a beauty with Kiely, but we need more from our mids.

Best for me: Courtney, Megan, Mon, Poppy, Gabby, Sarah D,

Worst: Our forward entries. Please kick the ball to the leading lane, i.e fat side and not snap kick away from them, or even worse blind bomb it forward, and Umpires that don’t pay push in the back free kicks, what a joke, Cats blatantly got away with it all day.

What I leant: Milsy is a fan favourite, the amount of cheers she got every time she hit a tackle! Brennan will have to get Meg McDonald surgically removed from her after she was all over her at every marking contest, sometimes legally, often not, not that you’d know.
 
Last edited:
Get it completely Stanley - after what we all thought was good draft and some decent trades, we were probably expecting more from the established players like Jacques, Burchell, Branc, Stahl, and that would have meant being more competitive. Instead too much was left to too few. The positives though was the smart play by Stella Reid, she looked more seasoned than a lot out there, Yassar will be great forward and in time on the ball, and Kiely, once the Hosking girls are back, she will be a great rotation for Conti with the same "see ball get ball" attributes (but without the Conti step and slide perhaps).

Bojangles is right - before we write the season off on one practice game Stanley, let's see what getting close to our best side will produce. We had some really weak links out there yesterday and not only do you eliminate them, we can being in class like EMcKenzie, Twinnies, Cordner and perhaps Lavey. They are massive ins for Sansonetti, Stahl, McLelland, Houtsma and Jacques / Burchell.

I hope we hit the draft hard at the end of the season because it is obvious the skills coming through are going to be superior to what we are trying to develop in some on the list still. I know we are already in poaching mode of some really young talent.

Can I give a big shout out to Rebecca Miller. If she is not one the most improved big girls in the whole competition I'll go he. Still a way to go but she was so important yesterday to us still being in the game for as long as we were. Give her someone better than Sansonetti next to her and she will go to another level yet I think!

a bloody great post Phar Ace, spot on
just to clarify my last few posts, i'm not writing off our season after 1 praccy game
i'm trying to put context/perspective into what some will say through out our season
some posters will have a go at the AFLW comp and/or our team thru the season, when reality is obvious for both, time is still needed for improvement

1) the comp is still not even close to being equal, the foundation teams are still a big force
2) our squad still needs a few more players plus close to our best team out on the ground to be competitive against all the foundation sides
3) the non negotiable is we need Brennan, Wakefield, Conti, McKenzie & Cordner playing & playing well week in, week out to be competitive
these 5 players ATM are the most important IMO

i totally agree with all your key points :cool:
 
a bloody great post Phar Ace, spot on
just to clarify my last few posts, i'm not writing off our season after 1 praccy game
i'm trying to put context/perspective into what some will say through out our season
some posters will have a go at the AFLW comp and/or our team thru the season, when reality is obvious for both, time is still needed for improvement

1) the comp is still not even close to being equal, the foundation teams are still a big force
2) our squad still needs a few more players plus close to our best team out on the ground to be competitive against all the foundation sides
3) the non negotiable is we need Brennan, Wakefield, Conti, McKenzie & Cordner playing & playing well week in, week out to be competitive
these 5 players ATM are the most important IMO

i totally agree with all your key points :cool:

Good to hear our top fan is still on the bandwagon then Stanley - you sounded very dejected with your no finals / 3-5 win prognostication;) We all need you up and about at this time of year mate!

Big ask I know, but if Stella can stay healthy, don't be surprised if she fast becomes a non-negotiable too. This leap in standard for her has done her no harm I'd suggest - what a thoughtful footballer she is. Her read of play in contests was amazing for one so young. Her development will be one of the fascinations this season I suspect.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top