AFLW AFLW Season 2022

KaySwizzle

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Aug 19, 2020
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The game was far closer than it needed to be. Girls have to be careful letting the lead slip in the last quarters (just like last week).

Bella to Rowbottom is a great combo though. So dominant.
 
Mar 18, 2011
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Hampson is a beast.

So satisfying getting that win against Port with the ex-Suns for them running around. We haven't been affected as much as I thought we'd be without those five playing for us. They didn't have a lot of influence on todays game either, which is nice.
 

GC2015

Norm Smith Medallist
May 27, 2013
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Halfway through the H&A season and our girls are up to 9th on the ladder now. Richmond's upset win over Brisbane has unfortunately prevented our girls from entering the top 8 today but that's ok because we get a shot at the Tigers next week and a win in that game will 100% see our girls enter the top 8.

Hampson is a beast.

So satisfying getting that win against Port with the ex-Suns for them running around. We haven't been affected as much as I thought we'd be without those five playing for us. They didn't have a lot of influence on todays game either, which is nice.
I think it shows that there's quite a bit of female talent coming out of our academy and we weren't hurt by the expansion losses as much as people may have initially thought. The same thing happened with Brisbane when we stole a decent amount of players from them in 2020 when we entered the AFLW and everyone thought Brisbane would really fall away but they just didn't and that was driven by the injection of more high quality local talent IMO. In that 2019 off season Brisbane added local players to their list like Dakota Davidson, Cathy Svarc and Belle Dawes who all ended up being a part of their premiership winning team less than two years later and have all played 30+ games since being drafted.

We've been building the number of talented locals on our list since we entered the league but you can clearly see players like Ellie Hampson (21), Daisy D'Arcy (19), Lauren Bella (22), Kalinda Howarth (23) and Serene Watson (20) are really starting to deliver on their potential after each racking up 20+ AFLW games. Then we've got other locals like Annise Bradfield (19), Alana Gee (18), Teagan Levi (19), Maddison Levi (20) potentially ready to join them in the near future as well. Add in a Charlie Rowbottom (19) for good measure and you can definitely see the future is bright for our girls.
 

KaySwizzle

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Aug 19, 2020
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Hampson is a beast.

So satisfying getting that win against Port with the ex-Suns for them running around. We haven't been affected as much as I thought we'd be without those five playing for us. They didn't have a lot of influence on todays game either, which is nice.
Player movement is a much bigger factor in AFLW, so I expect plenty of changes each year (unfortunately), especially with new teams coming in. At least until things become more stable (lifestyle and pay wise). Nonetheless, it was enjoyable and satisfying watching us beat them.

We’ve picked up a few nice players this off-season though that have really helped the team, so it’s all swings and roundabouts.

Thankfully the forward line is still threatening if our mids can get on top, even without Perkins, as Bohanna is such a good mark and you can see the synergy building there with the other forwards and our overall forward half connection.

I would like to see Howarth lock down a position though, as she seems to play all over the place each week. She’s usually good wherever she plays, but I wonder if it’s good for her overall development.
 

GC2015

Norm Smith Medallist
May 27, 2013
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Player movement is a much bigger factor in AFLW, so I expect plenty of changes each year (unfortunately), especially with new teams coming in. At least until things become more stable (lifestyle and pay wise).
IMO we won't see movement like we've seen in expansion years again, with the possible exception being the year that Tasmania enters the AFL/AFLW competitions. There's also far less incentive to move clubs in the AFLW because the money on offer isn't anything to rave about (yet). Fortunately for us, we shouldn't be anywhere near as reliant on player movement as some other clubs because we have a very strong feeder pathway set up in the QAFLW system with Southport and Bond Uni likely to feed us at least one top 20 pick every year.
 

GC2015

Norm Smith Medallist
May 27, 2013
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Big game for our girls tonight. Not only will they enter the top 8 with a win over Richmond tonight, but it will officially mark the most wins our AFLW team has ever secured in a single season. Last year our girls secured a record 3 wins and they currently sit on 3 wins so a win tonight obviously breaks that record and takes it to 4 wins. We have a great record against Richmond in the AFLW so I'm fairly confident about this one.

It would put our girls in a fantastic position to qualify for the finals this year. Facing bottom of the ladder Swans next week, our girls should be able to secure a 5th win for the season assuming they beat Richmond tonight. I'd say 6 wins should secure a spot in the finals this year so a win over the 13th placed Blues and/or 17th placed Giants in the last 2 rounds of the season should secure our second AFLW finals berth if we take down Richmond tonight.

Qualifying for the finals this year would be a significant achievement for our girls considering the amount of experience we lost to expansion teams in the off season and the fact that our team is very young these days. Importantly, it would mean our girls will have qualified for the finals in 2 of our 4 seasons in the AFLW which probably means our AFLW team isn't going to suffer from the same fate as our men's team going forward and will be a regular finals threat instead of missing the finals year after year. That's important for the future of footy on the GC to have a team that is constantly failing to make the finals and it's a team that we as a city can be proud of.
 

Jirik13

Norm Smith Medallist
Jan 22, 2018
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Big game for our girls tonight. Not only will they enter the top 8 with a win over Richmond tonight, but it will officially mark the most wins our AFLW team has ever secured in a single season. Last year our girls secured a record 3 wins and they currently sit on 3 wins so a win tonight obviously breaks that record and takes it to 4 wins. We have a great record against Richmond in the AFLW so I'm fairly confident about this one.

It would put our girls in a fantastic position to qualify for the finals this year. Facing bottom of the ladder Swans next week, our girls should be able to secure a 5th win for the season assuming they beat Richmond tonight. I'd say 6 wins should secure a spot in the finals this year so a win over the 13th placed Blues and/or 17th placed Giants in the last 2 rounds of the season should secure our second AFLW finals berth if we take down Richmond tonight.

Qualifying for the finals this year would be a significant achievement for our girls considering the amount of experience we lost to expansion teams in the off season and the fact that our team is very young these days. Importantly, it would mean our girls will have qualified for the finals in 2 of our 4 seasons in the AFLW which probably means our AFLW team isn't going to suffer from the same fate as our men's team going forward and will be a regular finals threat instead of missing the finals year after year. That's important for the future of footy on the GC to have a team that is constantly failing to make the finals and it's a team that we as a city can be proud of.
Richmond beat Lions in pressure, contest even without Brennan. It will be very difficult for girls to win down at Punt road. Fingers crossed.
 

GC2015

Norm Smith Medallist
May 27, 2013
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Richmond beat Lions in pressure, contest even without Brennan. It will be very difficult for girls to win down at Punt road. Fingers crossed.
It'll certainly be a challenge but our girls have played some good footy in recent weeks and don't seem to have any problem scoring at the moment. It would be remiss of us to underestimate Richmond after they beat Brisbane last week but footy has a funny way of surprising you right when you think you've got it all figured out. As the old saying goes - a week is a long time in footy. Look at GWS beating Carlton right now and they lost by 96 points last week!

Either way, our girls are definitely right in the finals mix this season with some really winnable games to come against the Swans, Blues and Giants. It's really just the Demons game that we'll go into as big underdogs but at the same time we played quite well against them at Casey Fields last year and this time it'll be at Metricon so who knows.
 

AFLQLD

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Jul 15, 2012
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Truly awful umpiring, including a terrible goal umpire decision. I wouldn’t usually consider it but this had the look of hometown umpiring.
 

Jirik13

Norm Smith Medallist
Jan 22, 2018
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I certainly enjoyed how girls played yesterday. That was very good effort in away game against good opposition. Our midfield looks better every game and we improved all over the ground. I thought Bella was great, some taps to our advantage were great. So Rowbottom, Whitfort and others.

I can live with umpire's miss of touched ball but the last goal is difficult to accept. It seemed to be a perfect tackle and umpire actually did not call advantage, I believe. Shame.

If we continue to play like this we should get 3 more wins (Swans, Carlton, GWS) and play finals. Go girls.
 

Stroppy

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Apr 14, 2015
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She’s shown a lot more poise, that’s for sure. Might help that our midfield is bring the pressure to allow her to intercept so much.

She is doing a much better job of finishing what she starts.
Namely, hold the mark when in position (dropped a lot last year when in position to intercept) and kick it to our advantage when you have some time and space (some pretty crook ones last year).
Hopefully can keep building on that skill improvement, get better at everything.
 

GC2015

Norm Smith Medallist
May 27, 2013
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Very important game for our girls tomorrow. We've got the bottom placed Swans at one of their home grounds in Sydney. Clearly we should win and winning big could end up being the difference between us making finals and not when it's all said and done. Ultimately though, just getting the W is the most important part. Our 9th placed girls are currently one win behind 6th, 7th and 8th on the ladder and the 6th placed Kangaroos play Brisbane this weekend while the 8th placed Bulldogs play Melbourne.

So our girls should end this round tied with 7th and 8th on the ladder and only behind those two teams by percentage (hopefully not too much after a big win over Sydney). Then it turns into a three week shootout for a finals position:

R8 - Suns v Demons @ Metricon, North v Port Adelaide @ Alberton, Bulldogs v St Kilda @ Ballarat
R9 - Suns v Carlton @ Metricon, North v Collingwood @ Victoria Park, Bulldogs v West Coast @ Perth
R10 - Suns v GWS @ Sydney, North v Richmond @ Arden Street, Bulldogs v Carlton @ Ikon Park

Two very winnable games and two at Metricon puts us in a great position to secure six wins for this season. North Melbourne have two games they should lose and have a potentially tricky third game in Adelaide against Port. The Bulldogs have a potentially tricky game against the Saints in Ballarat and then have a trip to Perth which could mess with them before ending their season against Carlton who are also capable of springing an upset. Obviously you can't rely on results always going your way and that's why I think it's even more important that we get a big win over the Swans tomorrow to give us a shot at qualifying for the finals based on percentage.

Anyway, let's just hope our girls can get the (big) win over Sydney tomorrow and put the team in a good position to qualify for the finals this year.
 
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