Game Day 2025 Rd 6 Blues bounced by Roos

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Yes, Vescio needs to go back. Velardo and Vickers are too slow to play as our ground players inside the defensive 50. Field looks likely though.

 

[Coona Blues]

Yes, Vescio needs to go back. Velardo and Vickers are too slow to play as our ground players inside the defensive 50. Field looks likely though.

The thing that stood out was the pace of Norf. We have upgraded our speed, but have a way to go.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

The thing that stood out was the pace of Norf. We have upgraded our speed, but have a way to go.

Bogus carved us up with her pace. We still don't have backline pace. We rely a lot on our talls marking.

 

[Tas]

Did North luck out with their list or have they been so well managed/developed?

We only have 7 players from the inaugural team in 2019: Kearney and Bruton (from dogs), Garner and King (from pies), Randall (from Brisbane), Riddell (open-age) and Bresnehan (pick 63 in the draft).

We were a bit lucky that Collingwood imploded the year we came in and a number of their players left before they eventually sacked their coach. Of that 7 King can't get back into the side and Bresnehan is out for the season with an ACL.

Some of the players, like Kearney and others came from Melbourne Unit women's team, we have a lot of history with them, about a decade before AFLW, they used to train at Arden Street and we used to help them develop. When we were granted the AFLW licence many of them approached us about coming back and being part of the team. Between 2019 and 2022 we used most of our picks in the draft, we had very late picks. The vast majority of our squad everyone else had access to and didn't pick them. We also benefited a lot from access to Irish ladies, like all clubs do but it was a focus for us given our very restricted access to the talent in the draft since we came in.

We struggled a lot to beat the better inception teams (Crows, Lions, Demons), we very rarely beat one of them before 2023 but because we became one of the better teams we always played against the better teams every year so it was very evident where we were and where we needed to be we built a side that was fitter, faster, stronger. Most rebuilding sides play limited games against the better teams so they aren't exposed to the pressure as much as we were when putting our team together. You learn a lot more from your defeats than you do from your victories.

We had a lot of very popular players we let go over the years, players that were given more prominent contracts and roles at other clubs. If you couldn't run out game, if you couldn't run, if you couldn't pressure and tackle we weeded them out, there were a lot of unpopular calls made which were the right calls in hindsight, particular in 2022 there was a significant cull of players we felt weren't going to help us get to a flag.

Once we were happy with the side, we had the freedom to look for players that addressed weaknesses. Kearney's partner wanted to play together before they retired so we got Shirlaw in 2022. Libby Birch was leaving Melbourne and we lost the GF so picked her up in 2023, won the grand final last year and Sheerin was leaving Richmond, everyone thought she was returning to NSW but we approached her, got the deal done.

We just haven't lost many players we wanted to keep, there have been a few like Gilroy that went to Hawthorn but being a side that looks to contend makes it a lot easier to attract and hold on to players.

It's funny how their mens side have been such a basket case, but they instantly got a powerhouse in the W.

Good senior players in the female team, not good senior players in the men's team. Ultimately it is the difference.

You can stick a lot of natural talent into a side but they need to be lead well, have mature bodies protecting them.

I thought the Blues played really well against us, the different is experience, exposure to the better teams and depth. It will come. There are a lot of second tier teams that are on the cusp of pushing into the top tier. You see the standard you need to reach, you do as best you can and make it a priority of the pre-season to bridge the gap.

 

[Kismet]

Yes, it was a big margin, but I thought we played ok. We're developing a good spine and our skill levels are significantly better than last season.

North are a class above all teams, but I think we're closer to them than the scoreline suggests.

 

[Tas]

Yes, it was a big margin, but I thought we played ok. We're developing a good spine and our skill levels are significantly better than last season.

North are a class above all teams, but I think we're closer to them than the scoreline suggests.

The rule interpretations make it a lot easier for scores to blow out, they made changes to the rules to have fewer stoppages and have more scoring so it is a massive advantage if you are even a little bit ahead of the curve. It wont take a lot to massively reduce the current margins we are seeing or flip them the other way depending on how each team goes forward or backwards from year to year.

We are basically the product of what Brisbane and Adelaide forced us to be, both were very strong defensively, they would put 360 degree pressure on you and those two teams won the majority of the flags. They set the standard and that is what we had to become to beat them, we were a very offensive team early on but flags are won by defensive teams that use that as a springboard to attack.

it is very difficult to get the skill level across the entire squad to the point where you can overcome a defensive team without being defensive yourself. By defensive I mean tackles, pressure, winning the contested ball and clearances so you can exit defensive 50, not turning the ball over a lot in the corridor, etc.

I think Carlton and a few other clubs could bridge the gap significantly in a relative short period of time if they focus on it.

 

[the big lebowski]

I liked your talls

 

[carlton_99]

 

[T2B_]

Congrats Poppy!

Helluva young gun, love what a physical presence she is despite only being 18, combined with athleticism and a cool head. Could be our best player before long.