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Game Day AFL Round 4, 2025: Waalitj Marawar vs Yartapuulti

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Even though Hooker can't break back in yet, I can't imagine how good her and Swanny are feeling right now. Getting their asses punished for years and trying to carry the banner with girls who weren't quite up it, to how it is now only after two years under Daisy.

It's literally this meme.

474px-Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_and_Splinter.jpg
 
Spamming the posts I know but it’s nice to feel nice about footy again.

Trailed 0-19, then trailed 21-38.

To twice overcome three goal deficits is not something we’ve been capable of at any point in the pre-Daisy era. I wonder how many times we even kicked six total goals in a game before she rocked up. (The answer is six as it turns out).

Add in a few club bests today:
  • Roberts most handballs in a game (20)
  • Rowley t-most centre clearances in a game (5)
  • Dalgliesh most direct goal assists in a game (3)
**** they’ve made this an easy team to follow.
 

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Best part was, we were fumbly and below our best for much of the game, and still won, and won big. There's just so much improvement yet to come with this team, their primary task every game is to get better, and not only are they doing it, they're winning at the same time.

Roxy played her best game for the Eagles, massive in that last quarter, shows signs that she's actually starting to feel confident as a defender like she never felt confident as a forward. Oppo forwards will start getting worried.

Rowley... I've been saying for a fair while now she was about to break out, thank you Courtney for proving me right! We finally played her where she belongs, and with Smith and/or Johnson coming back probably next week, I guess she'll stay there for the season. This is just the beginning for her, she'll get much better than this, and she's already getting 27 good ones in a game.

...which makes our midfield increasingly scary. We're still having to use mids to cover holes elsewhere on the ground, like Painter and Roberts forward, and Rentsch in the backline again today, but with Rowley firing and Lewis too, we're getting a critical mass of great players around the ball.

The future for the team is mostly to fill out the holes in the back and forward line so we don't need to be constantly plugging them with midfielders. Riggs is a huge part of that, I knew from the juniors that she was a great mark, but I never recalled her being so mobile, she could be a real star. Give her another pure forward for company this draft, and it'll get REALLY interesting.

We'll actually be favorites in the Derby. I just hope the girls actually believe it.
 

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Second full AFLW game I watched this year (on TV, last game vs Saints I was there), and boy, we look impressive! Whereabouts are we expected to finish this season? I'm pretty ignorant about AFLW but want to get into following our womens team more. I think we've improved a lot since last year. Daisy knows her stuff.

Some very impressive performances, we looked a class above. That last quarter blitz is something our men's team can only dream of: indeed it's the opposite as we usually fade late. Comeback Queens of 2025 to bring back the aura of the 2006 Comeback Kings. Be definitely tuning in to hopefully win our first Derby. Go E girls!
 
Second full AFLW game I watched this year (on TV, last game vs Saints I was there), and boy, we look impressive! Whereabouts are we expected to finish this season? I'm pretty ignorant about AFLW but want to get into following our womens team more. I think we've improved a lot since last year. Daisy knows her stuff.
Forgive the long post but this is how I see it as someone who loves the Eagles side but isn’t keeping up with other teams up until the season gets close. Also in a season with 10, last year 11, and this year 12 games, who you play (and who you miss) does some serious heavy lifting on the final W-L, so better to think in tiers rather than finishing position.

North Melbourne are likely to win the flag undefeated, as they did last year for their first flag. They’re in their own tier in a way you rarely see. Hold on and pray territory.

Adelaide, Brisbane, and Melbourne have been the big dogs since the beginning, and all make up that next tier. Seven of the eight premiers in league history have been named thus far. They’ve occupied 14 of 16 Grand Final spots in league history. It’s a big cut above the rest.

The Hawks and Cats were popular picks to push into that next challenging tier, and the Hawks in particular have looked good, backing up last year’s top-two (but straight sets) finish. Geelong started slow but got a good win on the board this week and will be a good yardstick game for us later on.

The Swans have been generally pretty poor in their existence (winless spooner in their first year, a surprise packet 8th position the next, then bottom four again last year). They now seem to have pushed into the next tier for me, vying for a top six finish, it’s all clicking for them and their star kids of recent drafts are carrying the load. They’ve also got the two worst teams in footy next so a 6-0 starts seems guaranteed, and gee it’d be hard to miss from there. Swans are another team that are on our fixture so a real tough test.

From there it gets properly muddy.

You know North/Brisbane/Adelaide/Melbourne play finals, likely as the top four. Sydney have started hot, Hawks have held up their end of the bargain in a real way. That leaves two finals spots between (realistically) Carlton, Geelong, Essendon, Freo, Port, and hopefully us. Essendon beat us in Round 2 with a goal in the final 10 seconds. Freo next week who have the wood over us in the W in a massive way, but have started very slowly albeit through a brutal fixture. They used to be very big deals in the W but those days look over. We still have yet to lay a proper glove on them in a derby so big test this week, but it’s our best chance in a derby since the team was formed.

And then at the bottom GWS are disgraceful, GC and Collingwood are last year’s worst sides and look a little better but still very poor, luckily we already have a win against GC and the other two at home to come. Richmond, Dogs, St Kilda very meh to me, in a low scoring game though variance is very high so you need to handle business against everyone.

The short answer is if we’re good enough, we can make finals, likely in a 7/8 situation. Ticking off the easy* wins alone (GWS, COL) give us five wins, which doesn’t play finals.

Seven wins probably plays finals, eight surely does.

Three wins against Freo, Melbourne (lol), Adelaide (lol), Geelong, Sydney, and Carlton gets us eight. Not a lot of wiggle room but we’ll have definitely earned it if we do.
 

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Game Day AFL Round 4, 2025: Waalitj Marawar vs Yartapuulti

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