AFLW AFLW 2022 - general discussion

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I cracked the shits with everyone leaving and have tuned out of the AFLW. Can someone explain to me like I'm 5 how we can lose Huntington, Lochland & Toogood in one season and not have a pick until well outside the top 10.

Did we trade them or did we get shafted again?
 

footscray1973

Premiership Player
May 17, 2004
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I cracked the shits with everyone leaving and have tuned out of the AFLW. Can someone explain to me like I'm 5 how we can lose Huntington, Lochland & Toogood in one season and not have a pick until well outside the top 10.

Did we trade them or did we get shafted again?
Yeah, me too. It's actually listed on the AFLW calendar now:
"Shaft Bulldogs, no matter how numerous or critical their departures are, give them nothing in return."

It's a Micky/Mini Mouse competition run by amateurs.

It's only 4-5 months now until another season ends and Ellie B inevitably gets poached.
 

weltschmerz

Brownlow Medallist
May 23, 2019
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I cracked the shits with everyone leaving and have tuned out of the AFLW. Can someone explain to me like I'm 5 how we can lose Huntington, Lochland & Toogood in one season and not have a pick until well outside the top 10.

Did we trade them or did we get shafted again?

We got shafted.
 

Oliver G

Premium Platinum
May 14, 2009
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I cracked the shits with everyone leaving and have tuned out of the AFLW. Can someone explain to me like I'm 5 how we can lose Huntington, Lochland & Toogood in one season and not have a pick until well outside the top 10.

Did we trade them or did we get shafted again?

Huntington is moving to NSW strictly for university and left amicably. She's out with an ACL injury until the 2023 season anyway and there is a chance she'll be back in the red, white and blue down the track.

Under the expansion rules, we could only lose a maximum of four players, we lost three in Gamble, Lochland and Toogood.

The AFLW draft is state-based, not national and we initially traded early picks for Millie Brown from Geelong and Daisy Bateman (most accurate goalkicker in AFLW history) from North Melbourne.

Going into the VIC draft we had picks 10, 15, 20 and 38. The new expansion clubs in Hawthorn and Essendon had the first 6 picks in the VIC draft with St. Kilda and Carlton taking up picks 7, 8 and 9 respectively.

Yeah, me too. It's actually listed on the AFLW calendar now:
"Shaft Bulldogs, no matter how numerous or critical their departures are, give them nothing in return."

It's a Micky/Mini Mouse competition run by amateurs.

It's only 4-5 months now until another season ends and Ellie B inevitably gets poached.

For someone who's had enough, you certainly like coming back and banging on about it. There is no question that we got done in the first two expansions (especially the first), but to say we got "shafted" this time around is just plain wrong. Carlton, Fremantle and St. Kilda were all hit very hard this time around while we held on to our two best players after clubs came a-knocking and held onto our entire group of youngsters who we've been getting games into including players who really exploded last season in Brown, Georgostathis, Moody and you could even add Pritchard and Morris-Dalton to that list as well. In fact, from our B&F top ten the only player we lost was Toogood.

There is no doubt that the last couple of years have been frustrating but expansion is done now (until Tasmania) and after everything is all said and done we came out of this last expansion and the 2022 trade and draft pretty damn well considering what it could've been.

One element that does help soften everything is that in the let's call it first phase/expansion era of the AFLW, we were the only VIC club to win a Premiership.
 

flipper83

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Jul 18, 2012
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Huntington is moving to NSW strictly for university and left amicably. She's out with an ACL injury until the 2023 season anyway and there is a chance she'll be back in the red, white and blue down the track.

Under the expansion rules, we could only lose a maximum of four players, we lost three in Gamble, Lochland and Toogood.

The AFLW draft is state-based, not national and we initially traded early picks for Millie Brown from Geelong and Daisy Bateman (most accurate goalkicker in AFLW history) from North Melbourne.

Going into the VIC draft we had picks 10, 15, 20 and 38. The new expansion clubs in Hawthorn and Essendon had the first 6 picks in the VIC draft with St. Kilda and Carlton taking up picks 7, 8 and 9 respectively.



For someone who's had enough, you certainly like coming back and banging on about it. There is no question that we got done in the first two expansions (especially the first), but to say we got "shafted" this time around is just plain wrong. Carlton, Fremantle and St. Kilda were all hit very hard this time around while we held on to our two best players after clubs came a-knocking and held onto our entire group of youngsters who we've been getting games into including players who really exploded last season in Brown, Georgostathis, Moody and you could even add Pritchard and Morris-Dalton to that list as well. In fact, from our B&F top ten the only player we lost was Toogood.

There is no doubt that the last couple of years have been frustrating but expansion is done now (until Tasmania) and after everything is all said and done we came out of this last expansion and the 2022 trade and draft pretty damn well considering what it could've been.

One element that does help soften everything is that in the let's call it first phase/expansion era of the AFLW, we were the only VIC club to win a Premiership.
I haven't followed the expansion progress carefully but it would seem that 'being allowed to keep our first round pick' for losing 3 top line players is pretty unreasonable compensation and no where near equitable to clubs that didn't lose players and lost the pick. Especially since the first picks were pushed back so far.
 

footscray1973

Premiership Player
May 17, 2004
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For someone who's had enough, you certainly like coming back and banging on about it.

Sorry, last time I checked this was an open forum. I've posted my view of AFLW probably 4 or 5 times in here.

Do you also have a go at the posters in other threads who post on their hobby horse dislikes 20-30+ times in the same thread, page after page?

I do like banging on about it because it is a badly run competition, with incompetent administrators. I'll probably post that again. If that is an issue for you, just scroll past my posts.


There is no doubt that the last couple of years have been frustrating but expansion is done now (until Tasmania) and after everything is all said and done we came out of this last expansion and the 2022 trade and draft pretty damn well considering what it could've been.

Losing the best-performed key forward and an AA key position player (even if recovering from another ACL) plus an experienced member of the leadership group and an experienced defender is a pretty damn good result?! That's only because the Blackburn and Lamb offers were rejected - and Blackburn admitted she gave it serious thought. And Lamb wasn't even being chased by a 2022 expansion club. Taking the actual departures in isolation, it's another bad result.
 

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TBOW

Premiership Player
Aug 9, 2012
3,191
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I haven't followed the expansion progress carefully but it would seem that 'being allowed to keep our first round pick' for losing 3 top line players is pretty unreasonable compensation and no where near equitable to clubs that didn't lose players and lost the pick. Especially since the first picks were pushed back so far.
I think the AFL may have felt that clubs were compensated too much for losing players last time around causing St.Kilda and Geelong to enter the competition being far to noncompetitive.

As much as it sucks, the distribution of players was never going to be managed fairly with the staggered introduction of teams, unless the AFLW ripped up all contracts at the end of last season and drafted the entire comp from scratch. No one would have wanted that.

In the end it was up to us to try to hold on to our players which we could have done better, but all things considered we could have done worse. Carlton was the worst team hit as far as expansion signings go this year, although we have definitely lost more than anyone else since the comp started.

Also just to clarify, we only lost 2 top line players to expansion as Huntington was traded to GWS. I think we could have done better with that trade but generally girls are traded for unders, probably because they are only semi-pro so clubs are happy to facilitate moves. For example we got Daisy Bateman from North for effectively pick 90.
 

TBOW

Premiership Player
Aug 9, 2012
3,191
3,860
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
I cracked the shits with everyone leaving and have tuned out of the AFLW. Can someone explain to me like I'm 5 how we can lose Huntington, Lochland & Toogood in one season and not have a pick until well outside the top 10.

Did we trade them or did we get shafted again?
I think people need to park there AFL list management mentality when assessing AFLW.

It is a very new competition with a staggered team introduction that was always going to be awkward and painful. Maybe it could have been handled better but I really don't know how, considering you need to get new teams up to a competitive level quickly.

The players are also only semi-professional so need to have their welfare and personal circumstances considered more than a professional athlete would.

From a dogs perspective the expansion has definitely sucked, but it had to happen and it is now behind us.
 

TBOW

Premiership Player
Aug 9, 2012
3,191
3,860
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
It's only 4-5 months now until another season ends and Ellie B inevitably gets poached.

This is definitely not going to be the case. If Ellie was going to leave it would have been this year with Sydney throwing the kitchen sink at her.

Ellie had a very 'Chris Grantesque' moment this off season choosing to stay with the club she loves over the massive new club offer, and she deserves all of our respect and adulation for that.

If you didn't already love watching this girl run around in the red white and blue you can now add a new layer to her legacy. Ellie is well on the way to being the first AFLW player in the Bulldogs hall of fame.
 

TBOW

Premiership Player
Aug 9, 2012
3,191
3,860
AFL Club
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We've gone for pace this draft.
A very interesting draft. I would have thought that we would take at least one tall forward to replace Huntington and Toogood, at least with our last pick.
I think we can expect Newton to play a much more prominent forward role next season.
 
I think people need to park there AFL list management mentality when assessing AFLW.

It is a very new competition with a staggered team introduction that was always going to be awkward and painful. Maybe it could have been handled better but I really don't know how, considering you need to get new teams up to a competitive level quickly.

The players are also only semi-professional so need to have their welfare and personal circumstances considered more than a professional athlete would.

From a dogs perspective the expansion has definitely sucked, but it had to happen and it is now behind us.
Sensible, measured post. Not that I blame f1973 for his rant.

Like a number of people here I have found it hair-tearingly frustrating seeing so much talent walk out the door for seemingly little in return.

It's hard to maintain enthusiasm and loyalty when all of that's happening, no matter how logical and reasonable it all sounds. If supporting a footy club was just about logic and reason we wouldn't be here at all.

Anyway I'm prepared to shrug my shoulders and wait around a year or two (or three? :sadv1:) before we get re-balanced. And maybe hold out a faint hope of resurgence before then.

This is definitely not going to be the case. If Ellie was going to leave it would have been this year with Sydney throwing the kitchen sink at her.

Ellie had a very 'Chris Grantesque' moment this off season choosing to stay with the club she loves over the massive new club offer, and she deserves all of our respect and adulation for that.

If you didn't already love watching this girl run around in the red white and blue you can now add a new layer to her legacy. Ellie is well on the way to being the first AFLW player in the Bulldogs hall of fame.
Absolutely. She has elevated herself to legend status already in my eyes, merely for knocking back a more lucrative offer to stay with the Dogs. :heart:
 
Anyway I'm prepared to shrug my shoulders and wait around a year or two (or three? :sadv1:) before we get re-balanced. And maybe hold out a faint hope of resurgence before then.
I guess it depends on your definition of resurgence but the Bulldogs clearly have a finals-calibre AFLW list, even before taking into account the ongoing development of young players (7 Rising Star nominees in the past 3 seasons, plus a NAB League GF BOG winner).

Considering the departures from other clubs, and injuries some teams already have, a 6v7 elimination final (likely against Collingwood) would be the minimum reasonable expectation.
 
Dogs Fixture

Round 1 28/08/22 GWS @ Ikon
Round 2 03/09/22 Port @ Alberton
Round 3 09/09/22 Freo @ Ikon
Round 4 17/09/22 Hawks @ Box Hill
Round 5 23/09/22 North @ Punt Rd
Round 6 01/10/22 Cats @ Mars
Round 7 09/10/22 Mel @ Casey
Round 8 16/10/22 Stk @ Mars
Round 9 22/10/23 WCE @ WA
Round 10 TBC Carlton @ Ikon
 
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