Preview AFLW Preliminary Final: Adelaide v North Melbourne - Sunday 26 November @ Ikon Park

[TubbsFarquhar]

The 1st Qtr was it
So laconic AFC

Our first quarters have been s**t all year and it's finally bitten us. We got lucky against them last time (they were the far better side), but it wasn't to be again.

 

[Scorpus]

Clarke needs to make some tough calls and move on players with poor skills. Anyone with skills, talent and composure should play.

Game plan needs a makeover too. We are increasingly easy to shut down

 

[TubbsFarquhar]

Clarke needs to make some tough calls and move on players with poor skills. Anyone with skills, talent and composure should play.

Including Hatchard in that? Would be the ultimate tough call (obviously she will stay).

 

[Firewalker]

Clarke needs to make some tough calls and move on players with poor skills. Anyone with skills, talent and composure should play.

Nah he’s gonna welcome back even more poor skilled players with Hannah Button on the comeback and back training with the team… good people, good families ect. ect.

 

[Scorpus]

Including Hatchard in that? Would be the ultimate tough call (obviously she will stay).

I would trade Hatchard if it got us a better midfielder that could contribute immediately to a flag. She still has some capabilities that are highly valuable.

 

[cmndstab]

Clarke needs to make some tough calls and move on players with poor skills. Anyone with skills, talent and composure should play.

Game plan needs a makeover too. We are increasingly easy to shut down

That will be easier to do once the AFL stop giving every decent SA player to Port.

I suspect we will hunker down for one more season and try to win a 4th flag with our current squad, and then start rebuilding our depth after that.

 

[dplggr47]

Comparing the two games is a little unfair.

Geelong were 100% robbed. North probably deserved that, sure, the umpiring wasn't great. But when jones/Gould/Najwa/Mueller/Waterhouse upon others don't show up. It's a little unfair to place blame elsewhere. North were the better side today. (But not as much as Rd 9 where they were far and away better than us)

Where was EJ playing? Barely saw her all game. At times, she seemed to give up on the ball too easily as well. Waterhouse was also not very involved. Martin tried hard, but it's all effort and no reward. Noffy was well shut down without even a tag. Garner is just unbelievable. North dominated clearances. Anyway, it was a combined effort of everyone not standing up when it counted.

 

[dplggr47]

That will be easier to do once the AFL stop giving every decent SA player to Port.

I suspect we will hunker down for one more season and try to win a 4th flag with our current squad, and then start rebuilding our depth after that.

Chelsea will probably retire at end of next year if that's the case. Who would be our next captain? Maybe Sarah Allan.

 

[RePete]

Disappointing end to the season. So many players put in pathetic performances. Umpiring favoured Norf. Marking was horrid and ball handling was horrid - was double-grabbing everything. Without Ponter, we didn't look like scoring. VFL will be happy.

 

[Scorpus]

That will be easier to do once the AFL stop giving every decent SA player to Port.

I suspect we will hunker down for one more season and try to win a 4th flag with our current squad, and then start rebuilding our depth after that.

The AFL won't stop doing that for years to come. We have to find another way.

But it doesn't even start at the draft. It starts at selection. We have better players in our squad

 

[CrowToon]

90% of our collective Footy IQ is possessed by 10%.

At the end of the day that's the difference.

 

[WetCrow1991]

What a pathetic waste of a season.

 

[Firewalker]

Won’t have anyone saying Clarke didn’t move the magnets around or make any moves… he moved Biddell forward with two and a half minutes left.

 

[Scorpus]

We can't rotate J. Allan and McKinnon through defense when we also have S. Allan, Prowse and Biddell back there.

A tough call I'd make is trading McKinnon to Port. Especially if we can prise back one of their better juniors in return.

We also need to ban our recruiters from taking anyone over the age of 18 at the draft

 

[cmndstab]

The AFL won't stop doing that for years to come. We have to find another way.

But it doesn't even start at the draft. It starts at selection. We have better players in our squad

Outside of Levy, who? Tonon? Varnhagen? Munyard?

Today was maybe one player away from our best squad. Plus I guess Ballard once she returns from the ACL.

 

[Firewalker]

We can't rotate J. Allan and McKinnon through defense when we also have S. Allan, Prowse and Biddell back there.

A tough call I'd make is trading McKinnon to Port. Especially if we can prise back one of their better juniors in return

They have Scholz and Teakle no need for McKinnon.

We need to look interstate for trades, players like Katie Lynch who’s available from the Bulldogs would fill at desperate need for a tall centre half forward, same with SA local Bella Smith from Sydney much like the crows men of the early 90s a marking centre half forward is a desperate need.

 

[Firewalker]

They have Scholz and Teakle no need for McKinnon.

We need to look interstate for trades, players like Katie Lynch who’s available from the Bulldogs would fill at desperate need for a tall centre half forward, same with SA local Bella Smith from Sydney much like the crows men of the early 90s a marking centre half forward is a desperate need.

Add a defensive quick midfielder from literally anywhere too given Charlton is not tracking overly positively, Clarke going all out attack in the middle with Ponter, Hatchard and Marinoff spectacularly backfired this finals series.

 

[Scorpus]

Outside of Levy, who? Tonon? Varnhagen? Munyard?

Today was maybe one player away from our best squad. Plus I guess Ballard once she returns from the ACL.

Levy, Tonon and Kustermann all are better skilled than our bottom 3 skilled players by quite a way. Not sure why Kustermann didn't get much of a look in but she was highly rated in part due to skills.

They aren't world's better upgrades, we're not talking about elite tier players, but we need to be thinking of upgrades from within when they are there. We have players that can't hit a target, are slow and can't kick more than 30m playing right now with no upside whatsoever

 

[1970crow]

Bottom line is the level of the AFLW has gone past us.
Where we could dominate through sheer force and effort, now our lack of skills are exposed. North's ability to hit targets on the move is far superior to ours. Brisbane the same.
We have too many players who hack the ball. Players who can't kick. They are all effort, very little skill.

Having the 2 best players in the league was a huge headstart early years. Plus the lesser money and no port in the game helped us keep our group together. Those initial competitive advantages are over.

Clarke’s coaching was awful. Wasted Randall and failed to have his players counterattack based on where they had their numbers.

 

[Firewalker]

Levy, Tonon and Kustermann all are better skilled than our bottom 3 skilled players by quite a way. Not sure why Kustermann didn't get much of a look in but she was highly rated in part due to skills.

They aren't world's better upgrades, we're not talking about elite tier players, but we need to be thinking of upgrades from within when they are there. We have players that can't hit a target, are slow and can't kick more than 30m playing right now with no upside whatsoever

Just plain horrendous list management that Varnhagen got games over her this season, unforgivable.

 

[Firewalker]

I’d take pick 112 from a club for Stevie-Lee Thompson

 

[1970crow]

The AFL won't stop doing that for years to come. We have to find another way.

But it doesn't even start at the draft. It starts at selection. We have better players in our squad

It’s cultural

 

[Scorpus]

Just plain horrendous list management that Varnhagen got games over her this season, unforgivable.

I've been saying for years that not backing in young players that have gone through a full elite junior pathway will backfire on us.

ALL of our draftees should be playing as often as possible every single year, especially if we're only taking 1-2 18 year olds

 

[Firewalker]

Clarke’s coaching was awful. Wasted Randall and failed to have his players counterattack based on where they had their numbers.

All started in the Lions game in round 8, Starcevich saw straight through Clarke’s slingshot run back to goal gameplan so kept extra defenders back on the defensive 50
paint all game Clarke could not get that ball movement off halfback to half forward transition working at all because of it, North copied it in round 9 and again the team struggled a lot but won a game they probably shouldn’t have.

Hell even the Eagles in round 10 tried a similar defensive structure but didn’t sustain it, both Brisbane and North successfully did it again in the finals, as soon as the run and transition from halfback was pretty much left to individuals like Kelly streaming out by herself but having no space to kick to it led to that over possessing ‘extra’ handball back into the corridor that became more prevalent late in the season.

Also would love to know what happened to that total high defensive press that the team had in the first part of the season, pretty much disappeared with only Prowse and Biddell coming up to the wings on kick outs and most of the other times they stayed in their zone and played back shoulder.

 

[Moonwatcher]

North have waited all this time to take revenge for 1998