Game Day AFLW R1 2019 - Crows vs Dogs @Norwood (2/2/19)

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John Who

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One thing I am a bit surprised about is our (and other teams) use of the most highly skilled players.

In a competition with a generally low skill level, it's crucial to have players with the best skills in the center and in the forward line.

The best ball winners need to be giving it to the best kicks who then distribute to strong targets with finishing ability. Since almost every player in the competition has the scrappy, defensive, tackiling skills nailed down, there is no reason to waste talented players in defence where those skills won't be seen. Considering most teams use a heavy defensive flood there is no reason for a teams best kick or best mark to play in defence. Half the players can't get their hands near it in the air right now.

I'd consider a structural change with Randall playing as a forward. She's dominant in the air where pretty much no other player is, she would clean up down there and has good skills and a good tank to provide options. Given the current state of Phillips I would also use her there for the same reasons.

Then in the midfield I'd be relying on our juniors as much as possible. Marinoff, Scheer and Jones. With these players having seen junior pathways, their skills are much better than most. Having players like Jones in the forward line is wasting them, they're relying on less skilled players to distribute accurately to them, which just isn't going to happen. And less experienced players aren't going to be as comfortable executing shots at goal, compounding the issue. Anyone who is a skilled distributor should be playing maximum midfield time.

So I think we'd look elite with Randall and Philips in the forward line, and with Marinoff and other young guns in the center. Our best skilled players distributing to senior heads with elite overhead skills. Most other teams don't have the ability to unleash that combination.

Then fill out the rest of the team with less skilled players, especially in defence where at this point you really only need scrappers
I agree on Erin, if she’s not fully right then place her as a permanent forward where her footy smarts and goal kicking ability would likely beat most, if not all defenders.
Randall I can see her use being better at the defensive end with her marking and general kicking where she plays the interceptor role quite well, and then start the rebound from defense.

Overall our defense is reasonably sound, considering the opposition only had 8 scoring shots for the entire game. It’s really more of general composure with the forward entries and composure when kicking for goals.
 

beartoo

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….
My Votes

3. Marinoff
2. J.Foley
1. Randall[/QUOTE]

Mine:

Mules
Marinoff
Foley

Not sure I'll bother watching further this year. Yawnfest three-goal game.
Maybe I'll tune in if we make the biggie, but wouldn't put anything on us after that display.
 

mistylake

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I think if we can forget the shocking inaccuracy, it was a really good contest between 2 hungry teams.

We have a lot of new players, so it seems the inaccuracy was a by-product of the team unsure of itself when going up forward ie. not yet gel-ing in forward structures.

Eloise Jones is going to be a star but she messed up bad tonight with the miss directly in front, and the stray kick to pass to Scheer which rolled into the behinds.

We have the foundation. Just need to gel better and more composure up forward.

How are they realistically going to gel with 7 game season. They are all off to play polo, basketball and tennis again in a few weeks. This needs to be a proper season of 20 odd games run concurrently with the blokes comp. maybe even play before the men’s game sometimes.
 

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Out of curiosity what are people's emotions watching an entire game of aflw?
Frustration ? Optimism? I imagine it's like a 0-0 draw in soccer where you wished you had done something better with that time?
Seriously, why do you come here? You hate the whole thing and can’t wait to come in and tell us, repeatedly, how shitty it is. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole match. Yelled at the tv, just like I do when the fellas play. Loved how the skills on the most part have gone up another notch. Slowly slowly. Disappointed in the loss...just like when the fellas lose. It was a game we should have won, but lack of composure in finishing, and lack of a forward structure put paid to that. We’ll learn from that and move ahead.
 

dplggr47

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I reckon Phillips should be locked in the forward line at FF.
I agree. Without Wallace all season and Perkins still catching up from interrupted pre-season, Phillips can play that role of forward target and goal sneak, as she is good at both. Other than Scheer and Jones who are both so young, we lacked any real forward presence.
It was interesting to see the Crows game plan and how much they used the handpass over Bulldogs. The handpass in AFLW is not that great, as it doesn't gain much ground and other than Phillips/Randall, the handpassing looks a bit weak and loopy. I'd rather them try to gain ground with more kicking, even if Bulldogs seemed like the better marking team.

Marinoff was clearly our best on ground. Randall/Cramey fought well. Jess Foley impressed and Chloe Scheer looks like a future star. Still lots of experimenting to do within the team if they want to match it with the scoring power of Kangaroos.

At least we're playing Carlton next week.
 
Oct 12, 2006
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I may have posted in the wrong thread so I have copied it here;

Correct me if I am wrong but Mark Soderstrom continually said to Abbey Holmes "when you return from injury" wasn't she delisted last year? He must have said it 3 or 4 times!
 
May 24, 2006
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Totally agree with loading the midfield and forward line with the best players. We do this with the junior teams I’ve been involved with. Kids love kicking goals and you give yourself a chance of kicking a winning score. The risk is the game turns into a shootout but we back ourselves to win more ball in the middle and kick more goals than the opposition. The strugglers/scrappers play in the backline and learn the game from there with only one gun in the backline helping out.
For the good of the game, all teams should be doing this.

All the best players forward of centre. Lesser lights in the backline.

Will impact scoring more than anything else.

However the coaches are more interested in winning games so shore up their defence.

Random thought but I'd love to have seen Phil Walsh coaching women's football. His Dangerfield vs Fyfe match up hinted at a guy who saw a bigger picture than wins & losses.
 

Bay62

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Random thought but I'd love to have seen Phil Walsh coaching women's football. His Dangerfield vs Fyfe match up hinted at a guy who saw a bigger picture than wins & losses.

Hadn’t thought of it before but I can see that he would have gone on to be a big influence in the women’s league

What a loss he is to the whole game
 

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May 24, 2006
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If the WNBA is anything to go by it probably won't be. Still think more investment in grass roots for a few years before kicking things off would have been better than rushing this into stadiums and onto TV.
The numbers have grown exponentially at grassroots level solely due to rushing into stadiums and tv.
 
May 24, 2006
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Does it have to be high scoring? Can't we just enjoy the contest? Two teams cracking in hard is entertaining. Sure the goal kicking was frustrating but I enjoyed the contest. It took me back to Ian Perrie kicking for goal and Brent Reilly doing the kick ins.
Not high scoring necessarily but you want at least semi regular goals.

At the moment it's like watching two girls hogging the pool table and half an hour later they still haven't potted a single ball

Sure it's a tight tussle with the eventual winner still in doubt but hurry tfu already!
 

Houston

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The numbers have grown exponentially at grassroots level solely due to rushing into stadiums and tv.
That's all well and good but you only get to make a first impression once. A not insignificant percentage of the potential audience for AFLW have already written it off as a novelty. That could be a problem when all the talented and drilled players start coming through and the ratings have already tanked.
 
May 24, 2006
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That's all well and good but you only get to make a first impression once. A not insignificant percentage of the potential audience for AFLW have already written it off as a novelty. That could be a problem when all the talented and drilled players start coming through and the ratings have already tanked.
Well, the alternative is to never have a competition or many girls playing the game at all
 
Mar 23, 2007
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There was definitely some coaching changes compared to goddard: Clarke had them kicking it 30m to a lead and moving the ball down the wing.

It actually worked a lot better than I had thought, there were quite a few transitions where they went from half back, 4 kicks and into the forward line. Very frustratingly they often had a nice kick to a player on the lead with the defender way behind them, and they dropped the mark. Happened 5 times at appx the 50m line when the leading forward just dropped it and the trailing defender cleaned it up. FFS.

They would be pretty dirty about losing the game: Kicking 11 points, and shoulda woulda coulda got goals from nearly all of those opportunities. So par would be another 5 goals. Add to that the howler that gave the bulldogs a second goal. Disappointing to dominate that much and not put them away.

Also some baffling free kicks, players ducking into the tackle or taking on a couple of tacklers and randomly getting rewarded for it. wtf.

Very much support Randall as the lead up forward/link player. She's great killing a contest off half back, but there's even more value from... actually getting it deep into the forward line.
 

dplggr47

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There was definitely some coaching changes compared to goddard: Clarke had them kicking it 30m to a lead and moving the ball down the wing.

It actually worked a lot better than I had thought, there were quite a few transitions where they went from half back, 4 kicks and into the forward line. Very frustratingly they often had a nice kick to a player on the lead with the defender way behind them, and they dropped the mark. Happened 5 times at appx the 50m line when the leading forward just dropped it and the trailing defender cleaned it up. FFS.

They would be pretty dirty about losing the game: Kicking 11 points, and shoulda woulda coulda got goals from nearly all of those opportunities. So par would be another 5 goals. Add to that the howler that gave the bulldogs a second goal. Disappointing to dominate that much and not put them away.

Also some baffling free kicks, players ducking into the tackle or taking on a couple of tacklers and randomly getting rewarded for it. wtf.

Very much support Randall as the lead up forward/link player. She's great killing a contest off half back, but there's even more value from... actually getting it deep into the forward line.
There were definitely some Selwood ducking, but others, I think might've just been high tackles that we're not used to, because high tackles in AFLW is anything from chest up. Phillips also dropped the ball in our forward line after taking possession and getting tackled, which should've been a free kick against that wasn't paid. There were also others against us; went both ways with the umpiring.
 

mattymac

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How are they realistically going to gel with 7 game season. They are all off to play polo, basketball and tennis again in a few weeks. This needs to be a proper season of 20 odd games run concurrently with the blokes comp. maybe even play before the men’s game sometimes.
It would die completely if up against the men's game. AFL got it right putting it in summer when people are starved of footy and will watch anything
 

mattymac

Why no midfield crowz?
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There was definitely some coaching changes compared to goddard: Clarke had them kicking it 30m to a lead and moving the ball down the wing.

It actually worked a lot better than I had thought, there were quite a few transitions where they went from half back, 4 kicks and into the forward line. Very frustratingly they often had a nice kick to a player on the lead with the defender way behind them, and they dropped the mark. Happened 5 times at appx the 50m line when the leading forward just dropped it and the trailing defender cleaned it up. FFS.

They would be pretty dirty about losing the game: Kicking 11 points, and shoulda woulda coulda got goals from nearly all of those opportunities. So par would be another 5 goals. Add to that the howler that gave the bulldogs a second goal. Disappointing to dominate that much and not put them away.

Also some baffling free kicks, players ducking into the tackle or taking on a couple of tacklers and randomly getting rewarded for it. wtf.

Very much support Randall as the lead up forward/link player. She's great killing a contest off half back, but there's even more value from... actually getting it deep into the forward line.
Don't think we can afford to shift Randall from quarterback. She's our best ball user and reader of the play. Keep Chelsea back, anchor Erin forward and get our spine right
 
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Hadn’t thought of it before but I can see that he would have gone on to be a big influence in the women’s league

What a loss he is to the whole game

I had a brief chat with him a few months after he was appointed coach and I mentioned that I used to coach rhythmic gymnastics. He was so incredibly interested in my experiences doing that and talked about how hard he thought the sport was and how he admired the athletes. Just an absolutely genuine person.
 
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The numbers have grown exponentially at grassroots level solely due to rushing into stadiums and tv.

And while the AFL have royally forked up a number of areas in relation to the AFLW (don't get me started on the umpiring for starters), many people can't seem to look at the long term results that will come out of the rush to get it into the public domain. The crowds over this past opening weekend were not bad at all still. The long term results are when those young girls of primary school age get to be drafted into the AFLW after similar development paths to the boys who get drafted into the AFL. As the Fremantle coach said on the weekend who has been the WA women's development squad coach for the past two years, that the girls listen and understand quicker than the boys have in his experience. They want to learn more than the boys do. That's from someone who has coached male and female development teams.
 
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