Game Day AFLW R4 2019: Crows vs Freo @Marrara Oval (9:05pm 23/2/19)

[John Who]

You still can't fall on that player's back. It should be a free every time. I'm a little hot about those types of frees because, in my very first game of football I ever played, I had a player drop both their knees into my back as I was falling to the ground with the ball underneath me. I ended up with all of my intercostal's torn off my ribs on the left side and missed half the season! It's not a fun injury and I can highly recommend not doing it.

So the intercostals were torn but no rib fractures? Sounds like a very unlucky injury, as you don’t often hear it in footy.

 

[John Who]

Yeh, McCormick and Cox were frustrating to watch tonight. Annoying because Cox had a really good season last year. The players aren't quick enough to run around, nor are most of them strong enough to break a tackle, especially with no momentum, so there's really no point in trying it.

Jess Foley absolutely smashed them in the ruck and our midfielders dominated theirs. As much as I love Metcalfe, Foley is one of the biggest reasons we're doing well this year.

Foley is basically like an Erin - natural athletes who can literally play any position on a footy field, with their reading of the play, quick decision making and beautiful marking hands.

I don’t think Foley is necessarily a better ruck than Metcalfe, but she seems to be doing more marks and generally is more involved than what Metcalfe typically produces.

 

[John Who]

First game of the year I've been able to watch in full. First the negatives.....

Kate Sheehan is a muppet.
Goal kicking standards are still pretty poor.
Umpiring standards are even worse.
Cramey injured again

Now onto us, we really never looked like losing that game, we just dominated the entire contest. From the midfield dominance, forward power and Sarah Allen and the skipper down back.... we just destroyed them.

It took us a little while to just pump the ball upfield, but our skill level has lifted to the point where we want to back ourselves in, I dont mind it.

I think Doc has the mix right up there, you have Erin who intimidates any opposition surrounded by the speed of Stevie Lee, Ponter and others who run through there. Sadly I think that could spell the end for Perkins, but she just doesnt fit the style we want to play. Also, how the **** do we replace Phillips when shes done ??

Its more exciting to watch.

The best part of the evolution is we’re playing a structure to allow us more scoring shots. The final frontier is for our forwards to calm the * down and slot their goals!

Phillips is irreplaceable, but as long as our team lifts all over the field, we still have scope for improvement yet. Already liking the progression of Jones, Hatchard, Sarah Allan, Marinoff, Mules. We also have handy outs in Wallace and Jess Allan, who would help our cause if and when they return next year.

 

[NikkiNoo]

So the intercostals were torn but no rib fractures? Sounds like a very unlucky injury, as you don’t often hear it in footy.

Yup, no rib damage showed up on the x-rays, but I bet there was something there. Had to sleep sitting up for about a month. It was caused by a player not being taught a) the rules and b) not knowing how to tackle properly.

This is partly why I am very strong about getting in better umpires for the AFLW as they need to punish the poor tackling techniques by awarding frees. This will cause the coaches etc to spend more time getting the tackling right and cause fewer injuries.

In the Carlton/Geelong game there were two bad incidents caused by poor protection techniques. One of the incidents is likely to result in the player who did the right thing in turning side on, being suspended while the player who didn't turn side on for protection ended up on the ground and getting the free. It happened very quickly, but one showed the way to go for the ball and to also protect the body. We also saw in our game Vanhagen stop to ensure that she didn't cause injury to Gibson, but Gibson put her head down and drove forward to get the free. In that case, it shouldn't have been a free as Gibson caused the contact and Vanhagen had actually stopped. It's probably why Vanhagen reacted to her in the way she did, knowing that Gibson was inviting injury to herself in order to get a free.

 

[spexau]

This thread was a funny read in hindsight. I only watched the 2nd half but we looked to be all over them. Erin was back to her 2017 domination.

 

[NikkiNoo]

This thread was a funny read in hindsight. I only watched the 2nd half but we looked to be all over them. Erin was back to her 2017 domination.

The first half was so frustrating because we were all over them then too but kept making silly mistakes/missing easy shots on goal.

 

[radiojake]

Cant wait to watch the replay when I get home tonight

Got next sunday off work so will be able to trek to Werribee to watch the game against North

 

[Coopers]

Great win - 1st half was a carbon copy of the previous 3 games:

• Dominate.
• Miss easy goals.
• Opposition somehow can't miss and goals with every forward entry.
• How the hell are we not winning this?

Second half we sorted it out, Kept dominating, stopped missing.

Still annoyed at the bulldogs game where we didn't sort it out at all, and lost (just).
At some point we'll have a whole game where we put it together, watch out.

 

[VictorianCrow85]

I tell you what, some of the center bounce clearance work would put our mens team to shame at times - it was so clean and precise and worked into space for clean exits instead of always a hack kick. Amazing what a midfield can do without the Campo influence!

 

[brucetiki]

Particularly in slippery conditions!

Games are more enjoyable when Sheehan is not commentating... as she is always terrible.

It's a pity she's going to ruin the Melbourne v North game later this afternoon...

 

[the universal]

That second half made me very excited for the finals - we'll be there if we keep this up. Our ball movement was terrific even in those slippery conditions.

 

[Redleg Crow]

Just watched the game. Damn.

We are bloody good and we’d be putting Erin Phillips’ name on a grandstand at Adelaide Oval if AFLW had been around as long as the AFL

 

[treeman]

A 4 point win to North this afternoon has us still 2nd spot.

Any chance we can defeat North next weekend?

Sent from my MI PAD 4 using Tapatalk

 

[cmndstab]

Just watched the game. Damn.

We are bloody good and we’d be putting Erin Phillips’ name on a grandstand at Adelaide Oval if AFLW had been around as long as the AFL

I was just thinking this last night. Phillips is an outside chance to win the league MVP again this year. Imagine if AFLW had been around when she was a teenager. She could feasibly have won a dozen of them.

I hope that history remembers her as one of the all-time greats of women's footy despite getting to see only a few years of her.

 

[cmndstab]

A 4 point win to North this afternoon has us still 2nd spot.

Any chance we can defeat North next weekend?

Sent from my MI PAD 4 using Tapatalk

Melbourne showed that it's doable. North Melbourne have looked unbeatable in previous weeks, but decidedly beatable against Melbourne.

We're a similar standard to Melbourne. We can beat them. Just have to bring our A game, and make the most of our chances.

The good thing now is that our percentage is significantly higher than the teams below us.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

I was just thinking this last night. Phillips is an outside chance to win the league MVP again this year. Imagine if AFLW had been around when she was a teenager. She could feasibly have won a dozen of them.

I hope that history remembers her as one of the all-time greats of women's footy despite getting to see only a few years of her.

Surely she still would have played basketball over AFLW. The chance to represent Australia and play in the WNBA would surely win out over AFLW.

 

[cmndstab]

Surely she still would have played basketball over AFLW. The chance to represent Australia and play in the WNBA would surely win out over AFLW.

You may be right, but football was the first love. If she was 14 and deciding which of the two sports she would put her time into, she wouldn't know then how far she'd get in basketball.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

You may be right, but football was the first love. If she was 14 and deciding which of the two sports she would put her time into, she wouldn't know then how far she'd get in basketball.

No she wouldn't, but it would have been obvious that there was a lot more money in basketball as well. She was likely on over USD $100k/year in the WNBA. That's $140k in AUD, compared to the $50k she's getting for AFLW.

 

[FR0GGY]

Why are north so good as a new team?

 

[radiojake]

Why are north so good as a new team?

they pretty much recruited/poached all the players who used to play for the MUGARS (Melbourne University) after North went into a relationship with them (much like Western Bulldogs did with Victorian Uni Spurs)

So players like Kearney and Ashmore have all joined, along with Mo Hope and Emma King

 

[cmndstab]

Yeah, they took Collingwood's entire forward line (which was their only strength), and several of the competition's best midfielders. They seemed to take a top-five player from each of the eastern seaboard clubs. In a competition where the depth is still weak, that's devastating to those clubs and has made NM very strong.

Still, as Melbourne has shown, they are beatable.

 

[FR0GGY]

Yeah, they took Collingwood's entire forward line (which was their only strength), and several of the competition's best midfielders. They seemed to take a top-five player from each of the eastern seaboard clubs. In a competition where the depth is still weak, that's devastating to those clubs and has made NM very strong.

Still, as Melbourne has shown, they are beatable.

Were there no rules set about who they could recruit?

 

[NikkiNoo]

Were there no rules set about who they could recruit?

There was, but they were much smarter about who to target and how it was set up with the link with Melbourne University to gain established players and those who were dissatisfied with their own team *cough* Collingwood *cough*. The aim for the AFL in doing this was to try and dilute the pool a bit from Melbourne and the Bulldogs who dominate in Victoria as they had the bulk of the talent, which is a fine idea, but like most things AFL, they didn't see a club exploiting the rules for their own gain. Geelong has special access to players from their region similar to how we do for SA and NT players (and the other interstate teams), but that is still a developing team as opposed to mostly established players like for NM. Geelong also were allowed a couple of free agents and they got some fine players, but they were more interested in creating a new squad from their area.

 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

There was, but they were much smarter about who to target and how it was set up with the link with Melbourne University to gain established players and those who were dissatisfied with their own team *cough* Collingwood *cough*. The aim for the AFL in doing this was to try and dilute the pool a bit from Melbourne and the Bulldogs who dominate in Victoria as they had the bulk of the talent, which is a fine idea, but like most things AFL, they didn't see a club exploiting the rules for their own gain. Geelong has special access to players from their region similar to how we do for SA and NT players (and the other interstate teams), but that is still a developing team as opposed to mostly established players like for NM. Geelong also were allowed a couple of free agents and they got some fine players, but they were more interested in creating a new squad from their area.

What did Collingwood do with their women to make them so unhappy? You'd think they'd be in the best position to give their women the best off-field support possible, especially compared to North, who basically run off the smell of an oily rag.

 

[spexau]

No she wouldn't, but it would have been obvious that there was a lot more money in basketball as well. She was likely on over USD $100k/year in the WNBA. That's $140k in AUD, compared to the $50k she's getting for AFLW.

If AFLW started 18 years ago I'd like to think that a marquee AFLW player would be earning closer to 140k than 50k.