Review AFLW Round 4 - GWS v Adelaide @ Manuka Oval

[DJ75]

It's so weird being a long time Crows fan and being able to watch a Crows team with full confidence they will win. Full confidence they will be well organised and play clean clinical football.
It's quite glorious really.

 

[jackster83]

Pretty good performance. GWS turned up to play and put us under pressure until halfway through the third term.

Helps when we kick straight.

Jones is such a smooth mover. Love watching her play.

Good to see Deni back.

When is Sarah Allan back?

 

[dplggr47]

What was that 50? Clive ran straight up to the mark.

You have to stand at the 10m mark lined up with the goal square. The players know this. I reckon she's done this before last week or the week before. She kind of has the tendancy to run past the mark and point at it like that is the mark.

 

[cmndstab]

Got to watch the first half this morning, but then attended two birthday parties so only just got to finish watching the second half then.

Feels strange to say it when we've kicked the second-highest score ever and won by 12 goals, but that football won't get it done against the top sides. Weak defensively today and outworked through the middle in the first half (Marinoff aside), but GWS just didn't have the legs to keep it up and once they fell away, they fell away hard. Got those 4 behinds at the start of Q3 and then only scored one more behind for the rest of the match while we piled on 9 goals. Feels very much like 2019 where sides could keep up with us for 2-3 quarters and then we'd run over them, but that 2019 season didn't have a Melbourne or a North Melbourne that could go with us.

Was that the best ruck performance at AFLW ever by Jess Allan? It feels like literally every stoppage she was involved in she got a hitout to advantage! I had no idea she was going to be nearly that good when she came back to us. Handy when the ball hits the deck too and not scared to throw her body around.

Marinoff is just a beast out there... she is still every bit the accumulator and tackler she has always been, but her kicking is real quality at the moment. The longer games are suiting her too, she's a cardio monster.

Hatchard to the forward line is a luxury that we can now afford given Allan's ruck dominance, Marinoff's and Ponter's form, and Kelly's and Charlton's development. I'm really liking Charlton at the moment, she just looks super confident and is making great decisions.

Jones started off scratchy but ended up with a great game. Waterhouse is really looking handy too, and her being there has allowed them to get Martin back through the middle more often which I prefer. Randall behind the ball with a license to run forward is very attractive to watch. And I'm impressed with how Mueller's game has developed.

On the flip side of the coin, not a great game from Ballard, Newman, Bonner or Tonon. Each of them have a genuine weapon, be it kicking skills or pace, but just struggle to get involved in the game. Goodwin worked her way into the game, is there any word on her? She looked to get hurt near the end of the game. Varnhagen had a better second half than first but still doesn't really belong at this level anymore. McKinnon is still very clearly our weakest ruck option, but at least she finally broke the duck and kicked a goal!

 

[twiggy4PM]

Impressive win by the girls, totally dominated the second half. Eloise Jones had a day out, that mark was a classic.

 

[dplggr47]

Was that the best ruck performance at AFLW ever by Jess Allan? It feels like literally every stoppage she was involved in she got a hitout to advantage! I had no idea she was going to be nearly that good when she came back to us. Handy when the ball hits the deck too and not scared to throw her body around.

Marinoff is just a beast out there... she is still every bit the accumulator and tackler she has always been, but her kicking is real quality at the moment. The longer games are suiting her too, she's a cardio monster.

Hatchard to the forward line is a luxury that we can now afford given Allan's ruck dominance, Marinoff's and Ponter's form, and Kelly's and Charlton's development. I'm really liking Charlton at the moment, she just looks super confident and is making great decisions.

Jones started off scratchy but ended up with a great game. Waterhouse is really looking handy too, and her being there has allowed them to get Martin back through the middle more often which I prefer. Randall behind the ball with a license to run forward is very attractive to watch. And I'm impressed with how Mueller's game has developed.

On the flip side of the coin, not a great game from Ballard, Newman, Bonner or Tonon. Each of them have a genuine weapon, be it kicking skills or pace, but just struggle to get involved in the game. Goodwin worked her way into the game, is there any word on her? She looked to get hurt near the end of the game. Varnhagen had a better second half than first but still doesn't really belong at this level anymore. McKinnon is still very clearly our weakest ruck option, but at least she finally broke the duck and kicked a goal!

Davies won 8 hitouts. Allan pretty much won all hers. McKinnon dominated hers too. They split their TOG 53/54% respectively. GWS have terrible ruck, so not surprised we won that department easily, but some of those hitouts were sublime; straight to our midfielders and we had plenty of easy clearances, especially centre clearances. Having the ruck split their time 50/50 means less rotations for the other players, but keeping our rucks fresh.

Lister isn't the best tagger, but it was good she went to Hatchy instead of Noffy. Noffy was on fire. She's always played well against GWS, but this was another level; 36 kicks! Her running ability today was also on show. I never realised how good of a runner she was. The tag also meant Hatchy played up forward for quite a bit of time. I don't mind this as she is a strong marking target, but she is certainly not dangerous up forward with goal kicking. Every time she got the ball up forward, her first option was to look to pass it off, regardless of how close she was to goals. She has zero faith in her goal kicking ability.

Randall was dominating with her interceptions today. The first time she intercepted, it felt like she was getting bored playing down back with nothing to do, and she just burst through for a great interception literally out of nowhere! She attacks the ball from afar, rather than stand and wait for the ball to come to you. She had a great game.

Jones was fantastic with her biggest haul of goals. We had a huge range of goal kickers, which was excellent.
Waterhouse looked dangerous all game. Still gives away the silly free kick or 50m penalty though.

Defenders were okay, but not great, other than Biddell and Randall. Goldsworthy was exciting up forward for GWS.
Deni started terribly. First possession was a turnover. Second possession put a teammate under pressure and led to a turnover. She did manage to snag a goal, but other than that, I think she will be first out when Stevie-Lee returns.

Crows have 4 tough matchups coming up against: GC, Melb, WB, Bris, North. We might get Allen back for Brisbane, but Allan won't be back til last round or finals. The defenders group will need to step it up.

 

[cmndstab]

Randall was dominating with her interceptions today. The first time she intercepted, it felt like she was getting bored playing down back with nothing to do, and she just burst through for a great interception literally out of nowhere! She attacks the ball from afar, rather than stand and wait for the ball to come to you. She had a great game.

That's what Randall has always been best at. Intercepting balls in D50 and then bursting out of defence with it. And she also has very useful pace to run down forwards when they do get the ball. She can also play lockdown on a dangerous forward and just destroy them with her athleticism and smarts.

As much as I love Randall, I think she's a bit of a choker in front of goals from anywhere further than 10m out, especially on the run. She's much better at making a good choice and putting the ball out into space to the advantage of a midfielder, rather than trying to split the middle of the goals. Now that our forward line is functioning alright and our midfield has some potency again, I'd put her back for the rest of the season, especially given we're down Allan, Allen and Thompson. She is also less prone to getting knocked into next week when playing in defence. Just lock her in back there. We've always played our best with Randall in defence - all three flags were won with her playing a lockdown role on Tayla Harris, and we'll have to beat Melbourne in a final if we want to win a fourth flag this season.

 

[dplggr47]

That's what Randall has always been best at. Intercepting balls in D50 and then bursting out of defence with it. And she also has very useful pace to run down forwards when they do get the ball. She can also play lockdown on a dangerous forward and just destroy them with her athleticism and smarts.

As much as I love Randall, I think she's a bit of a choker in front of goals from anywhere further than 10m out, especially on the run. She's much better at making a good choice and putting the ball out into space to the advantage of a midfielder, rather than trying to split the middle of the goals. Now that our forward line is functioning alright and our midfield has some potency again, I'd put her back for the rest of the season, especially given we're down Allan, Allen and Thompson. She is also less prone to getting knocked into next week when playing in defence. Just lock her in back there. We've always played our best with Randall in defence - all three flags were won with her playing a lockdown role on Tayla Harris, and we'll have to beat Melbourne in a final if we want to win a fourth flag this season.

She's not the only one. Majority of forwards probably have a higher behind to goal ratio.
There was this play in the middle, where Randall intercepted and shot out a long sideways/back handball to Marinoff in the centre of the ground. Was such a good play and not many would've pulled it off. She's all-australian when she plays defence.

 

[John Who]

I think we’re playing a brand of exciting footy at the moment. There seems to be more cohesion between the mids and the forwards, and this results in more spread of goal kickers this year. Our fitness is certainly also a key feature when it matters most in the last half of all our games.

Few things that stood out for me in the recent match:
- Marinoff is a disposal beast, that’s never been a question about her game. What is most impressive is that her kicking was quite good, didn’t see many mis-kicks, if at all. Was a definite standout game for her. 10/10

- we now appear to have a team filled with genuine footy talent who can all defend and attack in unison. Not many obvious weak links like in other years.

- Gould is looking the goods as a forward. Can take a grab and quite agile for her size. And can ruck too!

- that Waterhouse play was the highlight of the game for me: tapped the ball forward, then soccer kicking the ball on when an opponent was about to get near the ball, gathered the ball and then a smart short pass to a forward just in front of goal. This tells me she has genuine talent and a footy brain to play regular AFLW.

 

[John Who]

Impressive win by the girls, totally dominated the second half. Eloise Jones had a day out, that mark was a classic.

Should be a nomination for goal of the year too. Not often you see a female player taking a speccy, then quickly playing on and kicking a 40m goal.