Women's Footy Crows AFLW Season 2020 - The Defending Premiers

[LiquidCrow]

Apparently the AFLW players themselves disagree with me though because Jess Foley didn't even receive a single vote in the recent "best ruck in the competition" survey Even a recent draftee yet to play a single match got a vote!

https://womens.afl/news/40209/players-survey-who-is-the-best-ruck-in-aflw-

A survey made up of only 14 players (1 from each club) was always going to be pretty rubbish.

 

[cmndstab]

A survey made up of only 14 players (1 from each club) was always going to be pretty rubbish.

I mean, sure, but they do that kind of thing often, right? I'm assuming it wasn't just a random player from each club being surveyed, it was probably a captain or someone in the leadership group.

It's no different than when Tex was voted best captain in the comp by his peers. One vote from each club, presumably cast by a delegate of the club.

 

[LiquidCrow]

I mean, sure, but they do that kind of thing often, right? I'm assuming it wasn't just a random player from each club being surveyed, it was probably a captain or someone in the leadership group.

It's no different than when Tex was voted best captain in the comp by his peers. One vote from each club, presumably cast by a delegate of the club.

Don't think it's quite like that. Tex won the Best captain AFLPA award, which seems to survey the entire playing group -

Riewoldt voted second best captain in the AFL

St Kilda’s longest serving skipper Nick Riewoldt has narrowly been beaten by Adelaide’s Taylor Walker in the AFL Player’s Association Best Captain award on Tuesday night.

www.saints.com.au

Riewoldt, who announced his decision to hand over the captaincy at this month’s Trevor Barker Award, polled the second most votes (111), behind Crows skipper Taylor Walker (127).

If votes were a single vote based on an individual club's decision, it would make the selection of a player who hasn't even played a game even more unlikely.

 

[Coopers]

I mean, sure, but they do that kind of thing often, right? I'm assuming it wasn't just a random player from each club being surveyed, it was probably a captain or someone in the leadership group.

It's no different than when Tex was voted best captain in the comp by his peers. One vote from each club, presumably cast by a delegate of the club.

It's almost certainly like the AA selection process - you need to have an AA year before the panel even knows who you are so you can be selected for AA the next year, if you do it again.

 

[cmndstab]

It's almost certainly like the AA selection process - you need to have an AA year before the panel even knows who you are so you can be selected for AA the next year, if you do it again.

That doesn't explain the girl who hasn't even debuted yet getting a vote!

 

[LiquidCrow]

These AFLW player surveys aren't great, but to be fair to Sarah Black it seems like she is the only one employed by the AFL trying to generate interesting AFLW content and probably doesn’t have access to the resources to do a more meaningful survey. I wouldn't be surprised if she is actually calling up the players themselves.

If we look at the best midfielder article (https://womens.afl/news/40250/players-survey-who-is-the-best-midfielder-in-aflw-), it’s no surprise that Erin Phillips wins this. However, she only got 4 votes out of 14, with 10 others getting a single vote. I think a broader survey of fans and even commentators would have Erin at No. 1 by a much larger margin. With individual players such an even spread may point to responders are voting for people within their own club, or even voting with the assumption that everyone will vote for Erin anyway.

Looking at the forwards survey, Jasmine Garner scored 7 out of 14 votes - https://womens.afl/news/40252/players-survey-who-is-the-best-forward-in-aflw-

One could ask if this is because she better known due to the larger number of Victorian players and teams. Jasmine played for Collingwood and North, kicking 15 career goals. She also kicked the first goal in AFLW. Not sure what her VFLW goal kicking record is like, but that may also influence things too. In AFLW terms, she has kicked the same number of goals as Stevie-Lee (3 votes). Erin leads the pack with 28 career goals (2 votes), although some may have considered her a midfielder rather than a forward.

 

[Deaneus!]

If Erin isn't the #1 player in the comp, burn AFL House down and start again.

It just seems obvious... but I wouldn't put it past them.

There have been plenty of girls hyped up by the VFL machine who did wall-to-wall *-all, while our girls kicked arse and chewed bubble gum, and got no recognition.

Ebony Marinoff at 15. [redacted]

 

[Deaneus!]

AFLW Latest News - AFL.com.au/aflw

Latest breaking AFLW news from the official website of the Australian Football League.

womens.afl

In an interesting spread of votes, the two-time AFLW best and fairest received four votes, while a group of 10 players had one nomination each.

Melbourne was well represented with its elite trio of Daisy Pearce, Karen Paxman and Elise O'Dea all picking up a vote, while North Melbourne pair Emma Kearney (herself a league best and fairest) and Jenna Bruton were also named.

Voting results

4 – Erin Phillips (Adelaide)
1 – Ellie Blackburn (Western Bulldogs), Kiara Bowers (Fremantle), Jenna Bruton (North Melbourne), Brianna Davey (Collingwood), Dana Hooker (West Coast), Emma Kearney (North Melbourne), Elise O'Dea (Melbourne), Alyce Parker (GWS), Karen Paxman (Melbourne), Daisy Pearce (Melbourne)


This tells me about 10 players in the league are idiots although whoever voted for Emma Kearney, fair enough, she won a Gownlow*(TM)

* because women mostly wear gowns to the ceremonies and it rhymes

 

[NikkiNoo]

For those interested in more in depth AFLW stats, the Siren Collective is granting access to their 2020 AFLW player database for the upcoming season with a subscription to the Collective. See information here - https://sirensport.com.au/ (Also they use Chelsea as the header image, so they know their good players )

 

[GreyCrow]

If you consider yourself a scribe @beccahayne on twitter is looking for people to write a game summary for the crows

 

[ams4crows]

Did DV do her ACL in the trial game today?

 

[jackster83]

For those interested in more in depth AFLW stats, the Siren Collective is granting access to their 2020 AFLW player database for the upcoming season with a subscription to the Collective. See information here - https://sirensport.com.au/ (Also they use Chelsea as the header image, so they know their good players )

Hopefully either finalsiren or footywire start doing stats for the women's games soon.

 

[LiquidCrow]

AustralianFootball.com has AFLW stats, but you have to do a little digging. With individual players you can get a good idea with the "Every game by season" option.

Eg. https://australianfootball.com/players/player_season_detail/Ebony+Marinoff/19871

 

[cmndstab]

Did DV do her ACL in the trial game today?

Still waiting to hear. All they've said so far is that they'll be doing scans "in the coming days". Fingers crossed!

 

[Coopers]

Still waiting to hear. All they've said so far is that they'll be doing scans "in the coming days". Fingers crossed!

Usually they know straight away. So yah. I think they know.

 

[1970crow]

She could tidy her disposal

I wonder who is above her

That’s my only knock on her, often tried to over kick rather than try and hit up a target. Thought she was better last season though.

 

[John Who]

Usually they know straight away. So yah. I think they know.

You can never really be certain until scans are performed. Remember JJ and Seeds looking like bad knee injuries in recent years? Neither turned out to be ACLs.

 

[brucetiki]

For anyone interested, Rainbow Crows are having a watch party of the 2019 AFLW Grand Final as part of their membership launch today.

Starts at 1:30, 57 Hyde St Adelaide.

 

[NikkiNoo]

Still underestimating us looking at this recap. Yes, we lost Deni but then we went on a six goal spree in the second quarter without her. Next woman up. And they delivered. Yet all they talk about is our injuries. You can’t talk up Freo and ignore that we were better with all those injuries.

10 biggest takeaways from the AFLW pre-season games

Can the Crows go back to back? Will the Pies play finals? 10 takeaways from the weekend's pre-season games.

www.sen.com.au

 

[cmndstab]

This is a bit late, but I had a few thoughts from our trial game.

First of all, dropped marks under little pressure remains an achilles heels of ours (and possible of the AFLW competition in general). The number of times we picked the right option, and players up ahead started to spread in anticipation of a forward play, only to see an easy mark get spilled was infuriating. And turnovers like that are impossible to defend because the players are all out of position.

Of the recent crop of draftees, only Gum and McKinnon showed they were ready to go. They can all play if needed, of course, but outside of Gum and McKinnon, I didn't think any of them really put their hand up. In particular, I thought McKinnon's ruckwork was excellent, but her work around the ground was nothing special. Gum looked slow to begin with but warmed into the game really well and ended up one of our strongest contributors. Without meaning to sound disrespectful to her, she's a lesser version of Erin Phillips. By which I mean, she offers very much the same kind of game - either plays as a clearance mid, or pinch hits up forward and gets among the goals. Gets herself in the right spots, and doesn't do much wrong when she has a chance to impact the game. Obviously nobody can be Erin Phillips, but she's pretty damn good anyway!

I thought Nikki Gore showed she was ready to go. Last year she was almost there but not quite. She's is the only member of our 2019 squad to survive the cut despite not playing a major role in our premiership campaign, so this is her year to put her stamp on the competition and show that she belongs there. You never like to see players go down, but Deni Varnhagen's injury might open the door for her, as she seems suitable for that kind of role.

Justine Mules had an excellent first half, but I thought she faded out in the second half. She's always been patchy in games, fading in and out at various times, but that first half was really good.

Eloise Jones looks poised to really grab the competition by the scruff of the neck. She does it all up forward, taking marks, nailing tackles, sidestepping through defenders. Of course, she also managed to have one of her trademark shanks only a few metres from the goalline. If she can tidy that stuff up she's going to have a super year. I love the chemistry between her and Ponter.

Sarah Allan got a massive wrap from the commentators, and deservedly so. She looks like picking up where she left off last season, able to stifle her opponent and so calm under pressure on the way back out. Between her and Rajcic we've got a fantastic defensive spine. And speaking of defenders playing well, I thought Angela Foley was excellent. While she's been fairly good so far in her AFLW career, I've always felt she has another level to go to. Hopefully we'll see it in 2020.

The midfield looks like it will mostly keep on as before. Hatchard looked as dynamic as last year, good signs there. Marinoff still gets a tonne of the ball, but it was mostly dump kicks. Great tackles, though. Gum played the Phillips role of rotating through the centre and did it well. Mules/Li/Varnhagen sniffing around on the wing were all good in patches, shame about Varnhagen's injury though. Renee Forth is the other one that impressed me. Although she held her spot all last season, I always thought she was in that bottom group of players, doing just enough but not much more. She's super talented so hopefully she can step up this year.

I'm still curious to see how they'll use Jess Foley. Hewitt looked a little scratchy, so I think Foley is ahead of her. I haven't heard anything re: Metcalfe, no idea if she's close to returning to not. I thought McKinnon's ruckwork was superior to Foley's, but Foley offered considerably more around the ground. That being said, our one dominant period in the second quarter came while McKinnon was rucking, so that from that what you will.

 

[cmndstab]

For anyone interested, Rainbow Crows are having a watch party of the 2019 AFLW Grand Final as part of their membership launch today.

Starts at 1:30, 57 Hyde St Adelaide.

Hope it went well!

I've watched that GF a couple of times since then, and unfortunately the two halves are chalk and cheese. The first half is super exciting footy, with Carlton getting off to a reasonable start, Crows clawing their way back in front by quarter time, and then playing absolutely electric footy in the second half, although unfortunately capped off by Scheer's injury.

The second half starts off as an arm wrestle, but then Phillips does her injury midway through the third, and you can tell that nobody really wants to be there after that. In fact, from the moment she does the injury, there isn't a single goal scored by either side for the rest of the match. After the incredibly emotional scene of Erin being driven off the ground while every player comes over to her, the rest of the match just feels as flat as a pancake. The only moment of note after that is when Erin returns to the ground with only a few minutes left on the clock in the last quarter.

 

[John Who]

Still underestimating us looking at this recap. Yes, we lost Deni but then we went on a six goal spree in the second quarter without her. Next woman up. And they delivered. Yet all they talk about is our injuries. You can’t talk up Freo and ignore that we were better with all those injuries.

10 biggest takeaways from the AFLW pre-season games

Can the Crows go back to back? Will the Pies play finals? 10 takeaways from the weekend's pre-season games.

www.sen.com.au

I actually don’t mind the spotlight not put on us. Will be less pressure for the new girls filling in the new roles.

Also, you can’t deny that we’ve been seriously unlucky with 5 ACLs (possibly 6, pending DV’s scans) in the space of 12 months! This is becoming a serious topic to focus on, not too dissimilar to the 2018 year with the Crows men’s having the injury year from hell.

 

[NikkiNoo]

I have some comments to your review there cmndstab. If you are praising the backline, then Nicole Campbell deserves accolades as a first year draftee. She was very good in defence working well with Rajic and Allen.

I also thought that Najwa Allen and Maddison Newman also had some nice highlights that show good promise and don't look out of place at the higher level.

Hewett didn't play in the game because she is now on Gold Coasts list. Foley was the ruck playing in the second half. I thought McKinnon was poor in the ruck in the first half with being continually outbodied and allowing the Freo ruck to grab her arm at every contest and not find a way to work through it. Contrast that with the way Foley played against her and it was chalk and cheese and the Freo ruck really struggled.

Mules was rested more in the second half, so it wasn't a fade out by choice of her when she is sitting on the bench.

On the dropped marks - Freo was doing it as well at times, so I think there definitely was some humidity in play going on there, as well as the wind changing direction more across the ground in the second half. Looking at Freo's shots on goal in the third quarter that ended up as out of bounds or a point, that can explain Eloise's miss as well. The trees in the background gave a little hint to this as well.

 

[cmndstab]

I have some comments to your review there cmndstab. If you are praising the backline, then Nicole Campbell deserves accolades as a first year draftee. She was very good in defence working well with Rajic and Allen.

I also thought that Najwa Allen and Maddison Newman also had some nice highlights that show good promise and don't look out of place at the higher level.

Hewett didn't play in the game because she is now on Gold Coasts list. Foley was the ruck playing in the second half. I thought McKinnon was poor in the ruck in the first half with being continually outbodied and allowing the Freo ruck to grab her arm at every contest and not find a way to work through it. Contrast that with the way Foley played against her and it was chalk and cheese and the Freo ruck really struggled.

Mules was rested more in the second half, so it wasn't a fade out by choice of her when she is sitting on the bench.

On the dropped marks - Freo was doing it as well at times, so I think there definitely was some humidity in play going on there, as well as the wind changing direction more across the ground in the second half. Looking at Freo's shots on goal in the third quarter that ended up as out of bounds or a point, that can explain Eloise's miss as well. The trees in the background gave a little hint to this as well.

Cheers for the comments In general I'd defer to your reading of it since you're more across the players than I am. I remember noticing Najwa Allen early on and then not after that.

Haha, I forgot Hewett was gone off the list! Was going off her number. Apparently #20 is Campbell now, so I guess she's the one I thought looked a bit scratchy, but then fair enough since she's new to the list. She obviously didn't stand out as being an obvious rookie in my eyes, haha.

You really didn't like McKinnon's rucking? I thought she did a great job. It looked more to me that she was using her arm to keep the Freo ruck out of the drop zone of the ball, and she was generally the one getting the hand to the ball.

Eloise's miss can't really be explained by the conditions when she was that close to goal (and from memory, she could have kept running even further in). It was just a minor brainfade. She can be forgiven for that considering how much else she got right.

 

[NikkiNoo]

I did like that those commentators for Freo actually knew most of the players from both teams and have been watching women's footy for a number of years.

The comment of the day had to be when they said that they knew "Adelaide had a scary list and then they come out and play like that (the second quarter) and you realise they are even scarier."