AFLW Preliminary Finals - 2021 AFLW season

2021 AFLW Grand Finalists?


  • Total voters
    11
  • Poll closed .



All times are local. In addition to the free-to-air television coverage noted below, all matches are broadcast live on Fox Sports and streamed live-and-free on the AFLW website/app.

PRELIMINARY FINAL 1
Adelaide (1st) v Melbourne (4th)
Saturday 1.40pm, Adelaide Oval
Seven (Melb/Perth/Adel) and 7mate (Syd) and 7two (Bris)

PRELIMINARY FINAL 2
Brisbane (2nd) v C'wood (3rd)
Saturday 4.10pm, The Gabba
Seven (Melb/Adel) and 7mate (Syd/Bris/Perth) and 7two (Bris)


TEAMS

ADELAIDE
B:
A.Foley 3 M.Rajcic 32
HB: N.Allen 8 S.Allan 39 S.Thompson 14
C: T.Charlton 25 E.Phillips 13 J.Mules 23
HF: R.Martin 5 C.Randall - C 26 C.Scheer 4
F: A.Woodland 24 E.Jones 2
Foll: R.Metcalfe 11 E.Marinoff 10 A.Hatchard 33
I/C: C.Gould 1 D.Varnhagen 9 D.Ponter 15 D.Cox 31 H.Button 6
Emerg: C.Biddell 12 A.Considine 16
No change

MELBOURNE
B:
L.Magee 26 L.Birch 9
HB: S.Heath 30 S.Lampard 8 M.Downie 2
C: C.Sherriff 18 E.Zanker 29 E.McNamara 22
HF: J.Parry 19 K.Hore 10 S.Scott 12
F: M.Gay 3 A.Bannan 16
Foll: L.Pearce 15 K.Paxman - C 4 T.Hanks 5
I/C: G.Colvin 32 C.Emonson 11 L.Mithen 14 T.Cunningham 1 B.Tarrant 20
Emerg: N.McEvoy 17 M.Fitzsimon 24
No change



BRISBANE
B:
E.Zielke - C 8 S.Campbell 20
HB: K.Lutkins 13 N.Grider 10 B.Koenen 3
C: O.O'Dwyer 9 C.Svarc 25 S.Conway 12
HF: G.Bodey 15 D.Davidson 14 L.Arnell 16
F: J.Wardlaw 30 C.Hodder 21
Foll: T.Hickie 24 A.Anderson 18 E.Bates 1
I/C: I.Tahau 26 J.Ellenger 5 I.Dawes 17 J.Wuetschner 23 T.Smith 31
Emerg: M.Moloney 28 R.Lugg 11
In: S.Campbell
Out: R.Lugg (omitted)

COLLINGWOOD
B:
R.Schleicher 18 A.Porter 9
HB: A.Brazill 10 S.Livingstone 12 S.Casey 22
C: S.Chiocci 17 J.Lambert 13 E.Fowler 15
HF: A.Sheridan 14 S.Alexander 24 K.Stratton 41
F: C.Molloy 2 M.Cann 25
Foll: S.Norder 1 B.Davey - C 3 B.Bonnici 8
I/C: E.O'Dea 50 S.Rowe 7 T.Brown 26 B.Smith 19 M.Shevlin 35
Emerg: J.Lin 20 A.Newman 16
In: S.Casey
Out: J.Lin (omitted)
 
Last edited:
I've got plenty of scattered thoughts on these two games, which may take some time to assemble. But for now I'd just like to point out that the only two teams who have won an away final so far are Adelaide and Melbourne, while Brisbane are one of only two teams to lose a home final.

As it stands, the total win-loss finals record for the four teams in question are:
Crows: 3-0
Dees: 2-0
Lions: 0-3
Pies: 1-1
 

toenail63

Senior List
Dec 6, 2017
268
687
Brisbane
AFL Club
Richmond
Lions v Dees. Lions to win at The Gabbattoir this time around by less then a goal and the Dees to do a repeat of what the Tigers did 6 months ago and win in Adelaide by a goal.
 
From a historical head-to-head perspective, and some other things perhaps worth considering.


Adelaide v Melbourne

Last time they met: 2021 Round 7, Melbourne 6.7.43 defeated Adelaide 2.3.15 at Casey Fields.

Melbourne leads the all-time H2H 3-1. Captain Daisy Pearce, who is in doubt for Saturday with a knee injury, has an unrivalled 3-0 record against Adelaide. The only time Adelaide played the Dees sans-Daisy was also their only win against the club, recording a thumping 60-point victory back in 2019.

The Crows have never played Melbourne in South Australia before. The one home game they've played against the Demons was in R6 2017 at Marrara, losing by two points despite a late fourth-quarter surge.

Adelaide Oval--where the Crows have played just twice (both finals, both big wins)--is a solid 15m wider than Norwood Oval but the same length, and 10-12m narrower than Casey Fields and fractionally (~3m) longer.

Probably the biggest question lingering over both contests is whether the week off for the top-2 finalists will work to their favour as we instinctively presume. Even so, Melbourne really dominated the match-up last month tactically, so it should take more than fresh legs to swing a 28-point deficit. The other key factor in order for an Adelaide win: Although she's never had trouble racking up the disposals against the Dees, Erin Phillips has not kicked a goal in the three encounters she has featured.


Brisbane v C'wood

Last time they met: 2021 Round 7, Brisbane 4.11.35 defeated Collingwood 4.8.32 at Whitten Oval.

In bizarre(-ish) circumstances, Brisbane snapped one of the league's more bizarre head-to-head losing streaks last month. Their previous defeat of Collingwood took place in R3 2017 at South Pine. The Pies did a number on them three times in a row between those wins--two of them stemming from Brittany Bonnici's stifling job of Emily Bates.

Somewhat fittingly, the Lions turned the tables in R7 this year primarily through Cathy Svarc's tagging role on Brianna Davey. And yet, even though the Collingwood co-captain was kept to just 14 touches, it still only produced a narrow margin of victory.

Brisbane have technically only played at the Gabba once, but it was just a few weeks ago and resulted in a 15-point defeat of North Melbourne. I say 'technically' because they've played practice-type matches during winter in previous years. Just 160m goal-to-goal, but a nice fat 135m across, which is 5m longer and 10m wider than Hickey Park, while Victoria Park is the same length and about 5m narrower (albeit a wonky shape).

Forecast for Saturday in Brisbane is sunny and a max of 31 degrees, down to about 24 by the end of this game. Maybe that psychologically works into Collingwood's favour, having just run over North in Q4 in hotter conditions, or maybe it's just going to physically take them to their breaking point. Something tells me, just in case, I should probably also look at the weather for Carrara on Sunday (there's a Suns game at Metricon on the Saturday night): 28 and partly cloudy.
 
Melbourne's form of late has me more confident than perhaps I should be. They coped well without Daisy and played smart last week to close out the game. A massive AO crowd would be very different to Casey though.

Will need to replicate the great pressure of recent weeks and make sure they're accurate in front of goal, which they generally were last week until the last quarter.

Hard to pick a winner in the Lions/Pies game. Collingwood were very impressive last week, but Brisbane have been solid all year. Both games should be good to watch.
 

timokane

Club Legend
Oct 2, 2018
1,674
1,279
AFL Club
Collingwood
Both Collingwood and Melbourne have "the wood" over their opponents.

Melbourne are the only team not to lose to the crows amazing and Collingwood apart from round 7 lose to lions have bet them last last 4 times before that match.

Both matches are away for the dees and pies though.
 
Melbourne are the only team not to lose to the crows amazing and Collingwood apart from round 7 lose to lions have bet them last last 4 times before that match.
Not quite, see my rundown of the head-to-head history a few posts earlier.

The only AFLW team to not lose to the Crows yet is... Richmond!
 

parano1a

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 2, 2003
5,717
6,549
Melbourne
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
Melbourne Storm
The AFLW Grand Final should scheduled be on Sunday night starting at 7.30pm, when there will be no direct clashes with AFL games.
The only issue is that Channel 7 may not want to distract viewers from its new season of Dancing With The Stars.
 
The AFLW Grand Final should scheduled be on Sunday night starting at 7.30pm, when there will be no direct clashes with AFL games.
The only issue is that Channel 7 may not want to distract viewers from its new season of Dancing With The Stars.
In order to avoid clashes, it wouldn't be able to start before 8pm AEST. And there is no may about it: A Sunday night grand final would be on 7mate, which would bring on as much or even more criticism of the AFL as a clash with a men's game. Would also cop flak for not being a family friendly time (regardless of SA school holidays).
 

parano1a

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 2, 2003
5,717
6,549
Melbourne
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
Melbourne Storm
I can see Channel 7 have left a two hour broadcast timeslot open for 3pm Saturday, so this is when the AFLW Grand Final will most likely be played.
 

parano1a

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 2, 2003
5,717
6,549
Melbourne
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
Melbourne Storm
A Sunday night grand final would be on 7mate, which would bring on as much or even more criticism of the AFL as a clash with a men's game.
Why though? Plenty of men's games are shown on 7mate. This would be the highest profile broadcast timeslot available.
 
Why though? Plenty of men's games are shown on 7mate. This would be the highest profile broadcast timeslot available.
Plenty of men's games clash with each other, too.

Either you want the AFLW grand final to be treated like a run-of-the-mill H&A men's game, or you don't.
 
Big collision, Chelsea Randall basically KO'd but it didn't look like her head collided with McNamara to me (could do with a slow-mo replay though).

Melbourne blowing their dominance early.
 
Five wins on the trot and then this, you just can't have your season peter out with such a whimper. Somebody has to lift for Melbourne, I'd be getting Heath (one of few showing a bit of dash) involved up forward more to replicate what Martin did in that quarter.
 
Adelaide grand final without Chelsea Randall bleghhh, almost the worst possible outcome. I suppose Considine will be the one to come in, so good reward for her persistence at least.
 
Back