AFLW "Top 10" lists for the first 10 seasons

[Teen Wolf]

Post any Top 10 list you want, relating to the first ten seasons of AFLW. Can be opinion-based, stats-based, whatever.

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I will start with the 10 best marks, or at least my personal favourites. Counting down from 10th in this case to be dramatic.

10. Ebony Antonio. Had to include one by the woman whose likeness is actually featured on the Mark of the Year medal, even though this wasn't the best speccy of her entire footy career.


9. Erin Phillips


8. Danielle Ponter


7. Tayla Harris mk I.


6. Tahlia Randall. A butchered call by Jo Wotton but not badly enough to DQ it (unlike, say, a contender by Phoebe McWilliams in 2019 which was ruined by Kate Sheahan gasbagging through it).


5. Chloe Scheer with a leap that could've looked even better if Beth Lynch wasn't so eager to evacuate. Side-on angle helps though.


4. Matilda Scholz


3. Tayla Harris mk II. Not just the long-sleeves evoking 1989 Alastair Lynch.


2. Courtney Hodder


1. Mattea Breed, giving up 10cm to the player in front (Georgia Gall) which really separates this grab from the other candidates imo. Memorably came just moments after she laid a huge tackle at full stretch in the middle of the ground.

 

[Teen Wolf]

10 best goals, according to moi.

10. Kellie Gibson kicks the inaugural grand final off in style. Several other quickfires were candidates, but doing it on the big stage gets it over the line.


9. Ebony Antonio won Goal of the Year for this ripsnorter but, unlike MOTY, she is not depicted on the medal (instead it's Tayla Harris, who has kicked some good ones over the years but her best doesn't immediately spring to mind).


8. Chloe Molloy


7. Suspending the rules of a top 10 list here for a treble from Arden Street's pocket, where the laws of physics were also suspended.


6. Courtney Hodder


5. Hannah Munyard


4. Ashanti Bush


3. Aliesha Newman


2. Kate Hore


1. Richelle Cranston. We could've filled the top 10 with cracking coast-to-coast goals (on 170m-long grounds) to make a point. Instead, to represent them all, I've put this at no.1 which not only features excellent teamwork and physical prowess but also a great deal of talent and flair.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Most goals

Rank​	Player	G	B
1​	Kate Hore	105	80
2​	Gemma Houghton	100	86
3​	Jasmine Garner	99	58
4​	Danielle Ponter	91	64
5​	Katie Brennan	84	71
=6​	Jesse Wardlaw	83	51
=6​	Dakota Davidson	83	60
8​	Tahlia Randall	82	63
=9​	Eden Zanker	77	48
=9​	Tayla Harris	77	68

Most disposals

Rank​	Player	Total​	Ave
1​	Ebony Marinoff	2,614​	24.4
2​	Ash Riddell	2,334​	27.5
3​	Jasmine Garner	2,242​	21.8
4​	Ally Anderson	2,206​	20.4
5​	Anne Hatchard	2,117​	20.8
6​	Monique Conti	1,932​	22.7
7​	Emily Bates	1,818​	18.9
8​	Emma Kearney	1,788​	19.0
9​	Madison Prespakis	1,759​	22.6
10​	Paxy Paxman	1,725​	18.8

Most tackles

Rank​	Player	Total​	Ave​
1​	Ebony Marinoff	1,026​	9.6​
2​	Kiara Bowers	754​	12.4​
3​	Cathy Svarc	625​	7.4​
4​	Emily Bates	568​	5.9​
5​	Jasmine Garner	548​	5.3​
6​	Ally Anderson	524​	4.9​
7​	Jaimee Lambert	509​	5.5​
8​	Mia King	480​	6.7​
9​	Courtney Hodder	468​	6.1​
10​	Monique Conti	453​	5.3​

Garner on all 3 lists there.

Marinoff, Anderson, Conti and Bates on 2 (disposals and tackles in each case).

 

[Cdog71]

Gemma Houghton is a remarkable player and story.
Hope she makes it to the Hall of Fame.

 

[Teen Wolf]

10 biggest uniform blunders

10. The blazers
You had a great season, now embarrass yourself by wearing this crumpled oversized men's suit jacket from 2003.



9. Tasmanian Kangaroos
I've always been reluctant to shit on the naming rights sponsor since it's definitely been beneficial for the club and its women's footy program, so this isn't too high on the list. It might not have been on the list at all if they just wore it for home games in Tassie, but after a while they stopped wearing it for those games (for one reason or another) and instead wore it for other random games. At the end of the day, the name written on the cups is all that matters!



8. AFLW's rubbery coloured shorts policy
While it was all well and good for the league to adopt the No White Shorts policy, they of course have never thought it through enough to apply consistency for when clubs need to wear a different colour. See examples from this year below--I would've thought if Sydney need to wear black shorts vs GC, then Melbourne need to wear red shorts vs Collingwood.




7. Prison Bar delay
Port Adelaide has been defiant re the importance of the black-and-white jumper to their identity. It should therefore be viewed as a travesty that the club's golden daughter was never given the opportunity to play in it, and seemingly nobody thought to have the AFLW team wear the Prison Bars in Showdowns until after Erin Phillips retired.




6. Whitewash, part 1
Farcical scenes, only partially corrected at QT by the home team switching to dark shorts (the Giants only had a white-based jumper for 2017), albeit brought about by a split-second mistake from Fremantle's property steward rather than AFL neglect.



5. Whitewash, part 2
This, on the other hand, was a case of gross AFL negligence and therefore ranks higher. And quite frankly somebody at St Kilda might've shown some initiative by deciding to hold back their indigenous design and wear it at home the week after.



4. Brisbane plumber's crack
Rather juvenile, puerile and every other kind of -ile, but it seemed to create quite a stir throughout various media so it gets the number 4 spot.

Can you spot AFLW team's wardrobe malfunction as uniform gets slammed?

The Brisbane Lions have become the butt of jokes on social media after fans misinterpreted a design feature on their Indigenous strip.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Brisbane Lions players caught in bizarre wardrobe malfunction that stuns AFL fans | International Sports News - The Times of India

International Sports News: Brisbane Lions AFLW team's Indigenous guernsey, designed for Sir Doug Nicholls Round, sparked amusement due to a design flaw resembling exposed shorts

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

3. Michael Prior's been done to death
This guy's attitude always stunk, so the knives were already sharpened when he expressed desires to brush aside West Coast's lack of participation in Pride Round back in 2022.


2. Haneen Zreika lost her rainbow socks
Photo below from Round 2, 2021: GWS small forward looks down and laments the fact she wore different socks to her teammates. Unfortunately she has been too sick to play in each subsequent Pride Round, suffering from that awful disease known as multicolourphobia.



1. Fremantle's berry blunder
Some people think the pink chevron (implemented for zero commercial benefit) looks good. Sorry, I meant to say "dark berry".

Well, if it's good enough for the women's team, it should be good enough for the men's. Personally I would've knocked the dumb ****ing idea on the head 10 seasons ago. And yet they're still running with it, which is why it gets the number 1 spot.

Photo: Kiara Bowers actually looks like a Fremantle footballer, rather than some Madison Avenue executive's idea of a girl sports player.

 

[Liam Boy]

8. AFLW's rubbery coloured shorts policy
While it was all well and good for the league to adopt the No White Shorts policy, they of course have never thought it through enough to apply consistency for when clubs need to wear a different colour. See examples from this year below--I would've thought if Sydney need to wear black shorts vs GC, then Melbourne need to wear red shorts vs Collingwood.
View attachment 2498703

Is that really why they wore black shorts? I assumed it was because South Melbourne wore black shorts (as everyone did in the men's) when they wore this jumper

 

[Teen Wolf]

Is that really why they wore black shorts? I assumed it was because South Melbourne wore black shorts (as everyone did in the men's) when they wore this jumper

Well they've worn the South Melbourne jumper on other occasions, always with red shorts.



The only other time they've worn black shorts was once with their pride jumper, also against Gold Coast (2023 pre-season).

 

[Teen Wolf]

10 best players without an All-Australian blazer

1. Nina Morrison
An unsurprising whirlwind 2019 debut followed by a torn ACL a few days later, she then also missed 2021 with the same injury. Therefore surprisingly very consistent in her other 6 seasons, winning 1 club B&F while finishing 2nd twice, 3rd twice and also 4th upon her return in 2022.

2. Jenna Bruton
3-time AA nominee. 3-1 record in grand finals, the 1 being when her Achilles snapped in the first five minutes. A mountain of mostly under-the-radar work leading up to those flags, including an uncanny knack to be super clean in high pressure moments stemming all the way back to a match-winning goal assist in the 2018 pseudo prelim vs Melbourne.

3. Rebecca Beeson & 4. Emma Swanson
Both 2x club champions (with 8 and 7 top-10 finishes each), 70-odd games because they've both had to overcome some health concerns since the inaugural season when they were teammates.

5. Ellie McKenzie
A tough player to assess at just 23yo, given she is clearly a better overall footballer than the 3rd and 4th placings but has been nowhere near consistent with or without consideration of injuries.

6. Mia King
The only player on this list without an AA nomination. Nevertheless had 4 consecutive top-5 finishes in the B&F count of the team with the league's best win rate.

7. Eliza West
Gaining greater recognition at Hawthorn as the stats become more robust, while still pretty much being the same ball butcherer who created selection dilemmas for Melbourne. No doubt played an important hand in the Dees' sole AFLW flag to date, and there are plenty of days they'd wish she never left.

8. Kate Shierlaw
Always liked her game sense even before she was delisted by Carlton and transformed herself into the uber tall mobile threat at St Kilda where she won a B&F and got her first of two AA nominations.

9. Cora Staunton
Immensely gutsy as the first true Irish crosscode AFLW recruit. Started off getting her head caved in by grub Sophie Casey, then had her leg smashed to bits the following year. Returned in quick time and eventually finished 2nd in the league goalkicking at age 40.

10. Abbey Dowrick
Bit of a raffle for the 10th spot, but I've given it to Dowrick on account of the number of carry jobs performed. Also in the conversation would be Zarlie Goldsworthy, Tyanna Smith, Isabelle Pritchard, Mimi Hill, Georgia Nanscawen... but at least these players have been beaten out on AA selection by other high-quality players.

The same can't be said for the likes of blazerless Maddy McMahon, Bianca Jakobsson and Jess Foley. Some of the tall blonks who actually have made the AA team boggles the mind.

And, finally, yes it was indeed a disgrace that not one of Zippy Fish, Erika O'Shea and Jade Ellenger (or as I call them: Snap, Crackle and Pop) (or as I also call them: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once) made the team this year. Three of the best AFLW seasons by small defenders we've seen.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Top 10 venues by AFLW games hosted

Rank	Venue	Total	Finals
1	Ikon Park	89	22
2	Fremantle Oval	44	2
3	Mission Whitten Oval	39	0
4	Casey Fields	37	1
5	GMHBA Stadium	36	2
6	People First Stadium	33	4
=7	RSEA Park	31	0
=7	Victoria Park	31	2
9	Norwood Oval	29	4
=10	Henson Park	26	0
=10	Mineral Resources Park	26	0

Top 10 cities by AFLW attendance

Rank	City	Total	Ave
1	Melbourne, Victoria	1,031,458	3,285
2	Adelaide, South Australia	391,697	5,154
3	Perth, Western Australia	280,286	3,593
4	Brisbane, Queensland	143,463	3,587
5	Sydney, New South Wales	136,402	2,728
6	Geelong, Victoria	122,976	3,514
7	Gold Coast, Queensland	69,855	1,995
8	Canberra, Australian Capital Territory	32,898	2,742
9	Darwin, Northern Territory	19,292	3,858
10	Hobart, Tasmania	18,708	2,079

 

[Teen Wolf]

10 best teams

1. North Melbourne 2025
15-0 and finished with a 300+ % for the 2nd year in a row (inclusive of finals).

2. North Melbourne 2024
13-0-1, the draw coming in R2 with key players out, a week after thumping the reigning premiers in Queensland in 35-degree heat.

3. Adelaide 2019
A tight call vs their 3rd flag, but this was the first time a team obliterated every genuine threat, albeit waiting until the 4th quarter in some cases. Although wayward goalkicking in their one-point R1 loss to the Bulldogs ruined the chance of a perfect season, the general play of that game strongly indicated the Crows had already overtaken the reigning premiers and were about to leave the entire competition eating their dust (which some of us pointed out at the time).

4. Adelaide 2022 S6
Once again the sole blemish was a one-pointer at home to the Dogs, but this time later on in the season. And that basically sums up the very small difference between the two Clarke flags—they were only getting stronger with each win in 2019 up until ACL injuries in the grand final, whereas here they (particularly the older and most important older bodies of Phillips and Randall) were just holding on.

5. Melbourne 2022 S7
Their one loss of the season admittedly came at home against fellow contender Brisbane, which feels more damning than those^ instances of somewhat understandable complacency leading to a narrow upset. But then I remember that was a game the Dees’ 4x All-Australian key forward (who ripped the Lions apart in the previous season) missed due to a ludicrous suspension. When they met again in the grand final, she played and kicked the winning goal.

6. Western Bulldogs 2018
Set a new standard for attacking ball movement and I50 coordination, the pièce de résistance a 73-point R4 drubbing of top-of-the-ladder-after-two-rounds Carlton—incredibly, such results did exist in AFLW even before the competition expanded! The lazy loss to GWS in Canberra (as opposed to the unlucky one to Adelaide in SA) needlessly made a cakewalk to a home grand final much harder. Then they had just about everything conspire against them on the big day, but still got the job done.

7. Adelaide 2017
Not a great deal of system but plenty of stars who knew how to rise at the right moment.

8. Fremantle 2020 & 9. North Melbourne 2020
Ditto, except Gill pulled the plug at the wrong moment. That aside, the 6-1 Kangas’ only loss was also their only meeting with a genuine contender, while the 7-0 Dockers never played anybody better than half-decent. If we had the technology to accurately simulate the conclusion of the season, I wouldn’t be too surprised if projections favoured the 6-1 Carlton… in which case North still fires Gowans, the Blues get stripped of the flag for still being salary cap cheats, Freo still gets screwed over and everybody still goes home empty-handed.

10. Brisbane 2022 S7
Better team this season as runners-up than in 2021 and 2023 when they obviously Bradbury’d flags on the back of injuries to key grand final opponents—a perfectly legitimate method to premiership glory, just not particularly impressive compared to the way all other teams have done it.