AFLW West Coast v Gold Coast, Mineral Resources Park, 2.10pm AWST

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Jun 11, 2013
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No you won't. Fire away

Dark Sharks has pretty much nailed it above so I won’t go over the same thing, but I think it extends to any criticism of women in any way, even if it’s meant to be constructive is frowned upon and people get labelled negatively these days. Unfortunately it holds the players back because if you’re constantly told you’re a star, you don’t think you need to improve as much as someone who is told they do need to improve. There obviously needs to be a balance, but the praise is over the top in many ways at the moment imo.
 

Ok Boomer

Cancelled
A Star Wars Fan Pokemon is Life
Jul 27, 2015
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Criticism of womans footy, acrross all levels is a touchy subject.


Everything from the commentary who fail to acknowledge atrocious skill errors, instead rather having a long awkward silence. The camera coverage which doesn't show any replays of fluffed kicks and abysmal shots on goal, something which is highlighted, dissected and joked about by the commentary team in the mens league.

"Herp derp what was going on there in the brain department, what was he thinking, worst shot i've ever seen, nearly missed his boot..." etc etc


I think now, with 4 years of AFLW, it would be better for the game if the womans were less mollycoddled and held accountable to bad skills a little bit more.

Since day 1 the general effort and hardness of AFLW has been good, i don't think even the harshest critic could dismiss how hard the girls go. But the skills will always be a talking point unfortunately. Comparing it to the mens is stupid, obviously, but my criticism stems from comparing our skills to other teams skills.

Right now i'd be happy cleaning out half the players on our list.
Agree 100%.

Our biggest problem is that we have such a huge range on the quality spectrum. Guns like Swanson and Hooker, players with potential like Cameron, honest role players like Tester who would be better in a good team and players who I won't name who can barely kick the ball properly and who aren't even close to the required fitness. Recruitment will only partially fix this. Time is the most precious commodity and the girls need this.
 
You can see why blokes get so outraged 🤷‍♂️


There's guys who play football their whole lives, through auskick, juniors, colts, state level etc etc, sacrifice so much, absolute GUNS who simply can't get a crack at AFL level because they aren't good enough. It's competitive and you need to either be an 18-19 yr old or chances are your window is probably shut.


On the other side of the spectrum you've got woman who cannot kick a drop punt, can't dob a goal from 5m out on a slight angle, wearing your clubs colours, living your dream, hanging out with your footy heroes, splashed all over social media by the AFL. All over TV by chemist warehouse, Swisse, and Kellogs. Traveling around australia, getting payed to play footy, albeit a small amount, but still getting payed.

It's enough to create a fair amount of angst and sheer envy from supporters of the other gender.



This 'immunity from criticism' that the AFLW has created is patronizing and only adds fuel to the fire.

If there's a s**t kick, say so. If a player goes in half arsed and backs out of a contest, call them out on it. If West Coast continue to butcher every simple opportunity of kicking a goal with atrocious skills, then highlight that fact and that their recruitment/development team has some clear areas of improvement. Don't tiptoe around the subject FFS.

Personally i see it as the only way skills start to get better. The constant pat on the back, just happy to be here mentality needs to be swiftly left behind.




Haven't been impressed with the AFLW 2020 season. First 3 years were way better 🗑

I'm sure the premature expansion has something to do with it, but several heroes of mine (Ash Brazill, Chelsea Randall) have gone down with ACL's as well.

It just hasn't made for good viewing for me, personally. Even with our own WCE team.
 

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jatz14

Brownlow Medallist
Dec 13, 2011
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Unfortunately, that’s is rife in women’s footy at the local level. I’d like to elaborate, but I’d just get attacked for being honest.



It’s understandable that you’re angry. As a club we stand for excellence in all levels, so when a team comes out and performs as badly as our women’s team has, then they deserve to be told that it’s not good enough and held accountable. Unfortunately I’m not sure that’s what’s happening behind closed doors despite what’s being said publicly. There’s a lot of “softly softly” management styles in women’s footy and believe it or not there’s a few egos running around onfield (undeserved in my opinion) too which doesn’t help.
The problem we are stuck with at the moment is that our list is badly constructed as far as forwards go, so we are gonna have to limp over the finish line and hope they fix it for next year. I’m not extremely confident that will happen because of those in charge but we can only wait and see. Like I mentioned early it’s best not to have any expectations and then you might be pleasantly surprised by someone or something. :)
What I am hanging my hat on is that they said from the start that they were planning their list build over several years.

So they were weighing up possible 2019 selections against what was going to be available 2020 and 2021.

So some of the players picked this year were basically picked as cannon fodder, and would have needed a big lift in output to have been considered for keeping on the list.

For these players I wouldn't be surprised if they prioritised "character" over footballing ability.

On moto g(6) plus using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Haven't been impressed with the AFLW 2020 season. First 3 years were way better
Freo v Dogs yesterday was the best game I have seen in AFLW's existence. This season has been better than previous seasons - Richmond & WCE have not been so good.
 

jatz14

Brownlow Medallist
Dec 13, 2011
11,336
16,034
WA
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
Perth Glory W-League
Criticism of womans footy, acrross all levels is a touchy subject.


Everything from the commentary who fail to acknowledge atrocious skill errors, instead rather having a long awkward silence. The camera coverage which doesn't show any replays of fluffed kicks and abysmal shots on goal, something which is highlighted, dissected and joked about by the commentary team in the mens league.

"Herp derp what was going on there in the brain department, what was he thinking, worst shot i've ever seen, nearly missed his boot..." etc etc


I think now, with 4 years of AFLW, it would be better for the game if the womans were less mollycoddled and held accountable to bad skills a little bit more.

Since day 1 the general effort and hardness of AFLW has been good, i don't think even the harshest critic could dismiss how hard the girls go. But the skills will always be a talking point unfortunately. Comparing it to the mens is stupid, obviously, but my criticism stems from comparing our skills to other teams skills.

Right now i'd be happy cleaning out half the players on our list.
Firstly, I think we will clean out as much of our list as rules allow, and I think this was always the intention.

Hopefully we look more like the Dogs next year. They have had some bad games this year, but they are running out with a whole bunch of kids who all show potential.

As for criticism, that's a difficult one. If you criticise, the haters of AFLW pile in and turn it into something else.

The kicking in this game is s**t, gets turned into, women cannot kick for s**t, AFLW is rubbish, they should give it up.

I do think it's changing though, there was a lot of focus on Tayla Harris's game last year year she missed 2 unkissable goals, and endless replay's.

It's also a difficult one for the networks. Showing a bit of great play doesn't apparently prove women are capable of playing well, where showing a bit of bad play apparently proves they cannot.

So showing bad play quickly gets turned into a bashing the brand exercise, and it's understandable if the networks are wary of being involved in that.

On moto g(6) plus using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Feb 5, 2009
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This 'immunity from criticism' that the AFLW has created is patronizing and only adds fuel to the fire.

Let's not pretend that there isn't a good deal of sexism fueling the fire already, and the AFLW is trying to engage in a balancing act as far as legitimate criticism goes.

Besides...once the talent pathways have been in place for a few years and the rapid expansion stops it'll be much less of an issue, so what does having a good whinge right now really achieve?

It's also not like people aren't having a good whinge right now.

These women are hyper competitive and the quality will sort itself out if we let it.
 
I think you'll find all the constructive criticism is getting lost between;


Group A) Sexist blokes who are deadset against the AFLW and attack every aspect of it
&
Group B) People who blindly defend the AFLW, thinking ANY sort of criticism is that of a sexist nature.


There's a happy medium in-between and that's where i like to think i sit as a fan of womans footy, and footy in general.
 
Feb 5, 2009
8,052
12,484
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West Coast
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West Coast (AFLW)
I think you'll find all the constructive criticism is getting lost between;


Group A) Sexist blokes who are deadset against the AFLW and attack every aspect of it
&
Group B) People who blindly defend the AFLW, thinking ANY sort of criticism is that of a sexist nature.


There's a happy medium in-between and that's where i like to think i sit as a fan of womans footy, and footy in general.

Group B are much less of a problem than Group A ;)

No-one sits exactly where they think they do.
 
Nov 13, 2014
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But really, some AFLW players just shouldn't be criticised.

For instance, has anyone heard any criticism of Niahm yet?

No, because the problem is clearly the structures.

3z5ztK2MW_Qj__iOqL1wOlAF53A=.gif
 
May 8, 2012
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If there's a s**t kick, say so. If a player goes in half arsed and backs out of a contest, call them out on it. If West Coast continue to butcher every simple opportunity of kicking a goal with atrocious skills, then highlight that fact and that their recruitment/development team has some clear areas of improvement. Don't tiptoe around the subject FFS.

Yeah good luck with that, just don't be in ear shot of a camera otherwise you will get eaten alive if it reaches social media.
 
Jun 11, 2013
10,318
11,521
AFL Club
West Coast
The real problem with WCE is what exactly is meant to be our game plan?
I hate to say this but Freo have got the strategy for women’s footy right as far as I’m concerned. The ball constantly comes to ground in women’s footy due to a lack of contested marking ability and or ability for players to hit targets under pressure, so Freo have built a team of fast running ball winners that just push the ball down the ground at speed and use that speed to outgun the opponent. It often results in them running towards goal with no one in front of them making it easier for them to score. They have a couple of tall targets to aim at up forward but they are also quick runners which complements the game plan.

If you were to look at WCE what would you say is our game plan? Is it to hit targets like the men’s team? If so we don’t have enough players that can do that under pressure. Is it to win the contest in the middle and then kick it forward to then swarm onto it with numbers? If so, then our work rate & pressure hasn’t been anywhere near what it needed to be up until the weekend. Unfortunately, as we saw yesterday, work rate and pressure is good but it doesn’t always get you goals, so our team make up needed to have a forward who could take a mark and kick a goal. It’s hard to see what our plans were with our list or what our game plan in general is.
 
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