AFLW West Coast Women 2022 - Discussion

[Miguel Sanchez]

 

[AsterixTheGaul]

Just heard from Claremont Football Club regarding admission to the WAFLW Grand Final - it is not pre-sold ticketed. You only need to turn up on Saturday and pay the admission. The usual price for a stand alone WAFLW game (ie without a WAFL game following) is only $5 so no big deal.

Not heard back from Trev from my email yet - it was about requesting the drafted players be allowed to play this weekend (actual add Smith and Goronova into that mix please).

 

[kane249]

Holy forking shirtballs

 

[AsterixTheGaul]

Holy forking shirtballs

You missed the bottom of her tweet - it is about predicting not the actual draft.

 

[AsterixTheGaul]

I think she will be nailing pick 14

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Mock draft only went to pick 20 unfortunately, barely halfway through the “first round”.

Had Roberts at our first pick and Wakfer (despite injury) at our second. Bushby and Elkington also mentioned, not sure Sarah was aware the latter also got injured.

 

[Biggie]

On Duffy - she is well off AFLW pace at the moment

I can’t help but think our forward thinking club has said to her it doesn’t matter nominate and we’ll work with it….

Time will tell

 

[kane249]

On Duffy - she is well off AFLW pace at the moment

I can’t help but think our forward thinking club has said to her it doesn’t matter nominate and we’ll work with it….

Time will tell

Get her training with Naitanui, he will get her in shape!

 

[Biggie]

Elkington also mentioned, not sure Sarah was aware the latter also got injured.

Not common knowledge I don’t think

She was hopping towards the huddle yesterday with no brace or bandages which I found interesting

 

[Biggie]

Get her training with Naitanui, he will get her in shape!

I want to hate this post

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Freo’s plan for compromised draft to stay in finals hunt

Fremantle are backing themselves to find the next diamond in the rough at Wednesday’s AFLW draft despite being dealt a highly compromised draft hand.

thewest.com.au

 

[Livin1989]

Freo’s plan for compromised draft to stay in finals hunt

Fremantle are backing themselves to find the next diamond in the rough at Wednesday’s AFLW draft despite being dealt a highly compromised draft hand.

thewest.com.au

Can you paste for those of us stuck behind the paywall?

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Can you paste for those of us stuck behind the paywall?

Oh, it wasn’t paywalled when I read it.

Now it is, and I can’t read it any more.

 

[Biggie]

Freo’s plan for compromised draft to stay in finals hunt

Fremantle are backing themselves to find the next diamond in the rough at Wednesday’s AFLW draft despite being dealt a highly compromised draft hand.

thewest.com.au

Fremantle are backing themselves to find the next diamond in the rough at Wednesday’s AFLW draft despite being dealt a highly compromised draft hand. West Coast were handed a draft concessions package from the AFL for claiming the 2022 wooden spoon which includes three first-round compensation picks before the Dockers enter the draft.

Four of Fremantle’s five picks also come at the back end of the draft after West Coast have had the chance to make all seven of their selections. With both clubs sharing the WA draft pool, Fremantle are the sole club impacted by the Eagles’ strong draft hand.

But senior coach Trent Cooper said Fremantle could unearth the next Janelle Cuthbertson or Jess Low, two mature-age selections who are now first-choice Dockers. “The AFL are trying to equalise the competition and obviously that makes it difficult for us when we’re trying to compete with the likes of Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane,” Cooper said. “But we just have to do the best we can and hopefully we can find a couple of nuggets in the draft which we’ve out been able to do over the last couple of years. “That’s what we’ve had to do again…pick players who may not have had the exposure, or the ones that we think they’re really good improvement in them once we get them into our system. “There’s a couple under-18 girls that could get through to us. But we’ve had to definitely look at the mature age players as well.”

Fremantle also hold the third-last pick of the draft, with passing on later selections a possibility to assess their options. Undrafted interstate players enter a free agency pool and can be signed by any other club. “We may end up still picking up a WA player but we’ve had have had a look at the Eastern states in case there are a couple that have been the slide through,” Cooper said. Fremantle have also been keeping a keen eye on the Perth Football League amateur competition for emerging talent

 

[Carbine Chaos]

If I was in the Freo camp I’d be pretty confident. You get the sense this Eagles team will manage to squander more than a few selections.

 

[Biggie]

If I was in the Freo camp I’d be pretty confident. You get the sense this Eagles team will manage to squander more than a few selections.

Right now as I live and breathe

Id be happier to see my two in Purple than Blue and Gold.

Sorry to say.

 

[AsterixTheGaul]

If I was in the Freo camp I’d be pretty confident. You get the sense this Eagles team will manage to squander more than a few selections.

We call it the Lathlain Park Syndrome

 

[Monocle]

Another morning at work full of drudgery and being surrounded by incompetence and apathy….. I am sure your workplaces are all humming, ozzing vitality and full of get up and go colleagues …. Yes ?!

However the thought of seeing Ella Roberts in an Eagles Jumper tonight, gives me some joy and renewed vigour.

Bring it on .

 

[Biggie]

Another morning at work full of drudgery and being surrounded by incompetence and apathy….. I am sure your workplaces are all humming, ozzing vitality and full of get up and go colleagues …. Yes ?!

However the thought of seeing Ella Roberts in an Eagles Jumper tonight, gives me some joy and renewed vigour.

Bring it on .

1st day back after a massive Monday night at Crown celebrating the WAFLW season and the humble winner that is Sharon Wong

I reckon I'll head home soon

lol

 

[Biggie]

However the thought of seeing Ella Roberts in an Eagles Jumper tonight, gives me some joy and renewed vigour.

‘It got to my head:’ How Roberts pushed past the pressure

How do you cope with the label of being one of Western Australia’s and even one of the country’s top three AFLW draft prospects? Ella Roberts can tell you. And for a few months last year, she didn’t cope.

thewest.com.au

For three years now, Ella Roberts has carried the label and pressure of being one of the top junior footballers in the state. Ever since kicking two goals in Peel’s 2020 grand final breakthrough as a 15-year-old, Roberts has set for big football things. But for a few months last year she found it tough to handle the extra attention that had built and exceeded her 175cm stature. In her second year of league football, Roberts was tagged, pushed around and physically confronted.

The price of her excellence was a target on her back as opposition teams lined her up. It was a tough lesson to learn but the laid back Margaret River teenager believes she’s better for it. “Everyone tried to say take it as a compliment but I found I struggled a lot to play my best footy while getting all that attention,” Roberts said. “I didn’t like footy for a bit there. I had thoughts like ‘I’ve got all this hype, but I’m not really living up to it’. Going up for marks, I’d think ‘there’s no point. I’m not going to be able to get it anyway’. “It definitely got to my head. But I was really lucky. I had a very good environment at Peel and my teammates stuck up for me.

I just had to be strong and think I am good enough to do this. I eventually found my feet again.” Roberts said she knew she wanted to play professionally ever since kicking a footy around with her three brothers. A women’s league didn’t exist at the time but Roberts dreamt of being the first girl to play in the AFL. It wasn’t a new frontier considering she was one of the first girls to join the Augusta-Margaret River Hawks. “They loved the fact that there was a girl who played footy. All the boys I played with and their parents supported me. They were my number one fans,” Roberts said. Eventually, it was deemed too dangerous for her to continue and despite pushing for an exception, Roberts had to join the closest junior girl’s side 45 minutes up the road in Busselton. Margaret River now has its own junior girls’ team, inspired by Roberts’s feats, but Busselton proved the perfect gateway to Perth.

In her second season, she was invited to join Peel Thunder’s Rogers Cup program, playing one game for Busselton and a second in the city each weekend. It took Peel just a few games to recognise her talent, but soon they invited her to train with their league side. “The most skilful player I’ve ever coached is Sarah Verrier but Ella is probably the most talented,” Thunder coach Steve Markham said. “She’s the complete package. She’s got a beautiful mark, a beautiful kick. Her work rate is massive. There’s not a lot she does wrong.” Roberts still takes pride in the fact she was able to have an impact in a league side so young — young enough to go back and star in Busselton’s 2020 premiership side a week after Peel Thunder’s flag.

It was also around the time Roberts started to garner national recognition, heading interstate as a member of WA’s under-15 squad. “She quietly mentioned before she left but she would love to win an All-Australian which, you know, as a parent you think good luck,” mum Sandy Roberts said. “But she did. It was then I probably thought dream big and chase that dream.” The constant commute to and from Margaret River for training and games took some toll but the Roberts family are now well versed in the Pitch Perfect soundtrack. “At the end of the day, I got to spend some pretty special time with Ella over a good couple of years. I don’t look back and think badly of it,” Sandy said. “Footy is just a small piece of Ella.

She’s an awesome human being and we’re all super proud of her.” Now a two-time Peel premiership player, a two-time WA MVP and judged the best player of the AFLW National Championships last year, there is one last box for Roberts to tick. The 17-year-old started 2022 with the goal of enjoying her football, feeling as though she’d mostly proven her ability. But the pressure is set to come once more with Roberts destined to land at West Coast with their top pick in Wednesday’s AFLW draft.

A Fremantle fan in a West Coast family, Roberts is ready to shift her allegiance and help the Eagles rise off the bottom of the AFLW ladder. “I think West Coast are in good hands. They’ve got a rebuild going on at the moment. But I think being part of that in future years would be cool,” she said. “And I think being forward, they haven’t had too many key forwards in the past. So I think that I could potentially fit in perfectly. “At the start, I want to earn everyone’s respect and show that I’m not just there because I have good skills. I want to earn that first game. “I’m just soaking it all in at the moment. I’ve told you only get drafted once. There are nerves but it’s something I wanted forever so the excitement has taken over.

DONT * THIS UP WCE

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

She sounds like a gem off the field as well as on.

 

[Monocle]

I must admit that I was quite nervous that we could have *ed this up in either of two ways to secure Roberts signature:

1. I was worried that Ella would be deterred by the current state of our Club and nominate for the open draft, so I was very relieved a week or so ago when the deadline passed, then it was stated that and she had nominated the WA draft pool.

And this was my biggest concern.



2. I was s**t scarred that the powers to be running the Club would be cunningly lured into a trade sting in which The Unwashed would bundle up all their discards and a few half decent picks and pull a swifty over us and steal Ella from under our noses.

This may well sound a very pessimistic take on the situation, however the recent and previous levels of bad management with the Club in general - and the Womens Team incompetent management in particular, from the get go, had me very concerned.

Fast forward the drafting of Culley a few
Weeks ago and the pending drafting of Roberts tonight have restored a bit of faith back on the trail of confidence in those in power at the Club.



I am however, still pissed at the Club for barring the girls they have drafted previously ( the four pre draft concession signings ): Goranova, Smith, Bartlett and those to be drafted tonight from playing in the WAFLW finals.

Consequently both myself and my daughter will not be renewing our Eagles AFLW Membership next year.

Sadly the only way you can get the Clubs attention is by cutting off some of its income stream, so my actions are a very small way to say F you to the Club.

Denying kids the opportunity to play finals after their dedication to a preseason and a full season playing with their teammates, is just so wrong and so counter to my many years of working in and administering grass roots and junior football.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

I just do not understand the decision to bar draftees from playing in the GF. The absolute worst that could happen is that they do an ACL and miss the upcoming season. Which would suck, but surely we’re taking a longer view with draftees than just one season, because we’re not going to be competing for anything for a while yet.

The negatives (denying them a chance at a WAFLW premiership) far outweigh the positives.

 

[AsterixTheGaul]

Agree with you both on the crap decision - we need our draftees to get as much high level football experience as possible so why would you deny the GF experience.

As I posted before, I will not be renewing mine and my wife's membership and will be registering my reason why. It seems to me that Nisbett really only listens to $$$ and membership (which really only lead to more $$$).

My email went to Trev on Sunday - I am still awaiting for his response.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

AFLW draft late mail: West Coast consider sister act

Is a former Eagle bound for a new nest interstate? Could two sisters be bound for the same club? And what about a few interstate talents nominating for WA?

thewest.com.au

Anyone got access to this?