Looking at what the Swans are doing to Gold Coast I fell we may be a couple years away still
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AFLW West Coast Womens 2025
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Looking at what the Swans are doing to Gold Coast I fell we may be a couple years away still
HoneyBadger35
Small, bitter, fascinatingly unimpressive.
- Aug 11, 2011
- 31,902
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- #327
103 for the Swans. By god.
Smeg Head
Just take a bite
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- Jul 30, 2020
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200 disposals to 312. We play them Round 11, in Sydney. Good luck. Their core seven or eight players are as good or better than anyone in the comp.
Done
Kayla Dalgleish an absolute steal at pick 57. Looking at her highlights post draft I knew if she got a chance she'd good as gold. A couple of her Vic Country highlights she swings around on her left AND ACTUALLY KICKS WITH HER LEFT FOOT. That's when you know you got yourself a footy player.
Thank God they made the draft national now so we can grab these girls.
Thank God they made the draft national now so we can grab these girls.
Don't know if this was posted before or not, but here's the broken paywall link to a story on the Wakfers
From Lauren not thinking she'd get drafted after doing her ACL a month before draft to Zoe not wanting to sign her first contract because she felt West Coast only drafted her as a publicity stunt.
From Lauren not thinking she'd get drafted after doing her ACL a month before draft to Zoe not wanting to sign her first contract because she felt West Coast only drafted her as a publicity stunt.
Reading that we had someone working with Zoe from the start to let her know that we'd drafted her because we wanted her not because of some stunt is good to read. It was one of my fears when we had picked her up out of the blue that she'd see it that way.
Also glad she stuck with it as she has been good.
Ochre
Premium Platinum
Bans being the same length in the W despite the season being half the length is farcical.
Injury report update
www.westcoasteagles.com.au
Zoe Wakfer cleared of concussion. Riggs a test, if she checks off a couple boxes and does full training she's available for selection
AFLW: Bar Health and Hygiene Injury Update – Round 3
AFLW High Performance Manager Sam Batterton provides an update on Waalitj Marawar’s injured players
Zoe Wakfer cleared of concussion. Riggs a test, if she checks off a couple boxes and does full training she's available for selection
Miguel Sanchez
Snide Shooter
I was all set to get up in arms about Johnson not improving, but I misremembered what she was listed as last week.
Kegs15
Just a fan
Just had a deep breath and skim of the replay after the loss - some definite positives and clear areas of improvement. Apologies for long post + poor video qualities, needed to compress to upload. Most on here who are more involved in women's footy will have better assessments and won't get much out of this I'm sure but know a few don't watch all the games so might be somewhat relevant.
First quarter was pretty emblematic of both our strengths and what worries me about our side. Our switching/posession game was fantastic, we set up really well defensively and moved the ball through the back 3/4 of the ground really really smoothly. Skills and clean marking better across the board this year. However, didn't get nearly enough out of it. Bombers figured out we have 2 players to absolutely put the clamps on - every single team is going to do the same this year. We had all the run, all the play, were moving it through the middle part of the ground really well, but with Roberts and Painter well locked down we didn't have anyone who looked like scoring or creating a score for someone else - we're just not super dangerous and threatening outside those two. Better sides won't really care if we get on top as long as they put someone solid on whoever of Ella/Lu is down there.
Third quarter was when this dam wall burst - we had all the play but as soon as they got a patch on top they actually generated scores from it. Last quarter was gutting to lose but did like that we were able to switch modes when needed - it was such an arm wrestle, we kicked a goal to get back on top after getting our lead ran down, and just lost in the end. Tbh it wasn't the last quarter that bothered me - Bombers missed a lot of set shots throughout the game and probably deserved to win. It was how poor we were at turning transition dominance into meaningful entries when we were on top in the 1st and 3rd that lost it for us IMO. No real connection between delivery and leads, no real sign of a plan to either get it in deep or prioritise a specific target.
Toogood had some shocking set shots that let us off the hook, but just demonstrated what it's like to have a tall down there with swagger, aggro and confidence - bombers felt confident going through her each time and it made their forward entries predictable to each other, compared to ours which felt like complete dice rolls. Late in the game when structures inevitably broke down a bit, their strong Plan A gave them something to settle back on - we looked like we were just waiting for Roberts to figure something out. Cleaver I thought actually did a really good job, and played well on Toogood - she looks so assured down back, looks like she hates to lose also. When Johnson comes back, if Roux stays back there and Schilling gets back to her best, we could have a really unsociable backline which is awesome.
Franklin on the other hand I'm really worried about for the oposite reason to a Toogood (who admittedly is elite) and our unsociable players. Connection partly the fault of delivery but was just never where she needed to be whenever a quick/long kick would come in, rarely was able to influence the contest and get involved. Confidence was an issue last year and this year just looks similar - she's visibly just not feeling it IMO. Her and Lakfer aren't the best at clearing out of the hole and leaving space open in the 50 either, would both get caught standing still in the ideal spot you'd want one of them to lead into. I still think there's a player there, but Gibson/Roux need to supervise some campaigner training or something, she's not athletic enough to be a nice KPF. Bombers were putting talls on Roberts/Painter when deep, could be a good way to get involved just to run through their opponents and get a bit mean rather than stressing about the perfect lead.
McGrath is awesome. I'm already a massive fan. She's a bona fide outstanding tap ruckman - you don't often in this league get such good connection from ruck to mids but she's just so smart with where she puts it. Attached a few vids - not every hitout worked out but I just loved how directive she is, actually has a plan with her tapwork.
View attachment 20250824_131653.mp4
View attachment batch_process_2.mp4
View attachment batch_process_1.mp4
View attachment batch_process_5.mp4
McGrath also gets to the right spots aerially - from watching so much Lakay/BWilliams/Flynn being somehow 5m away from every ball drop it's awesome to just trust that one of our rucks is going to be where they need to be. She's not necessarily that much fitter than your average ruck, but just seems smarter.
Bushby fumbly, bit of a wonky game but very, very involved. Just kept getting to the right spots and kicked a good set shot from a soft 50. Exactly what she needed to do, she's clearly working her ass off at training and on her fitness, did well.
Rentsch is awesome and could not care less about giving away frees for high/dangerous tackles, opposition had to take their sweet time getting up either way. Would still love us to grubber it out in front of her in space more often.
Swanson really really good again. Just patrolled the HBF, kicked within herself today and just tough. Still an obvious leader of this club even without the title. Thomas also just ticked along at her usual high quality.
Lewis was really poor. Never of course a work ethic issue, but just didn't take it cleanly, make the right decisions, would get caught or give away frees. Bit of a Duggan captains game - not too concerned but not her day.
Dalgleish was bloody awesome - not huge numbers but just does the right stuff, tackles, perfect little crumber (keeps the simple things simple, really like her). Said the exact same thing last week in a very similar situation to the video below - anyone else not named Roberts entering the 50 would try to blaze away and hit a long 40m lead (which only Roberts actually hits). Dalgleish just happy to do the boring kick, follow up, provide an option. Stoked she slotted the set shot but more impressed with the general play - even if the initial lead is out of set shot range, it stretches their defence and allows situations like this.
View attachment batch_process_6a.mp4
Overall just the glaring issue of our forward craft and entries letting us down - but at least it's something obvious and you can see what we're trying to do unlike with Prior. The commentators (who were quite good I thought) mentioned we were playing a lot like Daisy used to - doing the right things, working hard, respecting posession. All really true and maybe a factor in that connection/leading patterns of our talls feels like the only real strategically wonky part at the moment (she was never a lead-up player herself). Hopefully Riggs can come in and give us some aerial chaos in the forward like - but also would be interested in a dedicated forwards development specialist coming in (What are JJK or Lecca up to?). McHugh (our forwards coach) seems really well liked but not really a forward footy background, a bit of experience in that area could do wonders.
First quarter was pretty emblematic of both our strengths and what worries me about our side. Our switching/posession game was fantastic, we set up really well defensively and moved the ball through the back 3/4 of the ground really really smoothly. Skills and clean marking better across the board this year. However, didn't get nearly enough out of it. Bombers figured out we have 2 players to absolutely put the clamps on - every single team is going to do the same this year. We had all the run, all the play, were moving it through the middle part of the ground really well, but with Roberts and Painter well locked down we didn't have anyone who looked like scoring or creating a score for someone else - we're just not super dangerous and threatening outside those two. Better sides won't really care if we get on top as long as they put someone solid on whoever of Ella/Lu is down there.
Third quarter was when this dam wall burst - we had all the play but as soon as they got a patch on top they actually generated scores from it. Last quarter was gutting to lose but did like that we were able to switch modes when needed - it was such an arm wrestle, we kicked a goal to get back on top after getting our lead ran down, and just lost in the end. Tbh it wasn't the last quarter that bothered me - Bombers missed a lot of set shots throughout the game and probably deserved to win. It was how poor we were at turning transition dominance into meaningful entries when we were on top in the 1st and 3rd that lost it for us IMO. No real connection between delivery and leads, no real sign of a plan to either get it in deep or prioritise a specific target.
Toogood had some shocking set shots that let us off the hook, but just demonstrated what it's like to have a tall down there with swagger, aggro and confidence - bombers felt confident going through her each time and it made their forward entries predictable to each other, compared to ours which felt like complete dice rolls. Late in the game when structures inevitably broke down a bit, their strong Plan A gave them something to settle back on - we looked like we were just waiting for Roberts to figure something out. Cleaver I thought actually did a really good job, and played well on Toogood - she looks so assured down back, looks like she hates to lose also. When Johnson comes back, if Roux stays back there and Schilling gets back to her best, we could have a really unsociable backline which is awesome.
Franklin on the other hand I'm really worried about for the oposite reason to a Toogood (who admittedly is elite) and our unsociable players. Connection partly the fault of delivery but was just never where she needed to be whenever a quick/long kick would come in, rarely was able to influence the contest and get involved. Confidence was an issue last year and this year just looks similar - she's visibly just not feeling it IMO. Her and Lakfer aren't the best at clearing out of the hole and leaving space open in the 50 either, would both get caught standing still in the ideal spot you'd want one of them to lead into. I still think there's a player there, but Gibson/Roux need to supervise some campaigner training or something, she's not athletic enough to be a nice KPF. Bombers were putting talls on Roberts/Painter when deep, could be a good way to get involved just to run through their opponents and get a bit mean rather than stressing about the perfect lead.
McGrath is awesome. I'm already a massive fan. She's a bona fide outstanding tap ruckman - you don't often in this league get such good connection from ruck to mids but she's just so smart with where she puts it. Attached a few vids - not every hitout worked out but I just loved how directive she is, actually has a plan with her tapwork.
View attachment 20250824_131653.mp4
View attachment batch_process_2.mp4
View attachment batch_process_1.mp4
View attachment batch_process_5.mp4
McGrath also gets to the right spots aerially - from watching so much Lakay/BWilliams/Flynn being somehow 5m away from every ball drop it's awesome to just trust that one of our rucks is going to be where they need to be. She's not necessarily that much fitter than your average ruck, but just seems smarter.
Bushby fumbly, bit of a wonky game but very, very involved. Just kept getting to the right spots and kicked a good set shot from a soft 50. Exactly what she needed to do, she's clearly working her ass off at training and on her fitness, did well.
Rentsch is awesome and could not care less about giving away frees for high/dangerous tackles, opposition had to take their sweet time getting up either way. Would still love us to grubber it out in front of her in space more often.
Swanson really really good again. Just patrolled the HBF, kicked within herself today and just tough. Still an obvious leader of this club even without the title. Thomas also just ticked along at her usual high quality.
Lewis was really poor. Never of course a work ethic issue, but just didn't take it cleanly, make the right decisions, would get caught or give away frees. Bit of a Duggan captains game - not too concerned but not her day.
Dalgleish was bloody awesome - not huge numbers but just does the right stuff, tackles, perfect little crumber (keeps the simple things simple, really like her). Said the exact same thing last week in a very similar situation to the video below - anyone else not named Roberts entering the 50 would try to blaze away and hit a long 40m lead (which only Roberts actually hits). Dalgleish just happy to do the boring kick, follow up, provide an option. Stoked she slotted the set shot but more impressed with the general play - even if the initial lead is out of set shot range, it stretches their defence and allows situations like this.
View attachment batch_process_6a.mp4
Overall just the glaring issue of our forward craft and entries letting us down - but at least it's something obvious and you can see what we're trying to do unlike with Prior. The commentators (who were quite good I thought) mentioned we were playing a lot like Daisy used to - doing the right things, working hard, respecting posession. All really true and maybe a factor in that connection/leading patterns of our talls feels like the only real strategically wonky part at the moment (she was never a lead-up player herself). Hopefully Riggs can come in and give us some aerial chaos in the forward like - but also would be interested in a dedicated forwards development specialist coming in (What are JJK or Lecca up to?). McHugh (our forwards coach) seems really well liked but not really a forward footy background, a bit of experience in that area could do wonders.
Kegs15
Just a fan
Also a sneaky coaches vote for Dalgleish well deserved. Rest of the votes feel about right - Gaylor had the most clearances on the ground yet had the soft tag on Roberts, really got in the way of her being able to damage as much as she could.
Would love to see our less involved players (say Lewis if in the middle, Franky if it's a KPD) absolutely targeting whoever's on Roberts and making their day miserable. I don't really want Ella feeling like she has to defend at all but a few times saw her doing the team thing and worrying about Gaylor when Essendon started to get some clearance ascendancy. There's relatively fewer players at AFLW who can really slice a game open so navigating the rock-paper-scissors of tagger-screener-gamebreaker respectively will be really important IMO.
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The fact they replaced McDonald with a forward says they know the forward line is an issue. The fact we are missing at least 3 and possibly 4 important defenders, and our backline is still a stronger line than our forward line says even more.
The main difference between Eagles and the stronger teams is our lack of hurt factor when we are on top.
'A class above anything we've seen': Eagle's high praise for draftees
Jaide Britton says the newest crop of draftees are a cut above anything we've seen before
www.afl.com.au
HoneyBadger35
Small, bitter, fascinatingly unimpressive.
- Aug 11, 2011
- 31,902
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- #347
I think I’ve entered spoiled territory already, because I didn’t think Roberts was close to our best and certainly not third best on ground.
I think she’s just too good so her routine effective games wash over?
McGrath, Swanny and Dalgleish for mine.
Miguel Sanchez
Snide Shooter
Are we expecting any changes to the side? Does Lakay come back in? Not sure she’s needed, Saints look to have been beaten comfortably in the ruck both games so far.
- Jul 30, 2020
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Forwards. We need some. Right now all our scores are kicked by midfielders... well, I guess Dalgleish is a forward, but a small one. Also, with all our mids propping up the backline and forward line (Rowley down back, Painter and Roberts up forward) it leaves our midfield thin, which let Essendon get on top, because we ought to be much better in the midfield than that game showed.
I know Britton and Bushby are young, and show some athletic ability, but their skills are consistently poor... maybe they'll improve, but they're not natural footballers like a Dalgliesh is, despite her only having played two games. Drennan's also had plenty of the ball last few games, but never looked damaging, I'd much rather those possessions in the middle were going to Rowley.
And I can't really blame Lewis for looking ordinary, she's playing forward too, presumably because her bad ankle has meant she doesn't have the tank for midfield. So now she's playing out of position, and doesn't really know how.
If all our defenders were healthy, and we had a few decent pure forwards, we could re-concentrate all our best mids in the actual midfield for a change and really do some damage. Yeah, that would probably squeeze Britton, Bushby and Drennan out. So all things considered, we're not doing too badly, given the poor situation. And maybe Lewis's fitness will improve to the point where she can get back to the middle, which will make us better again... but only exacerbate the problem with a lack of forwards.
So who can our forwards be? I don't think the problem with Franky is lack of skills or athletecism. She's just not very strong one-on-one, so in a congested forward line, or any kind of wrestling contest, she's outmatched, tossed aside. Given open ground to run in, she looks great, but there's never much of that up forward. So maybe she's a wing? Well, she doesn't really have the midfield skills for that, I think. And she doesn't like playing back, which leaves her future very uncertain.
Roxy seems to make a much better defender than a forward. Gibbo's okay, but that's one okay player, when we need about five. Can Riggs play forward? But then we've got Franklin, Riggs and Lakfer all up forward, and that's far too many tall forwards, we need a mix.
Could the return of Smith, Johnson, Boyd, McDonald etc free up other backs to go forward? Maybe, but it looks a bit doubtful if any of our current backs would make good forwards. Maybe we'd have to trade a few to get a forward, either mature age or through the draft.
And then the draft... as huge as the drafts these days are getting, not a lot of pure forwards. If we finished about ninth, we'd miss the top two forward picks - Baron and Wolmarans, who will both go early. Alex Neyland might go early too, but is Sydney Academy, so the Swans will snap her up.
We could certainly get local girl Alicia Blizard, who I really like, but she's good at everything except marking on the lead, which is kind of important for a forward, so her stocks have tumbled lately. I actually think she's a defender, not a forward, was amazing down back in the U16s, but in U18s they stuffed her forward and she's never looked comfortable. And Alira Fotu has huge talent, but kinda sucks at the moment because she's always playing basketball, and may not even get picked.
I'd LOVE to get Eloise Mackereth, as I've said, because she's a mid-range 175cm, very fast and creative, and will probably still be available mid first-round. And nearly every other top-30 draft pick who can play forward is actually a hybrid midfielder too... that wouldn't be too bad, but we really need a pure forward, because at some point the defence figures out goal-kicking mids, and stops them.
I know Britton and Bushby are young, and show some athletic ability, but their skills are consistently poor... maybe they'll improve, but they're not natural footballers like a Dalgliesh is, despite her only having played two games. Drennan's also had plenty of the ball last few games, but never looked damaging, I'd much rather those possessions in the middle were going to Rowley.
And I can't really blame Lewis for looking ordinary, she's playing forward too, presumably because her bad ankle has meant she doesn't have the tank for midfield. So now she's playing out of position, and doesn't really know how.
If all our defenders were healthy, and we had a few decent pure forwards, we could re-concentrate all our best mids in the actual midfield for a change and really do some damage. Yeah, that would probably squeeze Britton, Bushby and Drennan out. So all things considered, we're not doing too badly, given the poor situation. And maybe Lewis's fitness will improve to the point where she can get back to the middle, which will make us better again... but only exacerbate the problem with a lack of forwards.
So who can our forwards be? I don't think the problem with Franky is lack of skills or athletecism. She's just not very strong one-on-one, so in a congested forward line, or any kind of wrestling contest, she's outmatched, tossed aside. Given open ground to run in, she looks great, but there's never much of that up forward. So maybe she's a wing? Well, she doesn't really have the midfield skills for that, I think. And she doesn't like playing back, which leaves her future very uncertain.
Roxy seems to make a much better defender than a forward. Gibbo's okay, but that's one okay player, when we need about five. Can Riggs play forward? But then we've got Franklin, Riggs and Lakfer all up forward, and that's far too many tall forwards, we need a mix.
Could the return of Smith, Johnson, Boyd, McDonald etc free up other backs to go forward? Maybe, but it looks a bit doubtful if any of our current backs would make good forwards. Maybe we'd have to trade a few to get a forward, either mature age or through the draft.
And then the draft... as huge as the drafts these days are getting, not a lot of pure forwards. If we finished about ninth, we'd miss the top two forward picks - Baron and Wolmarans, who will both go early. Alex Neyland might go early too, but is Sydney Academy, so the Swans will snap her up.
We could certainly get local girl Alicia Blizard, who I really like, but she's good at everything except marking on the lead, which is kind of important for a forward, so her stocks have tumbled lately. I actually think she's a defender, not a forward, was amazing down back in the U16s, but in U18s they stuffed her forward and she's never looked comfortable. And Alira Fotu has huge talent, but kinda sucks at the moment because she's always playing basketball, and may not even get picked.
I'd LOVE to get Eloise Mackereth, as I've said, because she's a mid-range 175cm, very fast and creative, and will probably still be available mid first-round. And nearly every other top-30 draft pick who can play forward is actually a hybrid midfielder too... that wouldn't be too bad, but we really need a pure forward, because at some point the defence figures out goal-kicking mids, and stops them.
Zoe Wakfer's had a soft cast on her arm for like a month now, plus getting her bell rung in the Essendon game. Maybe they're resting her for a game.
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