What Went Wrong: Richmond and West Coast

Purple_Turtle

Stockholm Syndrome
Oct 12, 2019
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Richmond and West Coast this season have been a fair pace off the rest of the competition, including their fellow expansion teams.

What is to blame for the mediocrity of these teams? Was it their list management? Poor coaching? Effort from players? Are they just doing the best they can given the limitations of the AFLW's talent pool and their own situations? Some other factor?
 
Oh. I just answered this in the R6 thread. Put Howarth in blue & gold today and you get an easy Eagles win. Put Greiser in yellow & black yesterday and you get an easy Tigers win. Polished goal-kickers in form, I don't see much difference elsewhere. And quite frankly if any of the 2020 expansion teams has played a style of footy resembling AFLW premiers, it's been Richmond (albeit in a very short-lived burst).

For West Coast, last week at Casey Fields took me back to when the other WA team first played there:
  • fifty-something-point margin
  • massive disposal disparity
  • Dana Hooker having to do most of the work
  • about half the team wouldn't be on an AFLW list in a couple year's time.
It might've felt desperate for the Dockers to find consolation in the mature-age indigenous recruit who, despite being pretty raw, showed quite a bit on the day. Nevertheless flash forward to today, Fremantle are sitting on top of the ladder and Gemma Houghton (who is a much worse kick than Imahra Cameron) is one of the best forwards in the competition.
 
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Apr 25, 2011
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It's a big ask to get a team up and running on all 4 cylinders from the start. New teams aren't winning premierships from the start - even in the AFL when GWS have the talent on paper, that they could almost contest against whole states in the state of origin series, talent alone isn't enough.

You can't buy team cohesion, people click instantly or it can take a lot of work. Draftees, look the goods in lower competitions, but are they the goods at the highest level? All that sort of stuff. But for the AFLW or WAFL, SANFL, VFL ETC... It's so much harder to throw in a new team because they are semi-pro's, so the access to conditioning/nutrition/line coaches etc is limited - because they are at the factory making widgets instead of training and playing full time.
 

Purple_Turtle

Stockholm Syndrome
Oct 12, 2019
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It's a big ask to get a team up and running on all 4 cylinders from the start. New teams aren't winning premierships from the start - even in the AFL when GWS have the talent on paper, that they could almost contest against whole states in the state of origin series, talent alone isn't enough.

You can't buy team cohesion, people click instantly or it can take a lot of work. Draftees, look the goods in lower competitions, but are they the goods at the highest level? All that sort of stuff. But for the AFLW or WAFL, SANFL, VFL ETC... It's so much harder to throw in a new team because they are semi-pro's, so the access to conditioning/nutrition/line coaches etc is limited - because they are at the factory making widgets instead of training and playing full time.

I'm not expecting West Coast to be winning premierships first year, or even making finals.

But Richmond and West Coast haven't even looked competitive for most of the season, whereas Gold Coast and St Kilda have. It's more than just being a new team.
 
Apr 25, 2011
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I'm not expecting West Coast to be winning premierships first year, or even making finals.

But Richmond and West Coast haven't even looked competitive for most of the season, whereas Gold Coast and St Kilda have. It's more than just being a new team.
Possibly.

You need to line up all your ducks in a row, until the draftees play together - or the coaches work together, you have no idea of how they complement each other or work against each other, have no idea at draft day that the draftee is going to prove to be a talented and hardworking gun midfielder when mum drives them to training each week in the underage competition or a talented but lazy person as an adult. We (Fremantle AFLW) didn't set the world on fire either in our first few years.

The new teams will review, delist players and coaches, get new ones, try again. Rinse, repeat until they get it right.
 

jatz14

Brownlow Medallist
Dec 13, 2011
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Compromised partial draft also means they don't get to pick from the same pool others get to pick from.

WA depth is tested, and apart from 3 players, that's where the Eagles all came from.

Looking at Gold Coast, the players they got from the Lions were better overall quality than what Eagles got out of the Dockers.

I also think Qld depth has been underestimated.

The expansion lists overall are weaker, and game plans are 3 years behind.

On moto g(6) plus using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

Pottering

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Aug 13, 2011
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From my observation West Coast's biggest issue is, apart from about 4 players, they fumble the ball every time they get near it. Hooker and Cameron stand out as one grab players. I can't fault the effort. In the game against GCS they made a lot of the running but continual mishandling of the ball just turned it over. All year their opponents feasted on simple turnovers. With the girls not kicking the ball as far it means too many turnover opportunities en route to goal and this happened repeatedly. Cleaning up that aspect would by my priority.
 
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Purple_Turtle

Stockholm Syndrome
Oct 12, 2019
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I can't find the Mark Duffield column about this, but I'm coming around to what he said post Round 1 now.

West Coast have lacked:

1. A gun forward like Sabreena Duffy who just makes things happen up forwards. Although I'd specify that it would be a key forward; someone who can bring current pieces like Gibson and Tester into the game rather than a livewire small.

2. A gun defender who can shut down the better key forwards.

3. My own input, but potentially a better gameplan. Maybe it was the lack of the pieces I mentioned, but I genuinely struggled to work out what they wanted to achieve.

Even though their season was pretty disappointing, there's a lot of scope to rise quickly.
 
Speaking of the Eagles' recruiting, it's almost like a curse befell the players (those not already at Freo) who rejected offers to play for West Coast.

3 of these misfortunes, that's possible. 7 misfortunes, there's an outside chance. But nine misfortunes?

Ash Brazill: torn ACL
Chelsea Randall: torn ACL
Ruby Schleicher: broken wrist
Ann McMahon: ran over by a car
Jess Wuetschner: struck by lightning
Emma King: can't... move... at... normal... rate
Caitlyn Edwards: disappeared in a Missourian mystery spot
Sabrina Frederick: developed gigantism after overdosing on nerve tonic
Aimee Schmidt: delisted by GWS for failing to trim her sideburns (see pic below*)
peparandall.jpg

*Ok that's actually Pepa Randall, but the other ones are all pretty much true. Spooky.

And some might argue the players who stayed at Fremantle were cursed in another way, but that's for a different thread.
 
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