Carlton Supporters Club

The ladies aren't full time, professional athletes. They have careers, and play part time, like the blokes used to back in the day. It's a new sport, new competition, 1st week in, it's a short season for them, they don't have much time to train, prepare etc.

One must temper expectations to a degree.

Terrible umpiring. Missed about 3 free kicks at the opening bounce then plucked one out for the pies.

Our tackling and pressure is a big reason for the lead at quarter time.
Harris impressive.

There's a young lady called Moody playing for the Blues.

Booya.

Former skipper Arnell statless!

Was it just me, or were Collingwood taking every opportunity to niggle, push, drop the knees in and even kick?

Just go for the ball girls.

Neither are most Olympic athletes, unfortunately in the women's sports.
Those excuses are all reasonable and make sense, but at the rate of improvement, they won't be quality for 10 years and very few people will be watching then.

I think they need to work around those excuses. It is harder than for men because they have other jobs, but so did most men even well into the 90s.

Highlighting the areas that need to improve and the reality of how much they need to improve is part of the solution.
Draft players and ensure they meet skinfold tests, put training on at the clubs for them year round. If someone says they can't commit.. then draft someone who can.
It should take less than one season of training to be more than good enough to play this game at that level, so you get the players prepared to do that.

Preseason for local football now starts in January for most clubs and they are not getting paid either.

The question is, does the game just continue along with the type of spectacle like last night or does it want to be taken seriously as a sport that attracts sponsors, supporters and the cash flow to allow the girls to play as full time professionals. Remember the men earned the right to professionalism, it wasn't just handed to them.

If the girls want to grow they can't hide behind the excuse (and I am not saying that they are, but others making these excuses for them) that they are not professional and have other jobs etc. They want to be up on the big stage in front of 20,000 paying spectators and televises on national tv then they need to make the SACRIFICE.

Could you imagine the havoc one girl with the ability to be a top player in any U/18 competition could do out there? Just 1?
They would pick up 40 touches and rip it up.

I don't agree with glossing over real issues if you want to succeed. That game last night would have won over very few people and would have lost a number of people that were 'taking a look'.
It does not help with the abysmal commentary team (was it Nicole Livingstone?), which was as bad as any I have ever heard.

It comes back to a simple question. Do the women want to have a professional football league?
If the answer is yes, they need to treat that the same way someone would treat the goal of making the Olympic team and throw everything into it.

Jim, I believe you train Olympic level or those attempting to be Olympic level walkers, How many are paid professional? And how many non professionals come in overweight for a professional athlete?.. I don't know what is required to be an Olympic walkers I am guessing, but I do know those hoping to make the Swimming teams are making HUGE sacrifices with hours of training each day and restricting their diets, with no guarantee of making it.

All of what I have said sounds critical and it is, but pretending that was a good game to watch to me is far worse than pointing out how much they need to improve.

Neither are most Olympic athletes, unfortunately in the women's sports.
Those excuses are all reasonable and make sense, but at the rate of improvement, they won't be quality for 10 years and very few people will be watching then.

I think they need to work around those excuses. It is harder than for men because they have other jobs, but so did most men even well into the 90s.

Highlighting the areas that need to improve and the reality of how much they need to improve is part of the solution.
Draft players and ensure they meet skinfold tests, put training on at the clubs for them year round. If someone says they can't commit.. then draft someone who can.
It should take less than one season of training to be more than good enough to play this game at that level, so you get the players prepared to do that.

Preseason for local football now starts in January for most clubs and they are not getting paid either.

The question is, does the game just continue along with the type of spectacle like last night or does it want to be taken seriously as a sport that attracts sponsors, supporters and the cash flow to allow the girls to play as full time professionals. Remember the men earned the right to professionalism, it wasn't just handed to them.

If the girls want to grow they can't hide behind the excuse (and I am not saying that they are, but others making these excuses for them) that they are not professional and have other jobs etc. They want to be up on the big stage in front of 20,000 paying spectators and televises on national tv then they need to make the SACRIFICE.

Could you imagine the havoc one girl with the ability to be a top player in any U/18 competition could do out there? Just 1?
They would pick up 40 touches and rip it up.

I don't agree with glossing over real issues if you want to succeed. That game last night would have won over very few people and would have lost a number of people that were 'taking a look'.
It does not help with the abysmal commentary team (was it Nicole Livingstone?), which was as bad as any I have ever heard.

It comes back to a simple question. Do the women want to have a professional football league?
If the answer is yes, they need to treat that the same way someone would treat the goal of making the Olympic team and throw everything into it.

Jim, I believe you train Olympic level or those attempting to be Olympic level walkers, How many are paid professional? And how many non professionals come in overweight for a professional athlete?.. I don't know what is required to be an Olympic walkers I am guessing, but I do know those hoping to make the Swimming teams are making HUGE sacrifices with hours of training each day and restricting their diets, with no guarantee of making it.

All of what I have said sounds critical and it is, but pretending that was a good game to watch to me is far worse than pointing out how much they need to improve.

Kruddler
If you take the swimming example I am talking about 16-18 year old girls that looked much fitter than a lot of players out there last night, volleyball.. same thing. In the case of volleyball these are girls (and boys) growing up playing a sport without any huge following in Australia and they have made sacrifices even as teens to get up early and train, to train late a night, to miss out on a lot of normal teen activities in the pursuit of their sport.

The sport has to have a reasonable skill level Kruddler regardless of how long they have been around and I was addressing the fact the players are not full time and stating neither are most Olympic athletes, yet they do everything they possibly can to sacrifice to make that top.

There is a top of the heap in AFLW now and that is great, so there is every reason for players to make all the right decisions. Are you in fact trying to imply that most of the players out there had what would be considered an athletes physique? I mean it has been pretty well 2 years from conception until now, so that is a LOT of time to train. You can see amazing transformations in even 1 year.. So.. were those players last night in 'peak' fitness? If you think so, then we have wildly different expectations of peak fitness.

I watched on the net it was I think Nicole Livingstone and she literally could hardly commentate it was embarrassing. I love Nicole, she was a sensational Australian athlete and always interviewed well as a swimmer, but if that was her last night.. she sounded almost panicked when asked questions. Literally no idea.

If you don't think there are issues about last night and the skill level that need addressing, all power to you. To me.. I think it is a long way from the quality required and from what I seen last night, probably the only 2 players that looked like footballers where the Chiocci and that Molloy girl.

The expectations when you want to get paid and you want to play in front of big crowds and also be nationally televised are wildly different to the expectations playing Saturday afternoon football, whether male or female.

If you were a broadcaster, how much would you pay for the rights to the women's game right now? Knowing you had to sustain the the interest over a number of years to get the sponsors to advertise etc... How much would you pay?

For someone to invest now (other than the AFL) there needs to be payback now. A broadcaster isn't going to sign on for 3-5 years not knowing if anyone will be watching it then.

So either the product is progressing nicely and it will just naturally eventually get there, or the the ladies/girls that are playing the game need to take it upon themselves to improve their skills/fitness and provide a game we can't turn off. I personally think the 1st is a bit head in the sand and nowhere near the approach required.

Surely the girls need to be able to perform the fundamental skills at a high level

Is the minumum kick length still 15m for a mark to be awarded?

i saw a few kicks that would have gone 5-10m and a mark was awarded.

As for Gee, gosh a good little runner but ran at an open goal but the kick barely went 12m!