This Sunday at Carlton at 1610. The Meat Pies have beaten us the last two times we played them, while we've been very much down. We badly need to start the year positively.
It will be interesting to see how our forward line functions without Tayla Harris. I still see a number of other structural issues, so I'll be very interested to see how we line up.
I have a feeling that we will be relying fast ball movement, run and carry, multiple leading targets and rucks providing marking options. The challenge will be when the opposition has a dominant tall defender.
It will be interesting to see how we line up and what tactics Harf has cooked up.
I think our forward line will be very similar to what it was last year, it will be Vescio/Stevens combo of 'key targets' with others surrounding them.
I expect Gee to have a bigger year, and hopefully Brooke Walker is back to her best as the line breakers. That will allow us to have more of a pagans paddock style which we had a couple of years ago when Dalton/Walker were at full swing.
Also look for Poppy Schaap in the forward pocket. You won't miss the blond mullet thats almost as big as her. The ultimate teammate who play like Eddie Betts.
Also look for Poppy Schaap in the forward pocket. You won't miss the blond mullet thats almost as big as her. The ultimate teammate who play like Eddie Betts.
We can hope. We get tyhe ball into the forward line a lot and don't get rewards.
I was hoping for a strong marking target, but ...
We can hope. We get tyhe ball into the forward line a lot and don't get rewards.
I was hoping for a strong marking target, but ...
I'm not sure that is ever going to be a feature of AFLW, given the smaller stature of the players I think the idea of having a player with super-strong and consistent overhead marking will always be an exception rather than the rule.
Obviously if you can find one you've got an advantage, but there are not going to be so many each team has a target.
I'll be disappointed if I see another season of AFLW failing because it's adopting AFL tactics, AFLW needs to be different to reach it's full potential. We should not expect a female version of the male game!
We can hope. We get tyhe ball into the forward line a lot and don't get rewards.
I was hoping for a strong marking target, but ...
Ever since year 1 we've found the stronger marking targets have had questionable accuracy via foot. Never been able to capitlise on the marking.
Bianca Jakobsson was a great CHF type who was good on the lead and had great hands. Couldn't really kick though.
Harris had the best hands in the game, and the biggest yips in the game too.....and "useless" when the ball hit the ground too.
Even down back one of our best markers is Wilson.....worst kick though.
The taller the girls, the worse the kicks, generally.
So going back to Vescio playing FF. Good in the air, and on the ground and a good kick. Ticks all the boxes except 'size'.
Stevens has more size, but can't quite get her marking together, and her kicking is decent without being exceptional.
Thats about as good as we can hope for.
Half has said there will be at least 1, maybe 2 debutants for this game. Teams will be announced 5pm.
Schaap would be one of those names and not sure of he's including dal pos in that list, but carlton debut for sure.
When asked what are the "non negotiables" he looks for from a player, half pointed out that you need to....
1. Compete
2. Be a team player
...and if you don't do both, you want be in navy blue for long.
Shout out to Tayla Harris. >:D
Round 1 team
CARLTON
B: K.Harrington - C 9 G.Pound 6
HB: A.Lee 11 V.Laloifi 8 J.Dal Pos 2
C: L.Brazzale 12 M.Prespakis 4 N.Plane 32
HF: N.Stevens 21 L.McEvoy 13 B.Walker 7
F: E.O'Dea 46 D.Vescio 3
Foll: B.Moody 16 G.Egan 1 G.Gee 19
I/C: D.Walker 23 J.Good 15 A.McKay 5 P.Trudgeon 26 C.Jones 22
Emerg: C.Hammans 17 M.Guerin 18
AFLW Debut
CFC Debut
Not sure what happened to Poppy Schaap.....injury? She was a monty for a gig.
A couple of things of note IMHO.
1. 'Velcro' in the midfield. Maddy Prespakis will be joined by her bestie and velcro tattoo twin Georgia Gee. Look to them to link up well.
2. Velcro#2 lined up in the FF line. Odea and Vescio will also work very well together.
3. Annie Lee slotting into a very solid, experienced backline will be great for her development, as our first pick in the last draft she will no doubt hold her own as well.
4. Pies midfield scares me. The highlighted names below show no weakness and would be the strongest midfield going around i think.
COLLINGWOOD
B: L.Butler 23 S.Livingstone 12
HB: S.Casey 22 R.Schleicher 18 J.Allen 6
C: S.Rowe 7 B.Davey 3 S.Chiocci - C 17
HF: S.Frederick 1 A.Sheridan 14 C.Molloy 2
F: S.Alexander 24 E.Chaston 32
Foll: A.Downie 30 B.Bonnici 8 J.Lambert 13
I/C: T.Brown 26 E.O'Dea 50 E.Fowler 15 E.James 20 M.Cann 25
Emerg: A.Velardo 5 A.Newman 16
Round 1 team
CARLTON
B: K.Harrington - C 9 G.Pound 6
HB: A.Lee 11 V.Laloifi 8 J.Dal Pos 2
C: L.Brazzale 12 M.Prespakis 4 N.Plane 32
HF: N.Stevens 21 L.McEvoy 13 B.Walker 7
F: E.O'Dea 46 D.Vescio 3
Foll: B.Moody 16 G.Egan 1 G.Gee 19
I/C: D.Walker 23 J.Good 15 A.McKay 5 P.Trudgeon 26 C.Jones 22
Emerg: C.Hammans 17 M.Guerin 18
AFLW Debut
CFC Debut
Not sure what happened to Poppy Schaap.....injury? She was a monty for a gig.
A couple of things of note IMHO.
1. 'Velcro' in the midfield. Maddy Prespakis will be joined by her bestie and velcro tattoo twin Georgia Gee. Look to them to link up well.
2. Velcro#2 lined up in the FF line. Odea and Vescio will also work very well together.
3. Annie Lee slotting into a very solid, experienced backline will be great for her development, as our first pick in the last draft she will no doubt hold her own as well.
4. Pies midfield scares me. The highlighted names below show no weakness and would be the strongest midfield going around i think.
COLLINGWOOD
B: L.Butler 23 S.Livingstone 12
HB: S.Casey 22 R.Schleicher 18 J.Allen 6
C: S.Rowe 7 B.Davey 3 S.Chiocci - C 17
HF: S.Frederick 1 A.Sheridan 14 C.Molloy 2
F: S.Alexander 24 E.Chaston 32
Foll: A.Downie 30 B.Bonnici 8 J.Lambert 13
I/C: T.Brown 26 E.O'Dea 50 E.Fowler 15 E.James 20 M.Cann 25
Emerg: A.Velardo 5 A.Newman 16
We will miss Charlotte Wilson. Muscles has been great at dealing with tall forwards.
Hopefully Good can start forward sometimes, as he has the height and the mobility. Hopefully she can make an impression in the ruck. Last year, when Moody ran out of steam, so did we.
We will miss Charlotte Wilson. Muscles has been great at dealing with tall forwards.
Hopefully Good can start forward sometimes, as he has the height and the mobility. Hopefully she can make an impression in the ruck. Last year, when Moody ran out of steam, so did we.
I didn't even notice Wilson missing, is she injured? Lee keeping her out of the side?
I actually meant to write something about our height.
For reference, Al Downie who looks like a giant is only 182cm (6'0") and Bree Moody is 180cm. Paige Trudgeon is 180cm also, Jess Good is 185cm and a former basketballer who will be agile. (FWIW, Tayla Harris was 177cm)
We should be able to stretch them and i wouldn't be surprised to see Moody drop back into the hole and help out our defence when one of the other girls is on.
I didn't even notice Wilson missing, is she injured? Lee keeping her out of the side?
Did I read somewhere she only returned to training from a long injury layoff just prior to Christmas?
Did I read somewhere she only returned to training from a long injury layoff just prior to Christmas?
I know gab pound fits the bill you just described.
Mimi Hill is similar with her knee.
Not sure about Wilson.
I've serious doubts about Harf having watched the 1st half of Rnd 1.
We've basically got the same game plan as last season, but now without Downey or Harris.
Across the ground our general ball use or decision making hasn't improved at all, do they actually do any handball drills, I was expecting far more progress than I've witnessed!
Not sure what Prespakis has done to be penalised in the calls like she is, it's pretty ordinary treatment different from any other AFLW player!
Prespakis limping off the ground with 2 seconds to go sums up our performance.
Disappointing result.
Too many passengers.
Wholesale changes possible, but with 22 out of 30 players already playing....and some of the other 8 injured, its a bit hard.
Grace Egan going down early was not ideal and may be a forced change.
Of the 'debutants'...
Annie Lee....largely unsighted, had high hopes for her. Its only her first game though.
Jess Good was ok and showed something we can work with.
Courtney Jones was very good. Been on the list for a few years and persistence paid off. Top 3 today IMO.
Paige Trudgeon is a work in progress, but has the athletic attributes that could set her apart. Needs to work on her kicking.
Jess Dal Pos.....only a carlton debut, but was the most disappointing of the lot. Barely sighted. Simply not good enough for essentially the Jess Hosking replacement in terms of trade value. She is better than that.....at least was....hopefully she can recapture it.
I've serious doubts about Harf having watched the 1st half of Rnd 1.
We've basically got the same game plan as last season, but now without Downey or Harris.
Downey and Harris would offer about 10 touches between them, on a good day, and won't be missed.
Jess Good had 12 hitouts today as our backup ruck.
Downie had 6 touches as their #1 ruck.
Moody dominated the ruck with 25.....and placed them wherever she wanted.
Problem with today was that the pies midfield is about the best in the game. The only position we won from that midfield was the ruck position.
The second half we were up and running, but the umps killed the momentum for us on multiple occasions, including with 3 50m penalties resulting in goals.
Make no mistake, Pies will make finals, probably top 4 and would probably be the best vic team in the game. (Crows, Lions, Freo probably the other top 4 with home advantage factored in).
We are a small quick side which does not have a AFLW sized KPF.
Our scoring plan was bombing it long from about 50m arc to an undersized F50, with Darcy and Stevens flying against Goode.
We are a small quick side which does not have a AFLW sized KPF.
Our scoring plan was bombing it long from about 50m arc to an undersized F50, with Darcy and Stevens flying against Goode.
Not quite. We are not that quick where it counts.
It looks like being a long year.
There were some good signs, but not really enough of them.
[1] Kicking into the forward line:
We normally do well when we can get the fast break and stop teams setting up. But we didn’t manage a single fast break for the entire game. That was bad enough, but the way we delivered the ball into the forward line simply wasn’t up to scratch. Our forwards didn’t get a chance. At times it appeared that we were picking out Collingwood defenders. Certainly, things were not conducive to having Darcy Vescio or Nik Stevens taking marks.
[2] Disposal:
Still not good enough far too often. The number of times our kicking got picked off was horrifying, and nobody but Moody could kick the ball 40 m.
The perfect example was in the third quarter, where we moved the ball down the ground brilliantly: the nearest thing to a fast break we managed all day. But, as we neared goal, our kicks started missing targets, and, in the end, the ball went through for a point because the kick to the square had too much on it.
Another time, we moved the ball across goal, only to kick the ball out on the full. Collingwood capitalized with a great goal.
[3] Centre setup:
With Moody and Good dominating in the ruck, we should have got a lot more centre clearances than we did. However, our mids didn’t make the best of that and didn’t seem to know where Moody was hitting it.
Moody and Good were a great combination, but our mids need to trust them more when they dominate like this.
We have some good players in the middle, but we have very few fast players in the middle. Collingwood spread the ball much better than we did.
[4] New chums:
We had 5 new players today, but only Jess Good and Courtney Jones had much of an impact.
Jess dal Pos is living on past glory and looked past it. Considering that she comes in for Jess Hosking, that is really a bad loss for us. Dal Pos not only had very few positions, but she didn’t put a lot of pressure on and looked very slow. She should not hold her place next week on this performance.
Jess Good, on the other hand started well, both in the ruck and as a tall forward. She won the ball well enough, but her kicking at goal was very poor. That is the area she needs to work on. But she was a real presence, and her ruck work was tidy.
Annie Lee had a shocker and should be dropped. She appears to have some decent attributes, but the occasion got to her. She fumbled when free and couldn’t put pressure on her opponent.
Paige Trudgeon is very much a work in progress. She handled Fredericks well enough, but she didn’t have the game awareness at times. Still, there is something to work with there, as we needed a tall defender.
Courtney Jones was quite reasonable, but even she looked somewhat off the pace. She kept working, however, and she managed to get a few highlights from her first outing.
[5] Injuries:
Our list is simply not as deep at the moment, compared to previous campaigns. We badly missed Charlotte Wilson and Mimi Hill, for example. Then having Egan and McEvoy go off hurt our midfield rotations a lot. Abbie McKay is headed in the right direction.
@crash...
1+2 kicking forward and disposal...
Yep, disposal was poor today.
When you've got a new kid as your #1 tall, you know all the players are not on the same page.
TBH, i reckon we should've moved Good out and played a smaller quicker forward line and dribbled the ball inside 50.
Collingwoods strengths were their marking/intercept defenders, take them out of the game by not kicking high and long.
Side note, disappointed with Daisy Walkers kicking. Worse than Wilsons? Can't afford turnovers coming out of defence. Trudgeon was a worry in that regard too. We need a taller option to give Harrington and Laloifi a chopout that can actually kick, then we'll be ok down back.
3. centre setups.
Moody dominated and gave our girls the ball on a plate, but we were too fumbly too often. Prespakis is the only one who seems to be able to get the ball and get it to a teammate in traffic. McKay will be a player, and she is better than that, but she needs to improve. We missed Egan here. Pies are the best midfield going IMO though. We do miss the manic pressure of a hosking/loynes in there though.
4. New gals...
Said my piece earlier, i think you were a bit harsh on Jones though. Was one of our best IMO.
5. Injuries...
A byproduct of the expanding AFLW is the smaller list sizes and the way injuries can really hurt. At least 2 down, possibly more, meaning we've probably only got a handful of other players fit enough for a game next week which is a worry and something the AFL need to look at.
Thank you, K, Captain CRASH and Spotted One for the comments/summaries... much appreciated, especially for those of us not as 'across' the Ws as you cats. Great job. :)
Tough piece of work Greg (Grace Egan), two broken ribs and a punctured lung, jogged off looking a little uncomfortable but hardly a flinch!
Losing Greg didn't help and being without her for 4-6 weeks is a blow.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.