To be honest, I think that Mia Austin and Tarni Brown are on shakier ground that Darcy, even if she is not playing as effectively as she once did. Poppy Scholz going forward and looking very good could force Mia out. Mia has never had a high possessions game. Darcy has some runs on the board, even if her recent form is more Labuschagne-like. That said, Darcy has been at it for a while. She may decided to retire rather than play on. Then again, there is the 100 game milestone that is much closer now. One way or another, I don't see her playing in 2027.
BEST Sydney: Gardiner, Ham, Kennedy, Morphett, Pullar, Fish, C.Hamilton Carlton: A.McKay, Scholz, Sherar, Finn, Velardo
We were destroyed around the packs today. Our mids were thrashed. We were out-scored when we had the breeze (more like a gale). Our best scoring quarters were into the wind! The Swans had 6 of the top 7 possession getters, including one lass who had 43! We won the taps easily, but that was about it.
Kudos to Poppy Scholz, who kicked 3 and could have had 5.
We had the 5 least possessions getters, which included Breann Harrington!
The only player I've been less impressed with than Yasmin is the player that is getting dropped this week - Meg Robertson.
I want to like Yas, and her family, but im just not seeing it with her.
I think Yasmin has done a bit more than Meg has to date, but she isn't looking to be one of our trading successes. Meg has struggled in the games I've seen.
Yeah, we certainly sprayed a few. On the other hand, we had some really good signs. Darcy had her quietest game for the year, but did something when it mattered. Keeley Skepper, Meg Robertson, Maddie Hendrie and Tara Bohanna didn't have big possessions either. On the other hand: Abbie McKay: 31 possessions, 3 tackles and 7 clearances. Mimi Hill: 30 possessions, 3 clearances and a goal. Dayna Finn: 26 possessions. Erone Fitzpatrick: 24 possessions and 2 goals Amelia Velardo: 19 possessions. That's 5 of the top 6 possession getters.
Geelong depend on their midfield: we shut it down totally.
Sophie McKay: 5 points This is one area where we need to improve. Our kicking for goal has already lost us one game this year.
Congratulations to: [1] George Hewett 4513 votes Our runaway winner by over a thousand votes. George turned up every week in a career best season. 9 time BOG, 18 time a top-4 vote getter. What a season!
[2] Patrick Cripps 2866 votes Our Captain had a much quieter season this time around, but still managed 1 BOG and 15 top-4 performances. Here is hoping that 2026 is more like 2024!
[3] Ollie Hollands 1673 votes This is both a positive and a negative. It is a huge positive for Ollie and marks his 'graduation', if you will. But it is also a serious negative, in that so many players who were consider top players failed to fire. Injuries curtailed some of them, but form was a significant issue. Seriously. guys like de Koning should be polling a lot more votes than this. Not to take anything away from Ollie Hollands, who deserves the kudos. He didn't win any BOGs, but he was a consistent performer most weeks.
[4] Jacob Weitering 1672 votes A good effort from Weitering. He was BOG twice and in the top 4 four times.
[5] Tom de Koning 1593 votes After a positive start to the year, Tom failed to really fire. He was BOG three time, only once after round 3, and in the top 4 six times, none in the last third of the season.
AFL 2025 Rd 24: Carlton vs Essendon Another game I didn't see live. I am writing to the AFL and complaining about the number of Thursday night games we've had. Never mind, this was our 1st Thursday night win for the season. It was our 1st win in the final round in ages. As such, it was always nice to beat the Drug Cheats.
Trends: [1] This week we attracted 10 voters, which isn't fantastic, but it is a considerable improvement over the weeks we lost. Still,please do vote, win, lose or draw: it is something we appreciate and it makes our statistics a lot more reliable, especially as I've got the spreadsheet behaving again. You look at how our voting stacks up and we're pretty damned good; we usually get the players in something close to the right order. Do think about this for 2026.
[2] The rating was a 9.0, which isa B. The few people who voted expected us to beat the Drug Cheats, who were struck down by injury, and marked the effort accordingly.
[3]15 players managed a mention this week, which is the same as last week. To be honest, I'm happy when I see these sort of numbers. It suggests to me that we're getting a contribution from a significant portion of the team. That seems to be more common these days. Back in the Judd days we often had some players dominate while the others either didn't do as much, or weren't recognized. I prefer it this way.
[4] The average vote this week was 29, which is reasonable. Hopefully we can see more scores in the 30's in 2026.
[5]5 players managed 100 votes or more this week. But we did have 2 real dominant scores.
[6] George Hewett managed his 9th BOG for us this season with a Judd-like 374 votes. Weitering was 2nd with 252. 18 times this season George was in the top 4 vote getters. That is Cripps-like! Cripps managed 14 top-4 finishes in a year where he was down.
[7]2 players managed votes from everyone this week, Hewett and Weitering. Cripps and Evans missed 1 voter, while Walsh missed 2.
[8] Our youngsters have been one of the positives this year. Guys like Hollands and Cowan have been consistent vote getters across the season. This week they weren't as dominant.
[9] There was a fairly even spread this week, with no line dominating. We struggled all year with our forward work and it shows.
Votes: Hewett, George 374 Weitering, Jacob 252 Evans, Francis 185 Cripps, Patrick 131 Walsh, Sam 126 McKay, Harrison 72 Motlop, Jesse 72 Acres, Blake 41 Hollands, Oliver 23 de Koning, Tom 18 Cowan, Lachlan 14 Saad, Adam 14 Young, Flynn 14 Moir Ashton 9 Wilson, Billy 9
Progressive Voting: 4513 George Hewett 2866 Patrick Cripps 1673 Ollie Hollands 1672 Jacob Weitering 1593 Tom de Koning 1466 Adam Cerra 1396 Sam Walsh 1237 Nick Haynes 1187 Harry McKay 846 Jack Silvagni 729 Lachie Cowan 684 Adam Saad 631 Francis Evans 553 Zac Williams 547 Sam Docherty 487 Charlie Curnow 472 Mitch McGovern 453 Cooper Lord 413 Jesse Motlop 284 Blake Acres 275 Brodie Kemp 215 Corey Durdin 181 Harry O'Farrell 159 Marc Pittonet 157 Matthew Carroll 153 Ashton Moir 142 Lachie Fogarty 134 Will White 128 Lewis Young 127 Jaxon Binns 119 Alex Cincotta 79 Matthew Cottrell 72 Elijah Holland 48 Orazio Fantasia 21 Lucas Camporeale 18 Flynn Young 9 Billy Wilson
The Daicos fawning is unbelievable. Not sure why Hamish and Goyder kiss his arse so much but the more they do it the more people will Dislike Daicos! I mean how influential has The Bont been over his journey yet has come runner up a few times - don’t hear the bullcrap in the media about that like we do about Daicos. Give it a rest ffs.
I agree wholeheartedly. Daicos may be Collingwood's best player, but he isn't God. Bontempelli deserves one more than Daicos does.
Any win is a good win with conditions to unpredictable. Freo had 3 of the top 4 possessions getters, but a lot of their possessions were handballs. We had 241 possessions to Freo's 279. However, our efficiency in disposal was considerably better.
We killed Freo in the taps, but Freo had more clearances than we did. I guess we missed Abbie McKay. Carlton 53 marks to Freo 36, although Freo had 8 marks inside 50, while we had just 1. Dayna Finn had another excellent game: 26 disposals. Keeley Sherar had 23 disposals and 10 tackles!
We were out-scored when we had the breeze (more like a gale). Our best scoring quarters were into the wind!