If we win week 1 we are going to Brisbane. No way Brisbane is getting close to North. No one is getting close.
Just looked at North's final percentage. Friggen 321.5 %!
What i'm getting it as you using a select few to prove a point.
The select few are the exception, not the rule.
Look at irish blokes who played for Carlton....all with previous athletic ability etc, just needing to be trained up as you say.
Tuohy
S. Ohailpin
A. Ohailpin
Sheahan
Byrne
Shields
McDaid
Monaghan
Duffy
Tuohy the only real success.
Ohailpin had limited success but that was more about his physical attributes than footballing ability.
The rest were a bust. Yes, some played the odd game and had the odd highlight, but were not able to be trained up and developed.
Going back to AFLW...
The girls you mentioned as 'not outliers' are sitll outliers. They are still just a handful or so across the competition.....and most of them still played 'boys footy' up to a certain age anyway. I think Vescio had to stop at about U13s from memory.
I would also argue that despite a wonderful torp, Vescio is far from elite right now. Pittonet is 'a hack' and he managed a similar torp at a similar time.
There has been a lot of discussion by the “experts” about the current crop of AFLW players having played junior footy and moving on to senior footy without a break. As a result, they are said to be more skilful and more natural footballers than those who played in the first few seasons of AFLW.
While there’s some truth to that, I still think that Erin Phillips is the best all round AFLW player by some margin. And then there’s the Irish girls who, unlike Australian cross-coders, have had absolutely no exposure to Aussie Rules before their first training session.
Dayna Finn and Erone Fitzpatrick are two of the best and most skilful players on our list. If it wasn’t for the occasional Gaelic Football touch, it would be easy to believe that they’d grown up playing Aussie Rules.
So, while an uninterrupted footy journey clearly contributes to good skills and footy nous, an athletic girl with stamina, strength, good hand/foot-eye coordination and an aptitude for team sports can be equally adept at the game.
You are trying to use a few outliers to throw shade on the majority view.
Its clear to every man and his dog, women too, that the AFLW standard is the best its ever been and by some margin.
Go back and watch some old games and compare to what is presented now.
Your average quality game today is the equivalent of the early (Dees vs Dogs) all star games.
Yes there are a few great players today who didn't play previously, and there were a few great players before who didn't play previously. Erin Phillips is an outlier and was already an elite athlete who grew up with footy in her blood courtesy of her old man, which is a unique case - an outlier.
I've used this in relation to Darcy Vescio, which proved evident again this week that the field has very much caught up to what was considered elite early on.
I'll say this, I used to see a liver specialist at a public hospital here in Melbourne. Check is via swiping your Medicare card at a console where you get a ticket with a number. The wait at the specialist clinics there is normally horrendous. On one occasion, in my haste, I accidentally clicked yes to the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander question. I can tell you on that occasion my wait was minuscule, I virtually got called in straight away. Coincidence? Perhaps.
