https://www.codesports.com.au/afl/aflw-trade-period-carlton-nabs-gold-coast-captain-tara-bohanna/news-story/7d7f4115a71b5596b475f72b818e4410?using_ew=false&using_ew_noesi=false
Gold Coast captain.....coming our way.
Good. We need someone to kick goals regularly.
It will make a difference to have a genuine quality key forward in the mix, and particularly one who can kick over 40m.
And she’s from a Bluebaggers family 🙂
Just about kicking distance, I noticed this season that more of the women seemed to be kicking further than my memory said they had in past seasons.
Did they switch back to the smaller footy this year, I know it was suggested pre-season but many wanted to oppose the change?
I realise there is a small and loud minority that want to play men's footy, with the full sized footy, but if the full size footy is a barrier to some girls being competent enough to play the game, then I suggest that change should be made without hesitation.
There was some argy bargy going around about the youth footy being to easily blown off course by the turbulence inside AFL grounds, but I think it's a a bogus claim as there is hardly a girl who can kick it far enough to worry about that anyway! I'd much rather them use a footy that brings the handball and kicking into the same distance and timing domain as the men, than have them play a game with a full sized footy that most can hardly handball 5m or kick 40m.
The longer the AFLW is around, the longer the girls in it have been kicking the footy around. When some of the girls from season 1 were younger, there were no girls teams you could even play in.
Now every junior club seems to have a girls team for each age group.
So yes, they are kicking further and will again next year and the year after.
Eventually the entire AFLW playing list will have grown up with AFLW their entire lives and not know what it was like in the 'before time'. Thats when skills will be at its peak.
I should be super excited, after all this is an opposition captain switching clubs, but having watched some of the GC games I can't say I've even ever noticed her. I should be embarrassed! :o
I think that's right and there are now plenty of women who can kick 40m without too much trouble ... but there's still more than a few who can't kick over a jam tin. Improved fitness, better coaching (at all levels), better technique, and recruiters looking for better kicks are all playing a part.
Handpassing is another matter though and I think that short, looping handballs are here to stay unless there's a greater focus on upper body strength.
I think that Tara is the first genuine key forward we’ve had … and that’s not dismissing Tay-tay’s contribution.
With the exception of Harris, we’ve tried to cheat with Darcy, rucks pretending to be forwards, and tall forwards who can’t get the pill.
Tara’s presence as a key forward may prolong Darcy’s career, but as an opportunistic small forward rather than the primary forward target. What does it mean for Good and Moody X 2?
We did have Phoebe McWilliams.....albeit at the end of her career.
We gave a third round draft pick to Gold Coast and received a fourth round pick and Tara back. We then bundled up the two fourth round picks and got a third round pick in return. In reality we got Tara for a fourth round pick which makes her an even better bargain. We did well in the draft getting two first round picks, a third round pick and Tara.
Phoebe showed glimpses of her best but I don’t think that the opposition coaches were overly concerned about her. Tara will demand attention and will win her share of contests, and that should make life a little easier for our other forwards.