We finished 5th, so we'll host West Coast next weekend.
Saturday 8/11 - 3:05 at Ikon Park.
Somewhat traditional finals timeslot.
Good to be playing at Princes Park - should give the girls an edge :)
All 3 melbourne games are there this week.
Due to the Saints $h!tting the bed, they have to travel to Adelaide.
With a bit of luck, all the finals are held there. May help us if we play at home 4 weeks in a row.
The AFL have sort of exposed the folly of the small / short AFLW competition with a number of clubs playing each other in consecutive weeks, it's time for the AFL to get serious about managing the AFLW and not just leave the competition in free fall.
this can and has happened at afl mens too.
At the end of the day, the finals are the finals and who plays who in a tight comp, is sometimes going to throw up this result.
There is 32 teams in the nfl, they have the same issue from time to time.
Our had literally nothing to do with the amount of teams, nor the size of the season.
While teams meeting in the last round and first finals is not dependent on the number of rounds played, it is more than time to increase the number of rounds so that each team plays each other once. That would make a fairer competition and could change the make up of the final eight.
Melbourne finished second after playing only three of the top eight teams - and two of them finished seventh and eighth. Brisbane played five top eight teams, including first and second. We played five top eight teams, including first, seventh and eighth.
Our line-up for this week:
B: 6 Gabriella Pound 49 Madeline Hendrie
HB: 36 Ciara Fitzgerald 21 Harriet Cordner 7 Poppy Scholz
C: 11 Yasmin Duursma 5 Abbie McKay 17 Dayna Finn
HF: 42 Tara Bohanna 55 Sophie McKay 19 Erone Fitzpatrick
F: 3 Darcy Vescio 25 Keeley Sherar
R: 12 Jessica Good 10 Mimi Hill 20 Lily Goss
Int: 22 Mia Austin 24 Brooke Vickers 18 Madeleine Guerin 1 Amelia Velardo 16 Breann Harrington
Em: 23 Lila Keck 37 Maddison Torpey 14 Siofra O'Connell
I was a bit surprised to see Keck dropped, but she hasn't been as good of late as she was earlier in the season. Mia Austin surprised me a bit: she hasn't really fired a shot yet, even though she was a high draft pick. Well, maybe the coaches know more than I do: that wouldn't be that hard. >:D
I think that's about as best we can field.
No excuses
If we can get through West Coast, we would then face a banged-up Hawks next week for a spot in a Melb or Bris Preliminary.
Outside chance of making a GF (albeit to become another victim of the Kangaroos juggernaut).
1st goal to Ronny Fitzpatrick!
Tara Bohanna! Just what we need!
3rd mark inside 50.
Quarter Time:
Carlton: 2 - 3 - 15
West Coast: 0 - 0 - 0
Bohanna had a late shot, but didn't goal.
A positive start.
Sophie McKay: 6 possessions.
Mimi Hill: 6 possessions.
Erone Fitzpatrick: 6 possessions.
Goal to the Weagles. :(
Surge it forward
Unfortunately unable to watch anywhere but seems we’re doing very well! 41-8.
Premiership Quarter.
Go Girls 💪🏼
Wonderful to see Mia Austin kick a goal,
Would’ve been a very tough week for her and her family.
Wet weather footy masterclass.
Looks like the Hawks next week coming up. They beat us by 4 pts in round 2. Hopefully back to back demoralise North thrashings have sapped them.
We've only had the 2 stinkers this year. One was just run of the mill as North does it to everyone.
Be nice to make a PF.
It'll be interesting to see the stats post game, but I'd expect that Vescio will be a stand out for contested possessions and efficiency, experience matters in tough conditions.
Having a few Irish girls probably makes a big difference in the otherwise chilly conditions! ;D
The things was the even contribution across the field. Girls had periods of dominance, but few put 4 quarters of dominance together.
Brilliant result in terrible conditions.
Carlton: 9 - 6 - 60
West Coast: 2 - 7 - 19
Sophie McKay: 19 possessions and 2 goals 1.
Maddy Guerin: 26 possessions after a quiet first half. 6 clearances and 9 tackles. Just the sort of form she needed.
Erone Fitzpatrick: 23 possessions and 2 goals, with 3 tackles and 2 clearances.
Bree Harrington: 20 possessions, 8 taps, 6 clearances and 2 tackles.
Super effort today and super season so far. Keep it up ladies.
Great win by the girls in terrible conditions. I felt cold every time the camera zoomed in on our girls on the bench. The old dressing gowns that the 19th and 20th men used to wear would have been handy today.
Even though we were just ahead in free kicks, the umpires didn't do us any favours and plenty of decisions were puzzling. The girls seemed confused at times too.
Harriet Cordner had a shocker by her lofty standards. I'd like to know the last time she went through a game without taking a mark. She still kept plugging away though and took part in some important plays. Her teammates in defence worked hard, as did our midfielders and forwards. Getting back in numbers and creating a Navy Blue wave on the way back overwhelmed the Eagles, particularly in the third quarter.
It was quite moving to see the emotion bubble up when Mia kicked her goal. I suspect that her mind was far from footy at times during her preparation for the game.
As others have said, it was an even performance, with everyone making a contribution, even the whipping girls :)
Darcy Vescio's experience, composure and execution were very important at times and they really stepped up the defence was under pressure - again!
Go Blues - pump the Hawks next week!
Vescio handled the conditions well, but the love for Darcy is selling a lot of others short.
For instance....
Contested possessions....Darcy had 5.
10 Carlton players had more....but Darcy gets highlighted?
Darcy had 16 touches, 5 contested and 3 uncontested.....where is the other 8 possessions? I expect majority of them is from kickouts. Thats par for the course for Darcys possessions.
Again, nothing against Darcy, but there are a lot of girls out there doing a great job that get no love because people fixate on Darcy.
Guerin 26 touches, 10 tackles, 6 clearances, 394m gained - 10 contested possessions
What about our ruck tandem of Harrington and Good?
32 touches, 27hitouts, 9 clearances, 6 tackles and 573m gained - 19 contested possessions between them.
18yo kids...
S. McKay - 19 touches, 4 tackles, 5 score involvements, 1 clearance, 237m and 2 goals - 9 contested
Scholz - 9 touches, 5 tackles, 2 score involvements,189m and 1 goal - 4 contested - 3 free kicks won for tackles.
Haven't even mentioned, regulars, Hill, A. McKay, Sherar....
Give the rest of the girls their credit.
Pretty sure the message from Bucky at half time was to get the ball moving forward any way you can.
First goal from the 2nd half came from 6 different players soccers/toe pokes in a row from the centre circle to McKay 20m out from goal who remembered she can use her hands, picked it up and kicked truly.
That simple instruction was the difference in the 3rd quarter which set up a relatively easy win in the end.
Hawks got beaten up by the kangas.
We had a relatively easy one against the eagles.
That should account for the extra day they get.
Bring on next week.
It was a hard day at the office for our defence and most were below par:
Hendrie - 2 disposals, 0 marks, 2 tackles, metres gained 8
Pound - 5 disposals, 0 marks, 1 tackle, metres gained 55
Cordner - 9 disposals, 0 marks, 2 tackles, metres gained 14
Velardo - 9 disposals, 1 mark, 5 tackles - and some argy bargy, metres gained 98
Fitzgerald - 11 disposals, 0 marks, 3 tackles, metres gained 192
Vescio - 16 disposals, 2 marks, 1 tackle, metres gained 370
The tackle count seems to ignore players involved in gang tackles and we had plenty of them in our backline.
Dunno if our defence was that bad - on TV it seemed pretty good. Our pressure all game was excellent.
I went - the third quarter was truly impressive.
I thought the architect of the third quarter was Jess Good - played a great term in the ruck and basically kept the ball locked into out half for the whole quarter.
Given the conditions, the contributions of both Good and Breean Harrington, were remarkable.
And, if only we had a male version of Erone Fitzpatrick....
Yes, Jess was dominant in the ruck and those intercept marks she took were so important and enabled us to lock the ball in. Same with Breann - not pretty football but just kept forcing the ball forward.
Ronnie is brilliant, particularly when you think that this is really only her second season of AFL, at any level! While I think that the All-Australian squad should have had a few more of our players, the selection of Erone and Dayna Finn is appropriate recognition of their outstanding ability to play elite footy without having any background in the game.
And I thought Finn, Vescio and Erone were our best on the day, the cream rises to the top in finals.
The team will have heavy legs after today, it's a big week of recovery ahead.
Sophie McKay is the small forward the mens team needs.
I reckon Ronnie could be a tad faster than Frankie :)
Maybe not, but I think it's Ronnie's agility that sets her apart not so much pure pace.
Erone is quick, there are others in the same league, but she can change direction without seeming to slow and that is a real trick. To me that is Reece Walsh or Ryan Papenhuyzen like (before the leg injuries), and that is genuinely rare. Most fall over their own feet trying to do the same!
Erone certainly has agility and can use it in traffic.
At one stage yesterday she gathered a ground ball near the boundary with two Eagles on her hammer. A quick jink to the left gained her a metre and then she just accelerated away.
Quick thinking as well as quick feet.
Fitzpatrick has the leg speed our mens team needs.