Carlton Supporters Club

Pies girls seem bigger, better skilled and generally have more composure with ball in hand, Maddy P playing a lone hand in the middle and the girls down back look undersized and lacking much nous unlike the Collingwood defense who are very solid.

Umpire must be a pies supporter. He will not pay us a free for holding the ball.

Credit where credit is due; Carlton have strived for consistency across both the Men's and Women's teams and it really does appear they have this now.

Scoreless first two quarters hurt.

One of the things that bitterly disappointed me about last night was our inability to get the ball to a team mate. Granted that we were under a fair bit of pressure and found it hard to generate the loose man ... er, woman, but our kicking into the forward line was poor and game our forward very little chance. We just bombed it long and hoped.

Collingwood were also very good in the middle early. The clearances were 18 to 6 at half time, yet we had hands on the ball first almost every time. We need to work on blocking to help Maddie P. Last night they were hunting her, and she still got the ball 18 times.

Actually, Krudd, we managed to get a LOT of holding the ball decisions. Our tackling was brilliant all night. Unfortunately we should have got quite a few more, especially in the last quarter.

[2] We missed Walker and Dalton. Our forward line lacked the pace to make the most of some of our moves. Dalton, in particular, really gives us something with her pace and ferocity.

[3] We only have one marking target in the forward half. That is not a recipe for success. It is no good having Darcy Vescio as the 2nd marking target when she isn't taking them and has to play on their taller, stronger defenders.

[4] We need to learn how to shepherd and block, so our players get a decent run at the ball. Our defence appears to be reasonable at it: the Collingwood forward took about 2 marks for the night. But our mids were getting smashed. Especially Maddie P. She got the ball in her hands at almost every centre contest, but usually had to handball under pressure. After 2 or 3 handballs, we'd turn it over and Collingwood would get the centre clearance.

[5] Tayla got a little of her own back, even though she didn't kick a goal. She won a lot more contests than she lost and was better than she has been on the ground. Her kicking was ordinary, and shows she hasn't been training on it enough. Her opponent got a lot of kicks when we missed the target, or bombed it away; she didn't actually beat Tayla very often at all.

I think i wrote that in the first half. As someone else mentioned, the umpiring in the second half was much improved.

Although granted a 'team mark' after about 3 pies players had their hands on it, including 1 player literally handed it to another player was a step too far.

Just a few more points. I am moving house and things are pretty chaotic around here.

[1] I would have tagged Davey into extinction. if it is good enough for Maddie P to be manhandled like that, then it is good enough for their best player.

I think one of the things we'll see as this competition progresses is a fairly quick improvement in the quality of the general play and the skills needed at this level
Players who may be stars in the early years will come back to the pack and be surpassed as the newer improved 'models' of AFLW player emerges.
It'll probably take some years for a settled consistency to develop.

Didn't we get done by the Pies first up last year and then went on to be contenders??  A rusty start with a good finish.....like a good Peter Moody filly, they'll be better for the run!

Agree lods.

Not sure if you watched the game, but i reckon our skills were worse than previous.

I'm sure some of that could be due to being 10 months between matches and a bit of rust..