Report in the Sun has it that Erin Phillips will probably miss again this week whilst the AFL site is saying Paxman is also unlikely for us. They are leaving options open though saying if Paxman trains without discomfort on Thursday night then she is a chance to play. Whilst having key opposition players out hasn’t helped our men’s side (Rd 23 etc) the Women’s game relies far more on its stars to perform. 

Adelaide will be desperate to win this one to keep its flag defence alive. We need to win this before two games on the road including one in Alice and then a six day break. 

It's obviously not an equal comparison given their different roles in their respective teams, but we're better placed to cover Paxman's absence than they are Phillips. Phillips is pretty much irreplaceable whereas we at least can (hopefully) rely on our mids to step up again.

Fingers crossed for the return of Mifsud!

http://melbournefc.com.au/news/2018-02-05/aflw-round-2-match-day-information

 

Bizarre photoshop job. I think we’ll win easily. 

Edited February 7, 20188 yr by Ethan Tremblay

If Phillips doesn't play then keep the humongous forward quiet and you are half way home. Paxmans injury is a worry coz I believe she is our best player.

It's going to be a very interesting game.  We need to dominate the midfield I think, because they have the better forwards. 

Watching Carlton/Collingwood and then Melbourne/GWS showed me that Melbourne is superior in moving the ball through the middle of the ground.

The challenge is that scoring opportunities are from 30m out, not 50 as for the men's game. This enables poorer disposal teams to stifle any benefit gained by the attacking team by collapsing defence into this critical area.

The ability of the forwards to mark under pressure is now a bigger advantage.

The other, which Melbourne use is to quickly move the ball from turnover into the danger area before the defensive team is set.  This is where better kicking skills are a must, and where supporter frustration is reduced.  I remember the collective groans of us Melbourne supporters when the men's team would turn it over after having one bad possession in a potentially successful chain, only to have the opposition take full advantage down to their goal.

I haven't seen the Adelaide/Brisbane Bulldogs/Fremantle game, so maybe Brisbane and Bulldogs have shown similar skills.  

I like the game now, and once there are clean extended chains, this will increase the attractiveness of the game.

 

 

 

 

Paxman, yes!

No Phillips for the Crows, Holmes and McCormick in.

Re: possession chains. I actually felt like we were better at this last season than what we saw against GWS. So hopefully it's a matter of time/synergy.

Some marks inside 30 wouldn't go astray either. A lot of our goals seems to be from kicking over the defense and then running onto it or crumbing from the contest. While I could watch Rocky do pick-ups like that one last game all day, we do have players that are good set shots, so we need to capitalise on that as a more efficient path to goal.

(And if we need to go full-on defensive to win at any stage, I'm totally behind it.)

We seem to forget that we absolutely dominated possession against GWS. Our midfield and backline performed well. It was the forwards who were below par with the exception of Cranston of course. I think this will be addressed this week with the inclusion of Mifsud and Paxman.

This women’s team is a good football side, and deserve their early favouritism for the flag. I expect us to win comfortably.

Edited February 8, 20188 yr by Dees2014

really hoping for another win

19 hours ago, DemonAndrew said:

really hoping for another win

We need a few HUGE wins in the next few weeks.  Carlton and Bulldogs are sitting up there with a % of over 200%.  Carlton have almost guaranteed themselves a finals berth by winning big over the lesser teams.  Sure its early days but sometimes big % leads are hard to peg back in a 7 game season.

This is a cut-throat game.  Each week is like sudden death - drop more than one game and no Grand Final.  Have too many close games and no Grand Final.

Only teams 1 and 2 on the ladder after round 7 play off in the Grand Final.  Last year we missed it by %.  We were playing the best footy of the comp so could easily have won had we go there.

Winning isn't enough in AFLW - % is what really counts in this game.

They’ve both still got to beat us though to get through

2 hours ago, small but forward said:

They’ve both still got to beat us though to get through

Even if they both lose to us they can still get thru with a higher %age than ours after rnd 7 ie if their only loss is to us and they end with 6 wins we need to win all 7 games to get spots 1 or 2.  A big, big win over either team will be a boost up the ladder!!   Of course, there is a lot to play out but I feel we need a few big % wins earlier than later to challenge for spots 1 or 2. 

A key factor will be how the 'better' sides go against the 'lesser' ones.  eg Carlton got a huge % boost last night vs Giants but we just scraped thru with a win vs Giants last week.

This jockeying for top position is one of the things that makes AFLW interesting - each week is almost like an elimination final. 

The thing about Carlton's percentage is that in two games they only slightly passed what we managed in one game. Absurdly, they've only had three goals scored against them. So even one small loss would put their percentage back in the pack, and if, for example, we beat them by a couple of goals in a high scoring game, their percentage collapses.

All you can say about Carlton at the moment is that they are good at stifling their opponents. While that is something it would be good to see us doing a bit better, I'm quite happy for us to keep piling on the goals. Eventually we'll crack a game and just dominate both ways, and that will set records and also set us up with a monstrous percentage.

Think the 11.4 vs 2.4 against Fremantle last season.

Still, what matters is winning, any which way we can. Those two games we let slip in wet weather in 2017 should keep the player's fire burning.

Live on AFL site...... Free:

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-02-10/aflw-round-two-watch-it-live

I think we’ll thrash them by 6 points. 

Melb: 19

Adel: 13

Edited February 10, 20188 yr by Ethan Tremblay

Anyone else having all kinds of trouble with the vision from the AFL website?

Sound coming through fine, but the video is stopped almost as much as it is going.

1 minute ago, Little Goffy said:

Anyone else having all kinds of trouble with the vision from the AFL website?

Sound coming through fine, but the video is stopped almost as much as it is going.

Working fine for me on an iPhone.

Was that the cleanest goal ever in women's football?

Genuine long kick from defence to the middle, worked out to the forward/wing, the a burst of speed to beat a defender and a neat kick through for goal.

Some more of that would be good.

Newman put on a few pretty valuable bursts of speed last week, too.

alicia newman - goal of the year!

three bounces and then a checkside from the boundary 

 

the umpiring is the standard level of atrocious 

dees' tackling is sensational