With the new clubs coming in, surely we're expecting some of our girls to be poached.

I'm hearing that there's a few that have been approached but don't want to leave because of the strong culture, but sadly some will go, and some have already committed to do so.

Here's where our 2018 listed players will be for the VFLW season at least, starting this weekend.

Casey Demons

Newman, Jakobsson, Hore, Duryea, Smith, Scott, Grierson, Whitfort, Cordner, Shevlin, Zanker, Phillips

Darebin

Paxman, Guerin, Patterson, O’Dea, L. Pearce

Geelong

Cranston, Hoare, Teague

Western Bulldogs

Guest, Mifsud

Not VFLW listed/Doing something else this winter?

Humphries, Downie, Cunningham, Lampard, Kemp

Daisy and Mithen are taking VFLW off, Hickey injured

This article is about the AFL trying to control where players go: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/womens-afl/aflws-two-newest-clubs-and-league-on-a-war-path-over-afls-list-management-approach-described-as-dictatorship/news-story/db55f5c6edcd4ab2c4b3c952fd13db06

Re some Melbourne players - Geelong has a 'strong desire' to lure Mel Hickey and Lily Mithen. 

The Cats are starting to play 'dirty' re Mithen:  "It’s understood the Cats have told her she can play VFLW for Geelong this season only if she agrees to join the AFLW team for the 2019 season".

A tough call for a 20 year old to make.  Lily is fairly smart and not being seduced by it at this stage:  "{She} will reportedly join Darebin in the interim before making a call on her future once all the building blocks are in place regarding salary caps and payment structures".

I heard an interview with Kate Sheehan where she said Melbourne is the club most AFLW players aspire to as it has the best culture just as @Macca has said in the op.

Hope we can keep our core players together as they are just beginning to be a really cohesive unit.

Doesn't Lily Mithen have a family connection to the club, also?

Some relevant things to 'poaching' and list management I've seen in recent months.

1. The draft/trade rules aren't released yet but I recall that existing Vic clubs have to give up 2 to 4 players whose AFL determined 'ratings' total 100 poionts (with no compensation to that club). 

2. The AFL introduced new teams without any commitment from broadcasters on telecast rights.  So they can't tell clubs the salary cap, nor the 'poaching' rules.  This is shaping up as a merry-go-round between the AFL/Ch7/Foxtel with inevitable delays and clubs will have little time for list management or players to make career and life defining decisions.

3. With the AFL trying to control every aspect of AFLW they risk it backfiring.  It has already lost the two best AFLW coaches.   Players give up a lot to play this part-time sport for the love of it and some remuneration.  The sport can't afford for them to become disillusioned by the back room manipulations. 

The risk is many people (players, support staff, spectators, broadcasters) will lose interest and it will relegated to a backwater.  I truly hope not as I really enjoy watching the games and supporting Daisy and her troupe.

6 minutes ago, Mickey said:

Doesn't Lily Mithen have a family connection to the club, also?

Yes.  http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2016-10-26/mithen-name-lives-on-at-melbourne

But she plays in a Geelong region club and last year won their B&F.

Its very ordinary of Geelong (AFL club) to coerce her into playing with their VFL side.  I think it is disrespectful.  I wonder if she is thinking something like: '...is that the sort of club I really want to play for if that is how they treat me.... 

I applaud her good judgement and maturity in playing elsewhere this year and Darebin is the best VFLW team.

What a farce. The AFL think they are doing the right thing by trying to 'grow' the women's game but I think it will have  negative impact. The level of games next season will be abysmal and people will stop watching.

They should have kept the same teams for 4-5 years and then try to integrate new sides (maximum 2 per year).

The introduction of the new teams is only going to bring the quality of the games down.  If the existing clubs are required to give up some players, who it is going to do is make us pretty thin across the board.  For example, Lily Mithen is clearly in our best team, but is probably in the 5-10 best range.  If she goes to Geelong, she'll become their top 1-3 range player.  We lose out because we've lost a handy player, and Geelong will struggle because that handy player we lost isn't in that top bracket for them.

A better thing for the AFL to do would've been expand the current fixture, making it a 14 week season + a Top 4 finals series, rather than its current format.

There is far too much expansion happening far too quickly. Even the better clubs are already carrying players that are not at the required standard. Increasing the player pool by 75% over two years is just ridiculous and will clearly have an impact on the quality of the games. Expect to see less scoring and more packs developing as you have more players who can't kick straight or more than 30 metres.

Hopefully we can keep the big 3 (Pearce, O'Dea & Paxman), which surely means that one of O'Dea or Paxman has to replace Hickey as a marquee player. You would think that all of the Casey players would stick around, so it then becomes a matter of prioritising the rest - would losing Hickey at her age be the worst thing if she is worth enough points to meet most of our delisting obligations?

I just read that Hickey has joined the cats.

35 minutes ago, dl4e said:

I just read that Hickey has joined the cats.

Tbh, I would rather lose Hickey who is 33 and recovering from an ACL than Mithen.  It sounds like Hickey has an off-field job lined up with them as well. 

Also, she would probably be rated @ 50 points by the AFL which means we wouldn't need to give up another good player to get to the 100 points.

Hickey has been very good for us so hope she does well at Geelong.

Hickey, Cranston, Erin Hoare and Anna Teague are all leaving for Geelong. The latter three all came from Geelong, apparently.

 I think that means, under the rules, that we can't have anymore poached.

16 minutes ago, Mickey said:

Hickey, Cranston, Erin Hoare and Anna Teague are all leaving for Geelong. The latter three all came from Geelong, apparently.

 I think that means, under the rules, that we can't have anymore poached.

Any idea if the AFL ditched the 100 point assessment plan or those 4 players are </= 100?

We get to keep Lily Mithen who elected to sign with the demons.☺️ I think Cranston is a big loss.  She played some terrific games this year.  But we were always going to lose some good players.

 

For info: The draft/trade period is later this month and the Free Agency period is early June

Disappointed to lose Hickey she was my favourite of our players. Makes sense that she’s off to Geelong with the family history. 

Cranston is a massive loss!

Not really bothered by the losses. Losing others would have hurt a lot more. Good result.

Will miss Cranston.  Would have missed Hickey is she didn't do her ACL.

All have Geelong connections, they seem to go home.

 

 

Daisy, Elise O'Dea and Karen Paxman are the ones we can't lose this year or next.

Think the main issue maybe the coach. How did we not win a flag with all that talent on the list.

For those that love a good photoshop fail:

14 hours ago, Frustrated Demon said:

Think the main issue maybe the coach. How did we not win a flag with all that talent on the list.

Main issue was a new team coming in with money to throw around.
Fact is, someone was going to leave, and fortunately it was the lesser ones that Geelong was able to attract.
They went for bigger players and were told where to go.

Ordinary approach with Mithen too, telling her she couldn't play for the VWFL team unless she signed on.
Pretty stupid way of going about it.

We've come out of this pretty well, especially if the rules mean we can't have anyone else poached?

Rocky is a big loss but it was always going to be someone. To be honest I'd prefer to keep Mithen and she's done well with a hard decision. Hickey, as much as I respect what she's done in our team (I reckon she would have been the difference in the last round), at this stage I think we're well placed to cover that with someone younger.

As for the AFL's machinations, I won't even get started, but their apparent disinterest in doing what it takes to keep the best coach in the league around speaks volumes...

Anyway, what does everyone think we should be looking for by trade or draft? I think the forward line's the main issue.

Hickey said she valued the advice of someone at AFL house....some bloke called....Hocking !!!

27 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Hickey said she valued the advice of someone at AFL house....some bloke called....Hocking !!!

I call conflict of interest by Hocking!  Until recently he was Geelong's Football Operations Manager. 

I'm not disappointed Hickey has left and the lure of the family name in Geelong is strong. 

But not sure a senior AFL rep should be influencing players decisions toward or to favour their former club.   In AFL speak the 'optics' don't look good.

I'm mixing up my Hoares, so to speak.

Did we lose the goal sneak or the ruck in losing Erin?

6 hours ago, Roger Mellie said:

I'm mixing up my Hoares, so to speak.

Did we lose the goal sneak or the ruck in losing Erin?

The ruck.