One of the best quarters I've seen the Dees AFLW team play. 

Point to Hore. 15 points up. 

Point to Dockers from point blank. Dees lead by 14. 

Goal to Dockers. Dees lead by 8. 

Goal to the Dockers. Dees by 2. 

Goal to Dockers. They lead by 4.  

Defenders getting burnt again. Game over.

5 mins to go. 

Game over. Dees lose by 4 points. 

Wow that was disappointing. A lot of the same errors that have hurt this side continue and they drop a very winnable round 1 game. 

Started like a house on fire and then as soon as they lost a couple from the midfield the backline was all at sea. Conceding the goals at the end of the first quarter really cost them the match.

Fixed it up in the 3rd quarter by putting Scott to CHF - her natural position. And Smith to half back - her natural spot.

Reminiscent of all the games they played Mel Hickey on ball when she's a gun at CHB.

The forward line looked dangerous and with some better movement for each other Cunningham, Zanker, Scott, Hore, Newman, Gay should be able to kick a score against most sides.

Midfield clearly misses Daisy but there's still enough talent there. Hanks looked a nice pick up. Still not impressed by O'Dea and Paxman's defensive efforts for big name players.

Backline was a shambles. Cordner offers some resistance but she struggled in the wind. A lot of the other defenders may as well not have been playing. Absolute witches hats. Couldn't read the win, couldn't read the play, didn't attack the ball or the opponent.

The mids started the last quarter well but the forwards couldn't quite finish it off in to the breeze and then the inevitable happened as the quarter dragged on.

To be in year 3 and not have any recognisable quality defenders is a concern. The side started out with good mids and they found some very handy forwards last year in Hore and Cunningham. Even with Daisy out for the year and losing Rocky they still have mid/forward talent. But you don't win premierships without strong defenders and this side is struggling.

Feel for Shae Sloane as well. Looked to be a bit of a player and her injury had a lot of ACL about it.

Well I got sunburnt a bit but the wind from the south actually made it bearable. Too hot to play in though.

We are not a good skilled side and we handball way too much. With our skills more kicking should be done to get the ball forward not just handballing it someone who is going to get tackled. Fremantle did have some pace but not much else.

Disappointing game when they had the wind.  They were harder in the contests and that Hooker goes alright.

Too many handballs, yes but more of a worry they are too short and/or weak and the receiver had no space.  Maybe they were rusty?

With the wind we moved faster and with purpose.  Maybe the plan was the move it up with handball into the wind?  I"m not sure how strong i t was from the tv?

I must add they certainly don't umpire the game likes the Men's AFL games, seems to be a different standard.

 

Hopefully it does not come back to nite us at the end of the season as those games always seem to do.  As they say many will be better for the run. 

 

 

 

 

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I must add they certainly don't umpire the game likes the Men's AFL games, seems to be a different standard.

I thought the umpiring was better than most afl games!

Way too many turnovers from 'hail mary' handpasses in tight situations ............ reminiscent of our AFL team of a few years back.  And as others have said, we need a couple of defenders who can read the play, and put themselves in the right spots to defend.  We were far too reactive in the back half, had poor strength in the contest and our marking skills were well down compared to Freo, and most other teams I saw across the weekend.  Only Round 1, but it's a short season!

A frustrating loss in stupid conditions - of course, both teams have to deal with it, by why schedule it during the hottest part of the day??

Wish we could have taken advantage of the breeze in the first and being down a player for the second half didn't help - super bad luck for Sloane in her first game. Unfortunately, as we well know, one loss can break a season. Especially since we seem to be in the stronger conference.

That third quarter was something to behold though and I hope we can continue to put that kind of score on more consistently. (Incidentally, the difference in Round 1 average scores and Round 7 average scores in both seasons definitely trends upwards, so it's unfortunate when people latch onto a couple of low-scoring games in the first round). Anyway, I liked our spread of goals, some other teams are quite reliant on 1 or 2 forwards. Zanker and Gay stood out. Hanks did a few nice things too.

Overall defense was a shambles though, far too many players looked lost out there. Jakobsson is one of our best for intercept marking and positioning so with Sloane potentially out she might go back.

The other players that stood out to me were L.Pearce who dominated the hit outs and Mithen who was in everything and probably cleanest by hand from my vantage point. I agree with DeeSpencer that Scott and Smith need to spend most of their time in their natural HF and HB positions.

Looking forward to a more pleasant watching experience at Vic Park next week ( hopefully the result is more pleasant too!)

I didn't see yesterday's game, but have seen this side play plenty of times previously.

It sounds as though we are still 100% focused on playing attacking, free flowing football, which is good to watch and fine to a point, but you need to be able to lock the game down at times. You really should win being 2+ goals in front at 3 quarter time in AFLW. I'm really unconvinced about Stinear as a coach, and his ability to manage the flow of games.

I was amazed at the lack of height amongst our draftees this year, and clearly the ongoing issues with our defence haven't improved through natural development either. It sounds as though disposal hasn't improved either, but this will be an issue for most sides beyond the top 5-6 players.

MELBOURNE     2.2     3.2     8.6     8.7     (55)
FREMANTLE      3.1     6.4     6.4     9.5     (59)
GOALS
Melbourne: Zanker 2 Newman, Hore, Scott, Cunningham, Gay, Jakobsson
Fremantle: Sharp, Houghton 2, Duffy, Caulfield, Antonio, Cain, Bowers
BEST
Melbourne: Paxman, L Pearce, Mithen, O'Dea, Hore, Zanker
Fremantle: Hooker, Bowers, Bresland, Antonio, Donnellan, Sharp, Houghton
INJURIES
Melbourne: Sloane (knee)
Fremantle: Nil

 

2 players in the team of the week:

"Midfielders: Lauren Pearce (ruck, Melbourne), Ally Anderson (Brisbane), Ellie Blackburn (Western Bulldogs), Ebony Marinoff (Adelaide), Nina Morrison (Geelong), Karen Paxman (Melbourne)

Pearce had an excellent winter, finishing second in the VFLW best and fairest playing for Darebin. She was one of Melbourne's best in its loss to Fremantle with 32 hit-outs, 11 disposals (10 contested) and five clearances.

Karen Paxman continues to cement her status as one of the competition's elite midfielders with 18 contested possessions and a round-high nine clearances."

AFLCA Votes

Round 1: Melbourne v Fremantle

9 – Karen Paxman (MELB)

7 – Kiara Bowers (FRE)

6 – Ebony Antonio (FRE)

4 – Dana Hooker (FRE)

2 – Elise O’Dea (MELB)

2 – Lauren Pearce (MELB)

AFLW Leaderboard:

10 – Emily Bates (BRIS)

10 – Nina Morrison (GEEL)

10 – Lauren Spark (WBD)

9 – Jasmine Garner (NMFC)

9 – Karen Paxman (MELB)