AFLW: Rd 4 vs North Melbourne

[daisycutter 28,485]

1 hour ago, pitmaster said:

That in the back with 2 mins to go not paid in our defensive square was unbelievable.

Several soft frees to North...what's that about?

Having said that, a kick in with 2 mins to go when you are four points down goes only one place - UP THE GUTS!

Instead the gals went wide and misdirected and coughed up a free the other way.

When we regained they ball they refused to do anything but go wide. Killed their own chance. It should be a tough review.

dead right about going wide in last few minutes. was so obvious.

[58er 5,607]

No shame for our girls.

BUT surely we must make a star (Kearney)accountable.

Little fumbles and missed marks can be costly

Umps lost the plot as Roos got Selwood type frees and almost imaginary 2 or 3 frees gifted within 20m from goal.

Need a strong leader on field to give direction ie tactics late go down the guts with 2 mins to go.AND forwards go to far up field at times AND round the boundary needs to be quicker into centre at times.

Need to win vs Giants and Bullies  by a total 50/60 points and then beat Crows in last and % May get us in.

Heartbreak hopefully not again as we can win on today's effort.

[#11-TonyAnderson 694]

What a surprise - another tall forward from Norf gifted with soft free kicks - what a joke! 

[demon4eva 109]

Just 4 points. Season is over.

[rjay 23,888]

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

That was disgusting umpiring. And a few too many errors really - L Pearce an easy dropped mark with a couple of minutes to go and too many wide kicks. 

Disappointing because the pressure and work rate was excellent, backline were solid, some of the lead up play to goals was great.

Probably the best game of AFLW ever until 3/4 time and then the heat and poor umpiring wrecked it.

Lily Mithen's best ever game.

The annoying thing is watching Paxman who is a super player but she takes on too many tackles and dishes out bad handballs under pressure because she's not been trained up her whole career how to be a smooth mover with dual sided skills. Then you've got little T Hanks who's a jet and can bob and weave, handball both sides, run with the ball or dish it backwards and you see the standard that is achievable in the future.

I've not been a fan of the AFLW in the past but watched a little bit of the first and second Q's today.

I thought the standard had lifted significantly from what I'd seen before and would have liked to watch a bit more. Life gets in the way at times.

The handball game was really poor in previous years but seems to have picked up markedly. I thought if anything we over used it and sold ourselves into trouble when I was watching but the intent was good.

...as you say it was a glimpse into the future and I was pleasantly surprised.

Perhaps the AFL could now forget about AFLX and really get on board to make this a proper competition...

[Bitter but optimistic 21,235]

2 minutes ago, rjay said:

I've not been a fan of the AFLW in the past but watched a little bit of the first and second Q's today.

I thought the standard had lifted significantly from what I'd seen before and would have liked to watch a bit more. Life gets in the way at times.

The handball game was really poor in previous years but seems to have picked up markedly. I thought if anything we over used it and sold ourselves into trouble when I was watching but the intent was good.

...as you say it was a glimpse into the future and I was pleasantly surprised.

Perhaps the AFL could now forget about AFLX and really get on board to make this a proper competition...

This!

[Little Goffy 12,554]

It is only february and I'm already furious at the umpires.

[DeeSpencer 23,109]

38 minutes ago, rjay said:

I've not been a fan of the AFLW in the past but watched a little bit of the first and second Q's today.

I thought the standard had lifted significantly from what I'd seen before and would have liked to watch a bit more. Life gets in the way at times.

The handball game was really poor in previous years but seems to have picked up markedly. I thought if anything we over used it and sold ourselves into trouble when I was watching but the intent was good.

...as you say it was a glimpse into the future and I was pleasantly surprised.

Perhaps the AFL could now forget about AFLX and really get on board to make this a proper competition...

This year the athletes who  quickly became footballers mostly due to their fitness and speed are getting shown up by the footballers who know what they are doing (many of which are cross code athletes but have either played juniors or played games). 

Newman from the Dees is a great example. She's always been fast but didn't know when to dish off, when to evade and how to run in to space. Plus she kicked like a soccer player. Now she's very much a footballer. 

The big challenge is the AFL keep shooting it in the foot. More expansion next year means shuffling the teams yet again. 

If the Dees hadn't lost 2 players to North and 4 or so I think it is to Geelong they'd be even stronger. Same for the other teams. With 4 new teams next year I'm guessing each established side gives up another 5 or 6 players. So goodbye continuity and improvement.

Also means 2 extra games and 6 more umps, which based on todays showing will be another challenge.

[deespicable me 1,427]

I would just like to add my vote of disapproval to the umpiring today.

A good game ruined.

[WERRIDEE 5,208]

Umpiring a disgrace so biased Norf it was not funny the 2 goals gifted to King were a joke. Mithen played well as did Paxman.

[Lucifers Hero 36,991]

The Run Home:

 

Conf A:  Can't see North loosing top spot with one game and good %age over others.  It then becomes a race for second.   

To help our cause North need to thrash Adel and Freo.  And we need to win all three.  Its doable but challenging with Adel now finding form.

What a tantalising rnd 7: 1 vs 3 and 2 vs 4!  The top two will go down to the wire.  But will North rest players, etc and just let Freo win as they are much less of a threat than Melb or Crows in the finals.  As a comparison, think Crows vs Eagles last AFL game of 2017 which kept us out of finals by a whisker.  

Finals for us will most likely be decided by our last game vs Crows.  Lets just hope we don't miss on %'age, again!

Conf B:  Nothing to say except on current performance no team deserves to play finals and it will be tragic to see two of the best teams miss out because of the warped conference system where the top two teams of each conf play finals. 

For those that don't go to AFLW Board there is a thread on the Conference system farce here

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Lucifers Hero

[Lucifers Hero 36,991]

13 hours ago, rjay said:

I've not been a fan of the AFLW in the past but watched a little bit of the first and second Q's today.

I thought the standard had lifted significantly from what I'd seen before and would have liked to watch a bit more. Life gets in the way at times.

The handball game was really poor in previous years but seems to have picked up markedly. I thought if anything we over used it and sold ourselves into trouble when I was watching but the intent was good.

...as you say it was a glimpse into the future and I was pleasantly surprised.

Perhaps the AFL could now forget about AFLX and really get on board to make this a proper competition...

Yes.  By their own stats female participation is where the growth is.  https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-02-24/females-lead-big-rise-in-footy-participation-rate 

AFLW is already being played internationally and it will do more for AFL international exposure than AFLX ever will. 

An anecdote.  My niece lives in Hong Kong and her team won their local AFLW comp last year.  I was surprised they even had a comp.  It was made up primarily of expats.  The expat's kids are playing the game and the families will eventually go back to their home country.  This is what will help spread the game internationally not AFLX.  (My delight was not only that her team won but her team wears our Demon colours and she is a staunch Pies supporter ? )

Edited February 24, 2019 by Lucifer's Hero

[Crystal Dees 372]

Just wanted to say how proud I am of our AFLW team. Another close loss, it happens so often it seems. So I thought I'd check the records. In our short history, we have played 18 games for 11 wins and 7 losses. 5 of those losses have been by less than a kick. In every one of those 5 losses we had more scoring shots than the opposition. The cumulative scores are; 

Opposition 29.12  

Melbourne 22.34

In another loss we kicked 1.4 to 4.1. Only against Collingwood last year have we been comprehensively defeated in our history.

It is frustrating to say the least.

[Lord Travis 10,158]

I attended the match out at Casey yesterday and I gotta say the standard was a big step up from previous years. The girls really put in, worked hard, had great intensity, and we were the better team and dominated the play...but our gameplan let us down.

We repeatedly kicked the ball out wide to the back flank and wing, which slowed our movement and turned it over due to AFLW rules of last kick before out of bounds being a free against. Late in the third quarter we were smashing them, had the ball at CHB with free players in the middle. Inexplicably we elected to kick to contests on the wing and ruined our own momentum. Yes the umpiring was not in our favour, but if we played more direct footy we would've won by 3-4 goals comfortably yesterday. Was one of the most frustrating game I've watched live in a few years, as we were clearly better and lost due to gameplan and nothing else. It was like watching our mens team from 3-4 years ago dominate without scoring (similar to when we lost to West Coast a few years back despite having twice as many inside 50s).

Over all though, the standard has improved and if this was a glimpse at the quality we can expect in future, the AFL would be wise to invest more heavily into AFLW as opposed to AFLX. 

[Dees_In_October 3,346]

What an 'almost' game. We almost won it despite the umpires and our own mistakes. What I most wanted from this game though was for us to give it a red hot try and a four-quarter effort, which I would say we almost achieved. We certainly ran out of puff, mentally as much as physically, hence the boundary kicks in the last few minutes. It's hard when the umpires take the wind out of your sails like that though.

Special mention to Gay who probably had her best game so far. Also liked Phillips' endeavour, although that wonky handball action and the way she pushes the 'traveling' rule always has me worried! Not much went right for Cordner but couldn't fault her effort. I think in the end we were just slightly outclassed (and the umpires). Accuracy in front of goal is always the story. And I knew King would get us one way or another... that was kind of predictable based on the rest of the Roos games but no one could go with her.

I thought Hore played very well, particularly in the first half. I've said it before but Mithen's really gone up a level. Would like Cunningham to have a bit more urgency in turning to look for the short lead when she gets the ball around the 50. This is an easy fix and is probably just an issue of inexperience than anything else but it cost us some closer shots at goal.

I found it hard to tell at the ground - but did anyone who watched on TV notice if we tried to tag Kearney at all? Every time I saw her she was in space. Interestingly she had the same number of disposals as O'Dea, but I'd say that Kearney was more influential.

I think they'll have lots to work with in review (positive and negative).

[Lucifers Hero 36,991]

1 hour ago, Dees_In_October said:

What an 'almost' game. We almost won it despite the umpires and our own mistakes. What I most wanted from this game though was for us to give it a red hot try and a four-quarter effort, which I would say we almost achieved. We certainly ran out of puff, mentally as much as physically, hence the boundary kicks in the last few minutes. It's hard when the umpires take the wind out of your sails like that though.

Special mention to Gay who probably had her best game so far. Also liked Phillips' endeavour, although that wonky handball action and the way she pushes the 'traveling' rule always has me worried! Not much went right for Cordner but couldn't fault her effort. I think in the end we were just slightly outclassed (and the umpires). Accuracy in front of goal is always the story. And I knew King would get us one way or another... that was kind of predictable based on the rest of the Roos games but no one could go with her.

I thought Hore played very well, particularly in the first half. I've said it before but Mithen's really gone up a level. Would like Cunningham to have a bit more urgency in turning to look for the short lead when she gets the ball around the 50. This is an easy fix and is probably just an issue of inexperience than anything else but it cost us some closer shots at goal.

I found it hard to tell at the ground - but did anyone who watched on TV notice if we tried to tag Kearney at all? Every time I saw her she was in space. Interestingly she had the same number of disposals as O'Dea, but I'd say that Kearney was more influential.

I think they'll have lots to work with in review (positive and negative).

No we didn't tag Kearney.  It was obvious in the first Q that she was having a big day and I was expecting us to make her accountable in the second Q, even if she wasn't tagged all the time.  Just make her earn her possessions like some not so gentle crashing and tackling, like everyone did to Daisy in the last few years. 

Tagging doesn't seem a tactic used in AFLW.  Things to learn.

Edited February 25, 2019 by Lucifer's Hero

[Lucifers Hero 36,991]

We scored well in the Coaches votes again: 

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2019-02-26/aflw-four-demons-poll-aflca-votes

• 6 – Emma King (NMFC)
• 5 – Kate Hore (MELB)
• 5 – Jess Duffin (NMFC)
• 5 – Lily Mithen (MELB)
• 5 – Emma Kearney (NMFC)
• 3 – Tyla Hanks (MELB)
• 1 – Karen Paxman (MELB)

Interestingly, very different views among the coaches as to who the best/better performers were.  No stand out player as viewed by them.

Well done to our vote scorers.

Edited February 26, 2019 by Lucifer's Hero

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,394]

Isn't it time for Demonland to have a weekly vote for AFLW like it does for the men's competition? Or does it exists and I can't find it?  I understand that there will likely be far fewer posters contributing but surely there are enough to provide their opinions. For what it's worth, for the NM game I would vote:

6. Mithen

5. Paxman

4. Hore

3. Cunningham 

2. Gay

1. Hanks

Possibly a bit tough on O'Dea and although I have only seen about half the games the women have played, that was the worst game I've seen from her. But she is so good, even her worst game (that I've seen) still nearly got votes.