AFLW Off Season News / 2021 Preseason

[Leopold Bloom 338]

Thanks all for the explanations. I was starting to wonder what the hell was going on.

[DEE fence 5,002]

Really not liking the trade news with the following going: O'Dea, Smith, Cordner & Guerin, I feel like we have been stripped a bit. It feels like more than the draft is going on. 

[Rogue 585]

If we intend to be a strong team, and the number of Clubs is expanding, it's going to be hard to get in a large number of quality young players.

As others have said, it also stands to reason that as you get to draft 17/18 year olds who have had footy coaching for a number of years, it's easier to pick the promising young players - and they're going to have an impact quicker than they would otherwise.

I was a bit surprised we were trading so many out, and a big turnover has an impact on culture, but I can see the logic.

[Demonland 71,131]

 

[Melb-A-Toast 257]

I wonder if the quality/skills of new players is better than 1st generation. Assumption is that key development years of teenagers now have structured programmes with AFL/VFL as a clear goal.  The generation before did have the same.  Maybe Melbourne are well positioned to get a new and exciting next generation players (I hope)...

[deanox 9,896]

They seemed very determined to get to pick 3. 

Given the Dogs and Eagles did a little trade that swapped pick 2 for pick 3, I wonder if this top couple of talents overall are very strong, but drop of afterwards?

[58er 6,369]

On 8/3/2020 at 5:59 PM, Dees_In_October said:

Clearly I tempted fate by putting O'Dea in the potential trade list! Although turns out it was in the other direction. Her game has probably suffered a bit due to the role she's had to play...it seemed like something was off. She'll have a big impact at any club.

Newman I think needs a fresh start and I think we can upgrade there. Smith and Guerin are more difficult to understand, but injury can change things I guess. How many knee recoveries can we carry into a season considering we barely fell over the line in terms of fit players this year?

We haven't had the draft position to get the top talent for a few years, due to our relatively consistent (yet unrewarded!) performance and two compromised drafts. And there was always going to come a time when the 25-30ish age group (and even younger) would start to be surpassed. The impact of some first-year players at other clubs this season speaks volumes. This season almost 75% of the top ten leading goalkickers in the league were under 22.

Theoretically, we could have maintained the current list for the medium term. But to continue to miss out on that young talent for much longer would set us back in the future. Many of our top tier players may soon be on the brink of retirement (just watch Daisy and Paxman play til 40 now that I've said that!). At what point is, for example, a late 20s cross-coder or a player who presumably had limited development as a teenager a much less attractive prospect than an 18-year-old born in the game?

In all honesty, I don't think we could go much further with the current list and the pace with which the league is developing without injecting more young players. It seems like we are trying to extend the current core group's 'window' now and some players have seen the writing on the wall for their 2-3 year prospects as a result. It might set us back for a few years and then see us make a well-timed and more sustainable leap, as we transition away from the inaugural playing group. Well, hopefully!

Without involving each trade I believe to go the extra dud Rance in our quest to win the flag it has been obvious that we needed more natural footballers not just converts from other sports. In addition our forward line was consistently under performing and IMO our coach has to take some blame for  this due to his Refusal ( a bit like Goody) to make game day changes and match switches to change the balance of games.

This may have been due to our rigid style of player and now with all the new talent of youth we may take time to be as solid a team and hopefully develop during the season.

I have no doubt that not doing anything would have us looking at  position around the bottom of the finals hopefuls but this way will elevate our team to an exciting more aggressive form of footy necessary to keep up with the North's Carltons snd  Cwoods  who  have those extra skilled match winners.

Mick no doubt is a brilliant person manager and is highly regarded and now it's up to him to develop this Mark2 team to challenge.

We have the best Win/Loss ratio of all original clubs in AFLW but no trophies  and many near misses in games at Casey  especially Due to poor kicking and forward cohesion. Oddly our remarkable Finals  win last year was a ground breaker In that went timed our run to win heroically.

A new season snd a new start is exciting and we should also be thankful for the girls who contributed so much to our vulture and stability. We wish them well in their new Clubs and opportunities.

Let the draft be the catalyst to a new and exciting AFLW team who with youth combined with our experience can provide a great opportunity for us to succeed fir the first time in this very tough but rewarding competition.

Go Dees

 

 

[WERRIDEE 5,426]

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/793979/demons-sign-23-players-for-2021-aflw-season

I think we will win the premiership with 3 of the top 11 picks in the draft and quality players like Daisy, Pearce, Zankeer, Mithen, Paxman, Scott, Downie, Cunningham, Hanks, Gay, Birch, Hore and Goldrick we are in a really good position to win the flag.

[Demonland 71,131]

 

[Whispering_Jack 29,740]

Off Twitter -

After six players departed the club in the AFL Women's Sign and Trade Period, Melbourne has re-signed a whopping 23 players! That includes Niamh McEvoy and Sinead Goldrick, who'll both join after the Dublin Gaelic season.

[Dees_In_October 3,351]

Welp, the losses are hard to take, but hopefully we’ve made the best of the situation. Clearly there were several players who saw greener pastures elsewhere. Like I said before, with 4-5 players who could be out the door in a few years through retirement, it’s a silver lining that we’ve avoided an even greater decline all at once, whether intentionally or otherwise. Everything in the league is structured to continually force experience to be spread out, so here we are.

And now I'll make justifications for what we loss to make myself feel better!

O’Dea. I heard that it was an issue with fitting work around training - Melbourne increasingly wants its players to align with VFLW at Casey but that appears to have been a stumbling block for O'Dea's work requirements, hence why she's always stuck with Darebin. Apparently, retirement (from footy, that is!) was on the cards if the club couldn't negotiate that and that's where the trade came in. Sounds like a difficult scenario and it's unfortunate it ended this way. What Melbourne got in return from Carlton was nowhere near enough but clearly she was gone regardless. Wouldn't have been any harm in calling her retirement bluff, but who knows.

Jakobsson is a big loss too, softened slightly by the fact we didn’t have her last year due to work and there was no guarantee she’d return (now 27).

Smith—once touted as a future captain. We missed having her out there in 2020, as another of our ACL victims. Apparently, she might have been offered coaching/development opportunities up at GWS (or potentially in the U18 system) to bolster the deal, all important stuff in the AFLW landscape.

Cordner leaving Melbourne is just wrong on a DNA level, but again, she was played out of position this season (out of necessity and did very well). Maybe wasn’t happy with how the club saw her role for the last stage of her career (28 now) so it was now or never to jump ship.

Guerin has a big future and can hopefully recover from that ACL. She was one we would have been looking to for the future so it’s unfortunate to lose her.

Newman. I’ll admit she is one that I wasn’t necessarily that disappointed to lose. She’s had some great highlights and is no doubt an exciting player but has been out of form, failing to score a goal this season. No doubt she’ll kick goal of the year in 2021!

As for Kemp, it’s always hard to delist a player who had struggled so much with injury and shown such resilience. I hope someone finds a place for her because she has a lot to offer.

Adding to the above posts, the 2-year (signed to 2022) contracts were: Birch, Emonson, Hanks, Heath, Hore, Gay, Mithen, Sherriff and Zanker.

Pleasantly surprised to see the Irish players back but I suspect that will be an ongoing situation given the chaos of borders and such. Another continuing story is Sarah Perkins—presumably we’d only have access to her through the draft, so who knows. Hawthorn’s introduction is likely pushed further along now, so that might change things (my only reluctance in taking her was that she'd leave for the Hawks eventually).

Now to delete O'Dea and Cordner from my favourite players ?

[Rogue 585]

12 hours ago, Dees_In_October said:

Pleasantly surprised to see the Irish players back but I suspect that will be an ongoing situation given the chaos of borders and such.

I think it's fairly likely they'd be able to enter the country.

Even in the past few months there have been thousands of 'overseas visitors' granted exemptions to enter the country (in addition to residents returning). For example, there were 3,400 in May (haven't seen any stats since then).

[Lucifers Hero 39,394]

This article gives really good insight into our trade strategy. melbourne-s-trade-strategy-

Essentially, it is to get talent now as in future years the draft will be compromised by new teams entering the comp.  And this draft has a lot of footballers coming thru the ranks whereas in the beginning many players were from other sports.

[george_on_the_outer 7,554]

Just now, Lucifer's Hero said:

This article gives really good insight into our trade strategy. melbourne-s-trade-strategy-

Essentially, it is to get talent now as in future years the draft will be compromised by new teams entering the comp.  And this draft has a lot of footballers coming thru the ranks whereas in the beginning many players were from other sports.

Yes.....Patterson gives a full rundown on why we went so hard for draft picks this year. 

We only lost 1 player who finished in the top 10 of the B+F, in O'Dea. 

But in terms of list re-generation losing players in their late 20's and replacing them with others likely to be around for 10 years is the right thing to do.  Particularly as this year is the first uncompromised draft due to expansion sides, with further compromised drafts in the future. 

And as Patterson notes, this is the first group of players to " come through the system", since AFLW has been possible.

The talent is there this year, grab it while we can.

[Dees_In_October 3,351]

Yep, was just coming to post the same article. I'm grateful for their communication on this as with some other clubs they put very little out there on their AFLW stuff.

When you look at the players who actually went and their impact this year rather than the last four years, it's not so bad as it first appears. Also more on the Smith decision - she wanted a two year deal and the club wasn't willing to offer it in her ACL recovery.

The U18 pathway would be unrecognisable to many on our list who wouldn't have had much opportunity to stay involved in footy ages 13-18. It seems like the club has had 2020 as a target for a while, which speaks well of their planning given things shift so much year to year.

This is also telling: "We've only had two first-round draft picks since the first year (Tyla Hanks and Eden Zanker), and as a comparative, the Bulldogs have had seven."

[Dees_In_October 3,351]

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/798330

MELBOURNE will add further international talent to its AFL Women’s team next year, securing Gaelic footballer Lauren Magee for the 2021 season.

In another big move for the Demons, Magee will join fellow Irish recruits Niamh McEvoy and Sinead Goldrick, becoming the first trio from the same county to represent a club in the competition. 

 

Highlights here as well, she's got some dash.

https://twitter.com/MelbourneAFLW/status/1296374742539096066

 

[george_on_the_outer 7,554]

11 hours ago, Dees_In_October said:

Highlights here as well, she's got some dash.

https://twitter.com/MelbourneAFLW/status/1296374742539096066

 

From that video, I can see she will love to be able to tackle in the AFLW.....and yes, has some dash!

[Paulo 285]

Any idea on who we may be looking at in draft

[#11-TonyAnderson 719]

On 8/3/2020 at 10:46 AM, dl4e said:

A Cordner leaving Melbourne ? I can however see what the club is doing. Elise lost what seems to be a few paces last year and maybe Smiths knee won't be right. Newman had pace but nothing else.

David left and went to Sydney (I think)

[Dees_In_October 3,351]

Seems like an eternity since I've been out to Casey Fields but it's definitely for the best considering the case numbers in that area, unfortunately. But on the bright side, here are some pics of the upgraded facilities. Obviously the whole club and community will benefit from this, but it's explained as being for AFLW so I'm putting it here.

https://shape.com.au/projects/casey-fields/

[george_on_the_outer 7,554]

9 minutes ago, Dees_In_October said:

Seems like an eternity since I've been out to Casey Fields but it's definitely for the best considering the case numbers in that area, unfortunately. But on the bright side, here are some pics of the upgraded facilities. Obviously the whole club and community will benefit from this, but it's explained as being for AFLW so I'm putting it here.

https://shape.com.au/projects/casey-fields/

The Casey facility could be very valuable in terms of preparation for the AFLW side in the Covid era

This article outlines the possible hub situation:

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/aflw-players-asked-if-they-are-open-to-hubs-20200915-p55vtr.html

More importantly is the following from the article ..."But there remain issues, including the sharing of club facilities between male and female players, which was barred by clubs in March as the situation escalated"

WIth the Casey development, Melbourne don't have that problem.

[Dees_In_October 3,351]

10 hours ago, george_on_the_outer said:

The Casey facility could be very valuable in terms of preparation for the AFLW side in the Covid era

This article outlines the possible hub situation:

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/aflw-players-asked-if-they-are-open-to-hubs-20200915-p55vtr.html

More importantly is the following from the article ..."But there remain issues, including the sharing of club facilities between male and female players, which was barred by clubs in March as the situation escalated"

WIth the Casey development, Melbourne don't have that problem.

Good point! If memory serves, way back at the start of the pandemic, they had the teams divided with the men at Casey and the women at AAMI Park, so the better facilities will make that work even better for all.

As for hubs, I don't think that would be viable for many reasons but glad to hear that they're doing some planning for different scenarios and getting the players' views.

[poita 3,889]

https://womens.afl/news/51858/suns-or-lions-aflw-cult-hero-eyes-move-north

An update on Sarah Perkins - a big loss, as our inability to translate midfield dominance into goals is our number 1 issue. Hopefully Tegan Cunningham can rediscover her mojo.