RETURN OF THE NARRM by Meggs

[Demonland 73,378]

On Monday, the AFL’s general manager of women’s football, Nicole Livingstone, announced that Round 3 is Indigenous Round.  She’s hoping to encourage future Indigenous AFLW players from across the country to take up footy and follow their dreams.

Nicole is bullish on AFLW progression, “(only starting in 2017) … it feels like AFLW is just part of the sporting fabric now and part of the AFL,” she said.

This week the Narrm Football Club (our Dees name for the next 2 weeks) takes on the improving Saints who sit second on the ladder with a percentage of 321.6.

In the first 2 rounds St Kilda trounced expansion teams, Swans by 29 points and Hawthorn by 53.

Meanwhile, the Demons, who defeated last season’s premiers in Adelaide by 28 and a ‘Top 4’ team in North by 2 at the ‘G, sit 6th with 140%.

Needless to say, Nick dal Santo’s Saints will be excited to test themselves against one of the premiership favourites, in Melbourne.

Our coach, Mick Stinear, has our girls playing exciting, combative, skillful footy. It’s great to watch. He is challenging his players with assignments and game-day roles and getting encouraging results.

A couple of examples include giving Tayla Harris stints in the ruck which keeps her involved and sees her taking marks around the ground and growing in confidence.

Then there’s Casey Sherriff, now a key forward, who is able to match up well against a star player like Emma Kearney and earn a coaches vote (her first ever).

By the way Sherriff, Lampard and Gay have all begun this season in super form. Is this a by-product of housemate rivalry?

What about our engine room! Liv Purcell, with an uninterrupted pre-season, has started brilliantly. She compliments the emerging Eliza West and the talented Tyla Hanks and together with ruck Lauren Pearce form our core midfield. Plus there is super support from runners in Paxy and ‘Lil, Edo and whoever else Mick decides to throw in there.

From the Saints POV.

Last season’s best and fairest winner, ex Dee and Blue, Bianca Jakobssen has started well. She was named as a defender in the Round 2 Team of the Week along with our own defensive general, Libby Birch.  Congrats girls.

Caitlin Greiser, another in the R2 TOTW, is a strong and dangerous forward presence who averages a goal a game. In 2020, the last and only time we’ve played at Moorabbin, the G-Train bagged 2 goals, and we lost.  She’s in good form, kicking 3 goals last week against the Hawks.

The Saints have plenty of other dangerous forward options in tall Kate Shierlaw, Jess Matin and small Nicola Xenos.

We should expect their strong midfield group of Tarni White, Olivia Vesely, Georgia Patrikios and tall ruck Erin McKinnon to be highly competitive.

Expect another entertaining, close match.

Melbourne by 9 points

THE GAME

St Kilda v Melbourne at RSEA Park on Sunday 11 September 2022 at 2:10pm

HEAD TO HEAD

Overall St Kilda 1 win Melbourne 2 wins

At Moorabbin Oval St Kilda 1 win Melbourne 0 wins

The Coaches Stinear 1 win Dal Santo 0 wins

MEDIA

TV live on 7mate and Kayo. Check your local guides.

Radio - check your local guides.

THE LAST TIME THEY MET  

Melbourne 9.10 (64) defeated St Kilda 3.5 (23) at Casey Fields, 22 January 2022

This Round 3 game was played in hot summer conditions and developed into a real arm wrestle for 3 quarters.  The score at the last change was 3.5.23 apiece.  However, a 6 goal final quarter blitz by Melbourne, aided by a drop-off in Saints intensity around the contest plus a little help from the infamous Casey Fields breeze, resulted in a super 41 point victory.  Melbourne’s class really shone in the 4th quarter.  The major goalkickers were Tayla Harris 3 and Tyla Hanks 2.  Other notable contributors were Paxy, West, Fitzy, Lauren Pearce and Libby Birch.  

THE TEAMS

Injury List: Round 3

Sinead Goldrick (knee) 1-2 weeks
Georgia Gall (foot) 6-8 weeks
Gab Colvin (knee) Season
Eliza McNamara (back) Season
Rhi Watt (knee) Season