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GAMEDAY: AFLW GRAND FINAL


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I won't go deep into detail but had a pleasure of interacting with Kate Roffey today, expressed to her how bloody proud I am of the club and that everything that's gone on in the last 16 months has been a fantastic ride to be a part of. She's a great operator, really down to earth in the way she speaks to the fans and the media, zero hint of an ego.

I remember a few years ago there were laughs from the footy world about our lofty expectations, well here we are.

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2 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

You tell Blaithin that! And you try taking that flag from her! 😂😂😂

We’re all Irish. That’s what matters. ☘️

I'd have loved for someone to have handed her a red hand of Ulster flag to see the look on her face. It's probably the kind of cheeky thing I would have done back in the day when I was running the cheer squad. Even if it ran the risk of getting a belt in the mouth. 

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4 hours ago, rjay said:

I love all the expert callers on talkback radio this morning criticising the game and they hadn't even watched it.

As someone said the AFL  GF was hardly a great spectacle.

What a bunch of ignorant F.........

I understand reflexive criticism of the game in terms of how low the scoring was in perfect conditions (apart from the crazy heat that is).  

But a critique based on the score alone is so simplistic and one dimensional. 

For one thing, from the perspective of a fully invested fan, the tension in that match was through the roof - which might help explain why i cried at the end of this game, not the men's GF win.

I'm not a massive soccer fan, and don't follow any clubs, but i'm super invested when i watch the Matildas and the Socceroos. When you are invested in the result, the tension watching soccer matches is, it seems to me, part of the DNA of soccer, but really only becomes a feature of watching footy when the scores are close in the last quarter and each goal becomes more influential on the end result.

But for me, i felt that tension right through the prelim and GF wins - and despite both games being low scoring i was never anything less than fully absorbed. Each goal had so much significance that it was not dissimilar to watching say the Matildas or Socceroos at a World Cup.

The GF was off the charts in this regard. I thought that after the first quarter we were by far the better side, but the fact that we couldn't convert that dominance into goals (something that is so frustrating watching soccer when invested) meant that despite our dominance, one random, against the run of play goal late in the last quarter from the lions meant they could have pinched it (in the way the Germans salvaged a draw against Spain, despite being outplayed for much of the match).

But the big factor critics that just focus on the score line seem to completely miss is that, unlike the AFL, in the AFLW, there is huge disparity between the overall standard of performance (inclusive of fitness levels, strength, skills, etc etc) and the standard of the defensive element of the game.

Take the dees women's team. Mutiple seasons of exposure to elite level defensive strategies and systems - and of course elite coaching in these systems - have resulted in an incredibly effective defense - we conceded an average of 15 points this season, which is just nuts.

Combine this with a rabid desire to win every contest and all team crazy pressure, such as we saw in the GF, and you have team that has elite defensive skills that in reality are well in advance of the opposition's overall standard (and ours too for that matter) and therefore ability to absorb, counter and score against.

For a number of years i coached my son and daughter's basketball teams and found that we could be competitive even when other teams were more talented if we could be defensively strong, and the players understood and played their roles. The AFLW is this time a million. 

A perfect example of this phenomenon is Goldy.  Her skills remain way off those of players such as Paxy and Hanks, but her commitment to defense, bravery, attack on the ball and understanding of our defensive system - and her role in it - mean that she is a key player in our team and a key reason why teams struggle to score against us. 

It will take time, but now that the women are being paid at least enough money to focus on playing footy, and more and more players are coming into the system having played footy since auskick, the gap between defensive skills and skills that support offence and scoring (eg kicking, marking, ability to give off under pressure etc) will dramatically reduce. And scores will go up. 

When we get there, a player like Goldy, for all her defensive brilliance, might struggle to get a game, because such a player will be competing with players who are coming into the system with an appetite for hard-nosed defence AND elite skills.  

Edited by binman
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4 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

all the moaning and groaning about low scores, do people realise the aflw is in its 7th year, game time goes for around about half that of vfl / afl, and for some bizarre reason for most players that can't kick more than 40m they reduced on-field to 16?

1903 vfl grand final score: the filth 4.7.31 beat fitzroy 3.11.29

i'm sick to death of those talking down the competition!

Many of the whingers would probably have raved over Australia winning 1-0 in the World Cup qualifiers, and rightly so. Sport doesn't have to be high scoring to be entertaining.  How tense and exciting was that last quarter and no goals were scored. Every 1% er meant so much, potentially match saving. Give me a match like that over US razzamataz basketball any day.

The girls are all heroes - full stop.

* Just read your post after I did mine Binman. You are a very wise man 🤣

Edited by Palace Dees
Binman
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4 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Season 7 at a competition level was a fail for so many reasons it's hard to know where to start.

Will Season 8 be any better.. probably not.

 

Mods, we really need an eye roll emoji. A full 360-degree eye roll would be great. And a sigh, if possible. A huge hyperventilation-inducing sigh. In the meantime…

🙄😮💨

I guess that’s just gonna hafta do. 

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Epic game, loved every moment of it. 

Eliza West has some serious intent and power at the contest, she was huge. I thought she was the best player for us.

Comment of the day was when Harris got a huge cut under her eye and a family member exclaimed that they hoped she was okay, to which another replied, she's a kickboxer, pretty sure she can take a punch to the face!

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2 minutes ago, Hatchman said:

Epic game, loved every moment of it. 

Eliza West has some serious intent and power at the contest, she was huge. I thought she was the best player for us.

Comment of the day was when Harris got a huge cut under her eye and a family member exclaimed that they hoped she was okay, to which another replied, she's a kickboxer, pretty sure she can take a punch to the face!

West was def our best, though i thought Gillard and Zanker were both super influential.  

There were simply ridiculous frees paid - and not paid. West was involved in perhaps the most ridiculous one.

Won another ground ball get, immediately tackled, zero prior opportunity, but gets pinged for holding the ball presumably only because she stood up in the tackle, refused to get brough to ground and dragged the two tacklers 15 metres. Her look when pinged said it all.  

As for Tayla and the cut to her face, i was more worried for opponents - how was her attack on the next contest! Blimey

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Brisbane were given a dream start by the umps, with repeated mysterious frees bringing the ball to their forward line.

 Later, I felt that the rundown tackle on (?) Fitzsimmons in the goal square was either a trip or a push in the back. She managed to get a foot to the ball before it bounced, but the ump couldn't see  that so paid holding the ball.

Also the pass by West to (?) Fitzy again which was called not  15 metres was a bit rough.It would have been a fairly easy shot for goal.

We could have beaten 'em 4 goals to nil!

Someone must have alerted the umps  at three quarter time that t hey were giving the Dees a rough trot, and they gave us an armchair ride in Q4!

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The players just arrived!!! This place is rocking. I’m drunk and you know what… I don’t care. Coz we’re all pretty drunk. 
GO DEES!!!

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2 hours ago, Demon Disciple said:

Get in quick if you want a nice piece of AFLW Premiership memorabilia. Only 100 available @ $395 officialmemorabilia.com.au

image.thumb.jpeg.88f634f2f6a56dff4148f8d1f0df0e6e.jpeg

Love that the official photo has the whole squad and not just those that played yesterday!

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5 hours ago, Jumping Jack Clennett said:

Brisbane were given a dream start by the umps, with repeated mysterious frees bringing the ball to their forward line.

 Later, I felt that the rundown tackle on (?) Fitzsimmons in the goal square was either a trip or a push in the back. She managed to get a foot to the ball before it bounced, but the ump couldn't see  that so paid holding the ball.

Also the pass by West to (?) Fitzy again which was called not  15 metres was a bit rough.It would have been a fairly easy shot for goal.

We could have beaten 'em 4 goals to nil!

Someone must have alerted the umps  at three quarter time that t hey were giving the Dees a rough trot, and they gave us an armchair ride in Q4!

Yep, watched the replay today, definitely came off her shin as she was driven forward. A dead set certain goal.

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Irish flags update:

Blaithin thinks she slept wrapped up in her flag, but isn’t sure. 😂

Goldie is getting hers signed by all the girls and then sending it to her mum and dad in Ireland. 💚 
 

 

Edited by WalkingCivilWar
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12 hours ago, dees189227 said:

This wasn’t common knowledge, which is great since they surely would’ve targeted her during the grannie.  

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