On 2/20/2023 at 9:14 PM, DeeSpencer said:

No Daisy to work her magic any more and free passage for any player, they don’t have to rely on trades doubling the cost. Money will talk and I expect we’ll lose a couple 

I was talking to Kate Roffey about this on Monday after the AGM, she's pretty confident we won't lose any big name players. They are pretty keen to stay in the red and blue.  We're more likely to lose a couple of emerging players or players that haven't played in the firsts for a while, to get an opportunity to play.  She said not many people know that a heap of our players were offered very lucrative packages to leave in the gap between Seasons 6 and 7, yet they vowed to stay.  

I did bring up THAT article regarding Karen Paxman going to Fremantle.  Kate told me Paxy's response was "I didn't know that!"  So I think it's fair to say that story is about as credible as Kanye West becoming the next US President.

Edited February 23, 20232 yr by Katrina Dee Fan

53 minutes ago, Katrina Dee Fan said:

Kanye West becoming the next US President.

Is he???

Edited February 23, 20232 yr by rjay

7 minutes ago, rjay said:

Is he???

No.  That's my point.  

7 hours ago, Lucifers Hero said:

...

I actually hope this works or the AFL will be back for another impromptu idea to equalise the comp meaning weakening the strong teams.  The more such ideas they have the more likelihood of our better players going.  This would be especially so if the AFL gave fledgling clubs more top Tier spots.

Honestly they need to go div 1 and 2.

There is such a gulf in skill between the top group and the bottom group, and only having a short season means it is uneven.

 

- Have two divisions.

- Play two 9 week seasons each year (every team plays every team once plus a bye).

- Top 5 in Div 1 play a finals series for the Div 1 premiership.

- Bottom 4 in Div 1 play relegation finals.

- Top 6 Div 2 play a finals series for Div 2 premiership.

- Div 2 Minor Premier (on ladder) and the Div 2 Premier (or losing Grand Finalist) gain promotion.

- 2 up, 2 down, between each season.

- With 2 seasons a year there is lots of chance to regenerate and change division composition.

- Div 1 teams are excluded from the first round of the draft (maybe including Div 1 teams who get relegated). So Div 2 teams effectively get two picks before Div 1 teams, equalising further.

 

This means:

- many more competitive games, less blow outs or missmatches

- heaps of great finals and relegation battles, twice per year.

- time first finals/relegation playoffs for AFLM bye weeks (3 rounds reduced games) and second for September or October if possible

- There is now a year round program with enough games that we can justify full time employment for all players (18 week home and away matches plus 2 x three week finals series'.

- faster player development due to balanced competition levels and increased participation means faster league talent pool development towards a single full season in the future.

 

8 hours ago, Katrina Dee Fan said:

No.  That's my point.  

Sorry 'Katrina', just a poor attempt at humour on my part....

15 hours ago, rjay said:

Sorry 'Katrina', just a poor attempt at humour on my part....

Sorry, I think when I posted I'd just had a grumpy moment with one of my year 9s so my joke radar was off!

Wardlaw (Bris) to Saints

Woodland (Ade) to Port Ade

In theory it should make our two biggest competitors slightly weaker. Molloy (COL) to the Swans can’t be a bad thing either. 
Let’s hope we remain relatively unscathed. 

2 hours ago, FarNorthernD said:

Wardlaw (Bris) to Saints

Woodland (Ade) to Port Ade

In theory it should make our two biggest competitors slightly weaker. Molloy (COL) to the Swans can’t be a bad thing either. 
Let’s hope we remain relatively unscathed. 

Wardlaw's Brisbane's leading all-time goalkicker and equal 6th in the league. Woodland's 3rd on Adelaide's all-time goalkicking tally and equal 8th in the league. All that to say, these are very good gets for the Saints and Power. And pretty big losses to Brisbane and Adelaide.

So far, so good 🤞🤞🤞

13 minutes ago, Dees_In_October said:

Wardlaw's Brisbane's leading all-time goalkicker and equal 6th in the league. Woodland's 3rd on Adelaide's all-time goalkicking tally and equal 8th in the league. All that to say, these are very good gets for the Saints and Power. And pretty big losses to Brisbane and Adelaide.

So far, so good 🤞🤞🤞

Massive losses for lions and crows. We’ve seen the difference Tayla Harris made to us. Spearheads are so hard to find.

any intel regarding our players. Anyone had their head turned yet?

Current live footage of our players (hopefully!):

Here are a few more possible/probable moves:

Woodlands from Crows to Port.  https://www.womens.afl/news/118352/out-of-the-woodland-port-to-prise-spearhead-away-from-the-crows

While not psp signings, also  mentioned in that article: 

• As revealed by womens.afl on Tuesday, St Kilda fan favourite Caitlin Greiser – the League's leading goalkicker in the 2020 season – is also likely to move, having attracted the attentions of Richmond.
• Following the loss of Woodland to Port Adelaide, it's tipped that Adelaide will land Leah Cutting from St Kilda and Jess Allan from Greater Western Sydney as it looks to replenish its playing group.

Bates, Bodey and Svarc from Lions to Hawks.  There's growing industry confidence that at least Bates and Bodey will lob at the Hawks, while Svarc is still believed to be weighing up their interest and also has other Victorian clubs monitoring her situation. https://www.womens.afl/news/118355/hawks-eye-lions-premiership-trio-as-psp-pursuits-heat-up

Cuthbertson from Freo to Port  https://www.womens.afl/news/118359/dockers-defender-on-the-move-on-eve-of-psp

All are big loses from the more successful AFLW clubs

 Not seen anything about dees' players yet.  I daresay a number have been targetted so no news means no-one has been enticed to leave, so far.  That there are no whispers is encouraging. 

Ess and Hawks have a max of 5 players they can sign from other clubs.  If Hawthorn get 2 from Lions that leaves 3 those two teams can get.  

Will any of our players move interstate?   🙏🤞they don't.

Sydney is the danger team.  Having signed Molloy they can take 4 more and have a raft of additional benefits:

1. Granted an additional three list spots for season eight, reducing to two for season nine and none for season 10
2. Can sign up to five players during PSP
3. Can offer a "secondary relocation reimbursement/payment" to those players
4. Can offer longer-term contracts with an additional two seasons more than that which is allowed in season eight, for two players only
5. Can offer longer-term contracts with an additional one season more than allowed in season eight, for three players only

Of those benefits the only one the other teams get is # 3.

Those longer terms may be quite enticing to a player who may be uncertain about her future.  Could be worth a lot more than money.

Looks like the Lions could be the big losers which would be great for us.

I hope I'm not wrong but i just don't think we'll lose a tier 1 player.  After seeing the team at family day they look so content. Tayla was out amongst the crowd chatting to people, Kate Hore happily signing autographs, Libby Birch up on stage MC'ing, Lily mithen laughing and joking. 

The one person who wasn't there that I would have liked to see was Alyssa Bannon, but I don't think she meets the criteria to be poached. 

8 minutes ago, BDA said:

Looks like the Lions could be the big losers which would be great for us.

I hope I'm not wrong but i just don't think we'll lose a tier 1 player.  After seeing the team at family day they look so content. Tayla was out amongst the crowd chatting to people, Kate Hore happily signing autographs, Libby Birch up on stage MC'ing, Lily mithen laughing and joking. 

The one person who wasn't there that I would have liked to see was Alyssa Bannon, but I don't think she meets the criteria to be poached. 

Unfortunately Bannan can be poached.  While she has been with us for 2 years the AFL rule relates to having played 3 seasons which she has:  2 seasons in 2022.

27 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Unfortunately Bannan can be poached.  While she has been with us for 2 years the AFL rule relates to having played 3 seasons which she has:  2 seasons in 2022.

Ah. I thought the rule was 3 years. Thanks for clarifying.

10 minutes ago, BDA said:

Ah. I thought the rule was 3 years. Thanks for clarifying.

Bumped into Alyssa working at my local Rebel a few months back. It was great to see her, but I remember feeling how wrong it was that such a star isn't earning a living wage playing footy. The payment system in place would make it very enticing for a quality tier 2 or 3 player to move if they could get a tier 1 spot

4 minutes ago, HardBallGet said:

Bumped into Alyssa working at my local Rebel a few months back. It was great to see her, but I remember feeling how wrong it was that such a star isn't earning a living wage playing footy. The payment system in place would make it very enticing for a quality tier 2 or 3 player to move if they could get a tier 1 spot

I agree. Thats why i would worry about her and Tyla Hanks (although Tyla seemed happy at the family day on sat)

56 minutes ago, BDA said:

Ah. I thought the rule was 3 years. Thanks for clarifying.

I also thought it was 3 years but checked today.

The amount and level of players moving has me a little nervous but also... the worst case scenario, of Melbourne losing the maximum players and our main competitor losing none has perhaps already been avoided with Brisbane's losses. If we were to lose players on par with those gone from the Lions, then we'd be exactly where we are now (just a bit sadder).

I think as fans we probably don't recognise our comparative depth enough, because the small list size doesn't really show it on paper. But once you get down the ladder a bit, most teams don't bat deep. Like, at all. Related to that, and obviously this is just the writer's opinion, but I found it interesting the players suggested for targeting from Melbourne in this article - Ivey and Wilson, both right on the edge of the starting line up. Even those players who turned out to be depth for us last season would be great assets to a lot of teams https://www.womens.afl/news/118354/the-10-players-clubs-should-target-in-psp

Blumin hell Brisbane along with Wardlaw, the competitions leading goal scorer from last season, have also lost:

Emily Bates. Premiership player, AFLW Best & Fairest, 3 X Brisbane B & F, 3 X All Australian, Coaches player of the year, Player most Valuable etc and 

Greta Bodey. Premiership player, All Australian and Brisbane leading goal scorer S6

Apparently they are both going to Hawthorn who were reportedly the only team with Tier 1 spots up for grabs. 
If we can stay hungry and United we would have to now be clear favourites for this years flag.

Thanks, all posters, for the updates and informed/invested commentary (I'm presuming you're all continuing to follow the thread and will see this 🙂)

I read somewhere that either Haw or Ess went after Maddie Gay but it seems that she knocked them back.

1 hour ago, godees said:

I read somewhere that either Haw or Ess went after Maddie Gay but it seems that she knocked them back.

Yep, it was Hawthorn

get-stuck-into-melbourne-premiers-dodge-player-raids-so-far

A bit of tongue-in-cheek from Collingwood's Ruby Schleicher:  "It would be nice if people went through Melbourne a little bit," Schleicher said with a smile. "They're sticking pretty bloody fat.  "All of the list managers out there, if you could start getting stuck into Melbourne I'd really appreciate it because they’re very solid."

That suggests players have been approached but not enticed.

From the article:  "Keeping their squad together is rather on brand for the Demons, who rarely lose players to rival clubs. Even when Shelley Scott left for Geelong, she did so mainly to be closer to home".

That there are no rumours about us losing a player bodes well.  Still 5 days to go so anything can happen.  Feeling quietly optimistic that our top 6-10 players will remain.  🤞🙏

On 3/2/2023 at 10:36 AM, godees said:

I read somewhere that either Haw or Ess went after Maddie Gay but it seems that she knocked them back.

I find that very interesting and a really good sign. Presumably Hawthorn wouldn't have had Maddie as a Tier 1 player, so maybe her bump was only from Tier 3 to Tier 2 - ie not enough extra money to go from a premiership contender to an also ran. Hopefully that is the case for other players, and someone is going to have to offer a Tier 1 spot to move one of our players.