As I feared the loss of Paxy was crucial.  Against Adelaide she is vital, as we need her to fill her role to enable our greater midfield depth to overwhelm their two stars.  We also committed the cardinal sin, for most of the game, of allowing Marinoff to run around unchecked.  Let her and Hatchard get 60 touches between them as they did today and you lose.  Last year in our two victories over the Crows Marinoff had a total of 26 touches.  As @poita said, coaching wasn't great today.

Great game from Eden.  Last season she was equal third in the competition goal kickers with little recognition, with that form continuing in 2023.  She's now leading all comers this year......maybe people will start to take notice. 🙂

As for the umps, my neutral, Carlton supporting friend was as aghast as I was.  So it wasn't just our Demon bias.

  On 07/10/2023 at 07:44, Dees_In_October said:

Gah to be honest, I felt that one coming even aside from the usual pre-game paranoia! Hard to go from weeks of poor opposition to a proper outfit like the Crows. We just didn't go up the level and couldn't handle their pressure and physicality. Once they had it in their control, we couldn't find a way to possess it and win it back to our terms. Way too reactive during the middle portion of the game and too many players had a down day at the wrong time.

It's almost a relief to have the streak(s) over, and maybe the players will feel that too on some level. We've seen what real opposition does to our game style, and will need to remember how to work through that (again!). Frustrating, though, that Adelaide won in exactly the way you'd have expected them to. It seems we wanted to back our game - next time we meet, we'll play it differently. Hopefully. I'm heading rapidly into 'loss we had to have' territory.

Positives:

That was the game we've known was coming for Zanker for five years now. She's had break-out games before but that was ultra impressive. Bodywork, positioning, clunking everything, kicking straight. The thing is, you just know she's kicking herself for the one she missed!

The fight back. It's all you can ask for when a team digs itself a hole, but it doesn't always happen. They put it all on the line but it was too little too late. Kudos to Goldrick, Gay and B.Mackin for their four quarters.

Matchday experience:

Aside from the loss, it was great to see so many Dees fans out there, especially the young kids. Could have done without the constant crowd rev-ups and blaring music. There were people near me and my friends who went to hang out in the carpark at halftime because the music was too loud! We have the best cheersquad in the AFLW, just let them and the actual game happening create the atmosphere!!

Drop an email to Kate Roffey. I'd hate to see a lovely family atmosphere get ruined the same way the men's game does.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of peace and quiet and a chat with your mates and family in between quarters.

  On 07/10/2023 at 09:27, Craig T said:

As I feared the loss of Paxy was crucial.  Against Adelaide she is vital, as we need her to fill her role to enable our greater midfield depth to overwhelm their two stars.  We also committed the cardinal sin, for most of the game, of allowing Marinoff to run around unchecked.  Let her and Hatchard get 60 touches between them as they did today and you lose.  Last year in our two victories over the Crows Marinoff had a total of 26 touches.  As @poita said, coaching wasn't great today.

Great game from Eden.  Last season she was equal third in the competition goal kickers with little recognition, with that form continuing in 2023.  She's now leading all comers this year......maybe people will start to take notice. 🙂

As for the umps, my neutral, Carlton supporting friend was as aghast as I was.  So it wasn't just our Demon bias.

That down field free kick for a late bump by Harris which wasn't late was ridiculous and a killer for us.

Paid right in front of goals.

Adelaide did play well. 

Losing Paxy hurt us and Pearce seemed to have a crook shoulder after a knock in the first half.

Bring Georgia Campbell back in.

Did Mackin come back on?

Goldy was in the trainer's hands in the last minute too.

They knocked us up a bit.

  On 07/10/2023 at 10:49, Brownie said:

Goldy was in the trainer's hands in the last minute.

Sounds as though she’s all good…

 

it took us a long time to adapt to their dominance at stoppages and with overlap run

once we did i thought it was a really good contest

dropping campbell was in hindsight probably an error, as good as harris was as a follower in the last quarter and a bit

The free kick against Goldy for a dangerous tackle 35 metres out from our goal (when she ran down the Adelaide player in a perfect tackle, carried forward by the opponent's momentum) was ridiculous, and revealed umpiring bias as clear as day!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Eden Zanker

🤮🤮🤮🤮umps were against us. Got Crows 4 of their 8 goals…  costly   

🤔🤔missed Paxy

❤️❤️Lize Mc 

Crows were physical and knocked us about. Umps didn’t see it our way  

Tayla Harris was down.  She’s a huge difference and we need to get the footy to her more.  
 

We will bounce back 

  On 07/10/2023 at 10:36, Brownie said:

Drop an email to Kate Roffey. I'd hate to see a lovely family atmosphere get ruined the same way the men's game does.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of peace and quiet and a chat with your mates and family in between quarters.

Same...

 

🙁

  On 05/10/2023 at 12:08, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

Yeah, I thought of Paxy's importance when reading about the Crow's midfield - someone who might trouble them, or at least distract them from a concentration on TH.

Still, let's look forward to saying 'Silly us!' at about 5.30 on Saturday!

D'oh! 🥺

Anyway, I couldn't get to the game n haven't watched the replay yet, nor caught up with your in- and post-game impressions above.

Just wanted to follow up, though, on another of my posts elsewhere, saying I hoped to retain watching this fabulous team just as a happy weekly experience, without concern for the result (which hasn't been much of a concern) or, particularly, for the 'ultimate prize'.

Sadly, when I eventually saw yesterday's result, I realised I had crossed over that line. The women's weekly results now do affect me, and MFCSS-ish thoughts like we've lost GF hosting rights have kicked in.

So now I know, at least: I'm as invested in the girls as I am in the boys.

Serious football.

 

Edited October 8, 20231 yr by Timothy Reddan-A'Blew

What stood out to me was how much Adelaide dominated clearances in the second quarter and most of the third.

I’m slack as I’ve only watched the AFLW team once live since the start of last season (last year’s QF), but I do enjoy watching most weeks on Kayo. My observation is that we usually smash opposition teams in clearances, getting the ball to the outside and then using run and carry through the middle third. That’s why I was amazed to see us so comprehensively beaten in the clearances for almost 2 consecutive quarters in which we only just scored once. 
 

As an avid football watcher, I’m fascinated by what makes one midfield better than another in clearances; I have theories but no definite answers. 
 

I made the mistake of telling friends that I thought after Round 1 that we’d go through the season undefeated. I suspect that I’ll cop it from those same friends. But it makes sense that history could repeat itself from last year when we responded so well from that one loss. 
 

Go Dees

  On 07/10/2023 at 10:36, Brownie said:

Drop an email to Kate Roffey. I'd hate to see a lovely family atmosphere get ruined the same way the men's game does.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of peace and quiet and a chat with your mates and family in between quarters.

Anyone have Kate's email? Or know who else would be best to contact beyond the generic club email? It's definitely been a problem at other games. But this was just beyond ridiculous. The kids love the music and dance cam and all that (as do some of my friends), which is fine, but it was JUST SO LOUD. The rev ups, while passionate if repetitive, actually drowned out our cheer squad's great work that sets us apart as an AFLW supporter base.

(Also 'Gimme Gimme Gimme a Man After Midnight' was a pretty bizarre choice for a kids-focused dance cam at an AFLW match but that's lower on my complaint list haha)

  On 08/10/2023 at 06:47, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

Sadly, when I eventually saw yesterday's result, I realised I had crossed over that line. The women's weekly results now do affect me, and MFCSS-ish thoughts like we've lost GF hosting rights have kicked in.

So now I know, at least: I'm as invested in the girls as I am in the boys.

Serious football.

Welcome and sorry 😂 Equal opportunity MFCSS. The day they both lose on the same day is going to be tough.

I swear I used to be more resilient about losing when this club did it every week!

To get us all back to positivity, for anyone who missed it, here's Lily's chat with the Mackin sisters. I guess we know who the talkative one is! Also, Lily really needs a lesson in geography/Irish political history.

 

Round 6 banner…

THE PATH TO SUCCESS IS A ROCKY ROAD

SOME REBUILD

THE DEES RELOAD

(Advertising on the back.)

  On 09/10/2023 at 06:26, Dees_In_October said:

The rev ups, while passionate if repetitive, actually drowned out our cheer squad's great work that sets us apart as an AFLW supporter base.

(Also 'Gimme Gimme Gimme a Man After Midnight' was a pretty bizarre choice for a kids-focused dance cam at an AFLW match but that's lower on my complaint list haha)

Welcome and sorry 😂 Equal opportunity MFCSS. The day they both lose on the same day is going to be tough.

I swear I used to be more resilient about losing when this club did it every week!

To get us all back to positivity, for anyone who missed it, here's Lily's chat with the Mackin sisters. I guess we know who the talkative one is! Also, Lily really needs a lesson in geography/Irish political history.

 

Thank you so much, D_I_O. It’s always nice to receive this type of praise, it’s very much appreciated. And you’re right, we are a supporter base of which to be proud. This pic is from Saturday’s match and it’s only part of our display. We also had floggers and giant heads.

Yet again we played a team who didn’t have a banner to run through. 😞 They did have a guard of honour though. We had both. ❤️💙

Also very appreciative are the players themselves. When we roll up and carry off the banner after the girls have run through it, they’re usually warming up on the boundary. They pause to applaud us. They actually clap as we walk past. A very special group of people right there.

Vote for Zanks!