AFLW: Rd 08 vs North Melbourne

[Diamond_Jim 12,178]

Good win

North had our measure in the first quarter but after that.

I thought we were going to get outmuscled like the Adelaide game but I was so wrong

[wizardinoz 2,170]

Gillard was superb down back marking everything. 

[Little Goffy 13,263]

So who exactly is the best defensive team in the league?

😉

Tahlia Gillard gets better every week and Shelley Heath is putting a really excellent long-term body of work together.

That was a chaotic game and we handled it very well.

[darkhorse72 1,804]

Great game but he girls after early roo pressure.

 

I do reckon I can say one of their goals was from 2 really bad umpiring decisions of non decisions against us. 

Good to see us take it up to a physically bigger side after falling short against the crows.

 

 

 

[DeeSpencer 23,752]

Westy still off her game but our mids stepped up and matched it with a good midfield.

Gillard was back in peak form, Goldy had more positive moments and Wilson was a find.

I reckon that’s the best our forwards have ever sustained pressure. Certainly this year. Wave after wave of tackles and smothers.

Loved Zanker’s game in the second half coming up the ground as an outlet. 

[BDA 20,903]

a win is a win. we were tough and competitive without being particularly polished. Thought our mids were good, Gilliard very solid defensively and Kate Hore with some class.

North have no ambition. Big disappointment tonight. They are hard to beat but offensively offer little. Its been that way for a few years. They're not a contender this year.

back on top with 2 rounds to go. The season is hotting up.

go dees

[Demon Disciple 11,268]

Well done ladies, well done indeed!

[DubDee 22,437]

North played to stop playing but we stopped them getting out. 

Our entire defensive unit was amazing. Girls like Chaplin Wilson, how hard Fitzy goes in

great coach. great work ethic.  not pretty. we move on

[Palace Dees 2,069]

I have never seen a more disciplined, professional, better coached team of any gender in my life. 

This group blows me away.

AWESOME!!!!

What I see is, the players attack the contest with purpose. It's not a reaction. but a plan. They seem to know exactly what to do and why. Superb coaching and superior footy IQ from players and Coach. 

Edited October 21, 2023 by Palace Dees
additional

[Brownie 5,584]

25 minutes ago, Palace Dees said:

I have never seen a more disciplined, professional, better coached team of any gender in my life. 

This group blows me away.

AWESOME!!!!

What I see is, the players attack the contest with purpose. It's not a reaction. but a plan. They seem to know exactly what to do and why. Superb coaching and superior footy IQ from players and Coach. 

I'm with you @Palace Dees. I was thinking the same thing in the last quarter.

Battle for top position and we were just incredibly relentless. Both in our tackling and defense but I also loved our attacking. Until we iced the game, every opportunity we had, we seemed to just turn and play on.

We just kept moving the ball forward as fast as we can.

This is the best Melbourne team I have ever witnessed in my life time. Better than our 2021 premiership team.

I'm off to the culture thread.

How cool was it to watch them laughing and dancing as they left the field after destroying a decent opponent.

Btw. We're in northern NSW and would love to see them play Brisbane in two weeks time. But we don't know when or where they'll be playing.

@WalkingCivilWar any ideas?

[biggestred 4,448]

8 minutes ago, Brownie said:

I'm with you @Palace Dees. I was thinking the same thing in the last quarter.

Battle for top position and we were just incredibly relentless. Both in our tackling and defense but I also loved our attacking. Until we iced the game, every opportunity we had, we seemed to just turn and play on.

We just kept moving the ball forward as fast as we can.

This is the best Melbourne team I have ever witnessed in my life time. Better than our 2021 premiership team.

I'm off to the culture thread.

How cool was it to watch them laughing and dancing as they left the field after destroying a decent opponent.

Btw. We're in northern NSW and would love to see them play Brisbane in two weeks time. But we don't know when or where they'll be playing.

@WalkingCivilWar any ideas?

That game was announced a week or so ago. Saturday night at brighton homes area wherever that is

[FarNorthernD 5,848]

8 minutes ago, Brownie said:

I'm with you @Palace Dees. I was thinking the same thing in the last quarter.

Battle for top position and we were just incredibly relentless. Both in our tackling and defense but I also loved our attacking. Until we iced the game, every opportunity we had, we seemed to just turn and play on.

We just kept moving the ball forward as fast as we can.

This is the best Melbourne team I have ever witnessed in my life time. Better than our 2021 premiership team.

I'm off to the culture thread.

How cool was it to watch them laughing and dancing as they left the field after destroying a decent opponent.

Btw. We're in northern NSW and would love to see them play Brisbane in two weeks time. But we don't know when or where they'll be playing.

@WalkingCivilWar any ideas?

Brownie they have released the fixture.  Sat 4th Nov at 1805hrs, Brighton Homes Arena. I hope to see you there

[Brownie 5,584]

14 minutes ago, FarNorthernD said:

Brownie they have released the fixture.  Sat 4th Nov at 1805hrs, Brighton Homes Arena. I hope to see you there

Bugger. Running an open mic session at our flood recovery/ community hub on Saturday arvo.

Will be watching on delay later that night by the looks.

Enjoy the night. Go Naarm

[Palace Dees 2,069]

13 minutes ago, Brownie said:

Bugger. Running an open mic session at our flood recovery/ community hub on Saturday arvo.

Will be watching on delay later that night by the looks.

Enjoy the night. Go Naarm

I remember the Qld flood recovery team helped the bushfire ravaged Victoria very soon after your own local crisis. That has always stayed with me. Please let us know if we can support your community in any way.  Happy to donate. 🥰

[deanox 9,134]

1 hour ago, wizardinoz said:

Gillard was superb down back marking everything. 

Her third quarter was immense.

[rpfc 27,746]

They had better structure in contests - less bees to a honey pot and more on the outside ready to take the ball and distribute. That’s what they didn’t have agains the Crows. 

We look better when we hunt; we are the best and the best get hunted but that doesn’t mean you can’t hunt the ball and the woman in each contest and win moments.

Wilson and Gillard were amazing. 22 and 20 - so impressive.

[WalkingCivilWar 35,855]

35 minutes ago, biggestred said:

That game was announced a week or so ago. Saturday night at brighton homes area wherever that is

I’ll tell ya where that is… that’s where we won our flag last season! It’s in Springfield, central QLD. @Brownie was there and he’ll tell you why that ground will always be special to us. ❤️💙

The funny thing is, Brisbane were higher on the ladder therefore they got to choose the venue. There was controversy over their choice of their brand new ground, the turf of which had only be laid a few weeks earlier. There hadn’t even been a game played on it before the grand final. It simply wasn’t ready for use. They dug their heels in and wouldn’t budge. This just made beating them even sweeter. 

[WalkingCivilWar 35,855]

Haven’t heard the attendance numbers but it was super disappointing to not have attracted a bigger crowd. I genuinely thought we’d get 4.5 - 5 thousand. There couldn’t have been many more than 2000. We turned up, but Roos fans were few and far between. Shame on them; convenient location and time, they’re flag contenders and their Men’s team sucks, yet their fans don’t bother to turn up. It’s not helping with the league’s endeavour to meet the minimum average attendance numbers in order to be given an extra round next year. ☹️

Edited October 21, 2023 by WalkingCivilWar

[Nascent 7,938]

Crowd was 2,704

[Palace Dees 2,069]

3 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Haven’t heard the attendance numbers but it was super disappointing to not have attracted a bigger crowd. I genuinely thought we’d get 4.5 - 5 thousand. There couldn’t have been much more than 2000. We turned up, but Roos fans were few and far between. Shame on them; convenient location and time, they’re flag contenders and their Men’s team sucks, yet their fans don’t bother to turn up. It’s not helping with the league’s endeavour to meet the minimum average attendance numbers in order to be given an extra round next year. ☹️

From a TV perspective the crowd looked good, more than 2k. But as always, you being there WCW, I trust your call. Your enthusiasm and the teams ongoing performce will get us there.  Keep pushing us. 🫸 

[WalkingCivilWar 35,855]

1 minute ago, Palace Dees said:

From a TV perspective the crowd looked good, more than 2k. But as always, you being there WCW, I trust your call. Your enthusiasm and the teams ongoing performce will get us there.  Keep pushing us. 🫸 

Will do! Thanks for the encouragement. In the meantime some of us are gonna attend non-MFC matches. Gotta get those numbers up!

[WalkingCivilWar 35,855]

16 minutes ago, Nascent said:

Crowd was 2,704

More than I thought. Still disappointing though. 

[FarNorthernD 5,848]

Random thoughts

Campbell is a natural tap ruck. She is really good at putting the ball to the advantage of the mids. Only got 44% of game time. Perfect development for a young ruck behind Pearce and with Watt as a mentor.

Birch still worries me when the pressure is on but thought she was good tonight. She seems to have seasons where she is really good but also seasons where it’s more of your heart in your mouth stuff. The ball doesn’t really get down there enough to know which season she is having this year.

Shelley Heath is the ultimate competitor. Love her. After all her perfect 10 coaches votes Jas Garner would be lucky to get any tonight. 
 

We knew this before, but for her size Kate Hore is a great mark. 
We got Purcell from the Cats for Chantel Emonson and picks 15 and 47. Enough said, she is a gun

Tyler Hanks is just the best to watch. She does the time slows down thing, glides around a bit and then pinpoints a teammate in a better position. She is also going to go through her footy career criminally underrated by the outside world.

No doubt a lot will hinge on the last round V Brisbane, but like pretty much every one where I have enormous confidence in this team 
 

 

[whatwhat say what 20,848]

was lucky enough to be at the function in the pavilion; first time i've been to princes park since stewart loewe kicked a bag vs the tigs in 95 - it's a pretty nice ground!

it would make so much sense as a boutique stadium for when some of the interstate sides tour and they want to pack out a ground rather than have 12k make docklands feel positively empty for north vs gc17

for women's footy, it seems to work really well - tonite was a perfect nite for footy, which helped

to hold a fellow top 4 team to 1 point in the last three and a half quarters is an incredible performance, especially as they looked very good with overlap run in the first ten minutes of the game

gillard is a wall

[Dees_In_October 3,346]

That was a well planned and mature performance. After the first quarter, took away their strengths, played with a disciplined structure but ferocious attack on the footy and player, control and even a bit of tempo footy. Every player clear in their role and the team's aims for each phase of the game. A slow start and a few goals left out there, but that's pretty standard!

The mids set the tone. Heath, Purcell and Hanks were focused and aggressive. Who said we couldn't shut down Garner? Oh yeah, that was me! Well, that was about as close to shut down as she gets.

Watching live you appreciate how well Paxy moves across the ground. A few head in hands disposal choices tonight though not alone there. Credit to Fitzsimon and Sherriff for their forward pressure (7 & 6 tackles) and Zanker for her tireless efforts to always make a contest. As good as bags of 5 snags are, a spread of 5 individual goalkickers has its own value.

We made PLENTY of mistakes with ball in hand (telegraphed kicks into the corridor!) but could often mop it up through weight of numbers and sheer will, while also capitalising better on their mistakes. Our attack has got a lot of the attention this season, but this was a great defensive effort, particularly in that 3rd quarter (very similar to the final last season). Loved Gillard's game and Wilson had some impressive one-on-ones. Six to one marks i50, considering North's talls - that was telling.

Great Demon crowd - felt like it was just red and blue people and that one North guy calling for a free kick every few seconds!

And all after the Lions took down the Crows. That was a better spectacle, a more free-flowing game. But nothing beats a Dees win.

Edited October 21, 2023 by Dees_In_October