https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1471643/aflw-best-and-fairest-the-contenders

It's always interesting to see the club's perspective, with the insider knowledge of individual player's roles and KPIs.

Who would we like to see take home the award?

Hore would be a frontrunner to go back to back, alongside Demonland vote-winner Hanks. B.Mackin as a bit of a smokey?

Hanksy for mine. ✅ 

It should be a good night. Probably not as good as last year, it’d be hard to top the B&F in a Premiership year. But it’ll be fun. It’s always fun with the girls. 

Demon Spirit Award goes to Lily Mithen.

In third place is Lauren Pearce. 

Two worthy winners of the inaugural Daisy Pearce Trophy.

🏆  Kate Hore

🏆Tyla Hanks 
 

If I'm right that's now two third places and twice runner-up to Lauren Pearce. 😍😔

our 2 best players this season so a perfect result

We’re there any Demonlanders in attendance at the B&F last night.❤️💙

  On 29/11/2023 at 10:33, WalkingCivilWar said:

Hanksy for mine. ✅ 

It should be a good night. Probably not as good as last year, it’d be hard to top the B&F in a Premiership year. But it’ll be fun. It’s always fun with the girls. 

Did you go WCW? 

This is a bit off topic but a mate and i were chatting last night and we both felt like something happened in the group with about 2 or 3 rounds to go in the season (obviously from the outside looking in). So i guess I'm wondering what the vibe was like etc last night or if my friend and i are wildly wrong (which i hope we are)

Mick Stinear did a nice summary of the season.

In retrospect, the last game away to Brisbane had a big effect. A very physical match, and all credit to Brisbane who, of course went on to claim the main prize. That meant we were still "down" against North and Mick referred to "other factors" aroud that time which were reported in some forums as illness. He felt like it was only in that last quarter against Geelong that we got our "mojo" back and pehraps a few more minutes and we may have been through to a prelim.

A nice touch now that the MFCW B&F will be known as the Daisy Pearce Trophy.

  On 10/12/2023 at 00:29, biggestred said:

Did you go WCW? 

This is a bit off topic but a mate and i were chatting last night and we both felt like something happened in the group with about 2 or 3 rounds to go in the season (obviously from the outside looking in). So i guess I'm wondering what the vibe was like etc last night or if my friend and i are wildly wrong (which i hope we are)

I did attend and am currently nursing quite the hangover 🤕 but I didn’t break any bones this year so there’s that.

In general, it was a good night but there was definitely an undeniable underlying air of sadness. I’m not gonna go into detail suffice to say at one point I was in the ladies’ room consoling one of the players who was crying. Nor can I go into detail about how things changed somewhat towards the back end of the season. This is because I’ve heard conflicting stories therefore I don’t know what’s accurate and what’s not.

Mick paid tribute to Chook (Georgina Fowler) and Sammy J who’re leaving, but because we’re still in the middle of the trade period, couldn’t mention the others: Westy, Casey, Jordy and Libby. This made things feel a little weird.

Libby was the only one of those leaving us who was honoured with an award, that being for her games tally of 75. Polite clapping while she went on stage to accept it, as opposed to raucous cheering (especially from the DA) when anyone else did so, was the big ol’ elephant in the room.

It’d be impossible to reach the dizzying heights of last year’s B&F, and everyone knew that. But I for one didn’t expect last night to be so far below it. 

 

Edited December 10, 20231 yr by WalkingCivilWar

  On 09/12/2023 at 22:57, DeeZone said:

We’re there any Demonlanders in attendance at the B&F last night.❤️💙

🙋‍♀️ If there was any other Demonlanders there last night, I didn’t know it.

The girls all looked AMAZING. Some of them were unrecognisable. I was standing in a group and didn’t realise it was Banno next to me until she said, “Hey WCW!” Later, I told her mum Sharon I didn’t know until last night that Alyssa has [censored] and a bum. 😁 Sharon said, “And they’re nice [censored] and bum, so tell me why she’s still single!” Mums, huh. What can you do. 😂

edit: the censored word begins with “B” and ends in “oobs” 😝

Edited December 10, 20231 yr by WalkingCivilWar

Thanks @WalkingCivilWar. Not great to hear there are problems though. Hopefully it all gets sorted before next season. 

  On 10/12/2023 at 05:28, WalkingCivilWar said:

I did attend and am currently nursing quite the hangover 🤕 but I didn’t break any bones this year so there’s that.

In general, it was a good night but there was definitely an undeniable underlying air of sadness. I’m not gonna go into detail suffice to say at one point I was in the ladies’ room consoling one of the players who was crying. Nor can I go into detail about how things changed somewhat towards the back end of the season. This is because I’ve heard conflicting stories therefore I don’t know what’s accurate and what’s not.

Mick paid tribute to Chook (Georgina Fowler) and Sammy J who’re leaving, but because we’re still in the middle of the trade period, couldn’t mention the others: Westy, Casey, Jordy and Libby. This made things feel a little weird.

Libby was the only one of those leaving us who was honoured with an award, that being for her games tally of 75. Polite clapping while she went on stage to accept it, as opposed to raucous cheering (especially from the DA) when anyone else did so, was the big ol’ elephant in the room.

It’d be impossible to reach the dizzying heights of last year’s B&F, and everyone knew that. But I for one didn’t expect last night to be so far below it. 

 

Glad to hear you made it through in one piece this year!

Hmmm your description of the vibe only leave me with more questions, but I'm happy to accept there are some things we just can't (and perhaps even shouldn't) know as random fans. It does make me feel even more assured that a change in the squad is good and necessary, maybe freshening things up and making some new dynamics (plus adding super talent on the field, of course).

Hopefully next year the atmosphere will return to its 2022 levels.

Just getting round to looking at the final standings.

Melbourne AFLW Best and Fairest – Top 10 

= 1st – Tyla Hanks (64 points) 

= 1st – Kate Hore (64 points) 

3rd – Lauren Pearce (54 points) 

= 4th – Sinead Goldrick (52 points) 

= 4th – Olivia Purcell (52 points) 

= 6th – Eden Zanker (51 points) 

= 6th – Lily Mithen (51 points) 

= 8th – Libby Birch (48 points) 

= 9th – Blaithin Mackin (47 points) 

= 9th – Shelley Heath (47 points) 

= 11th – Eliza McNamara (46 points) 

= 11th – Tahlia Gillard (46 points) 

Mithen is an interesting one. I think I tend to see her mistakes more than what she contributes, but this is some indication that she's mostly fulfilling her role as the coaches see it.

Super happy to see Goldie up there, of course. Well deserved.

I reckon we'll see B.Mack continue to climb in future seasons.

We take Pearce for granted sometimes. She's been very consistent over the years and just manages to keep going.