Friday September 26th

1.05 AEST

Casey Fields

One coast conquered, onto the next one.

One beloved former Dee vanquished (respectfully), onto the next one!

Lily Mithen is having her best season statistically since 2022A and clearly playing a big role for the Suns, who gave Adelaide a run for their money on the weekend. Hopefully it'll be her former teammates leading a conga line to victory this pre- Grand Final Public Holiday Friday!

Whilst it is still very early days, Lily’s departure to Gold Coast is probably a win/win for both clubs. Gold Coast get a heart and soul player with heaps of experience. She is one of only 3 current Suns players to have played more than 50 games and is 20 (2 seasons worth) ahead of the next most experienced. As a comparison we have 11 players with 50+. She is also having a consistent year averaging 15+ disposals.

As for us we ended up with Molly O who could be a 15 year player with us. Already she has shown plenty of dash off half back with good foot skills. I assume she will ultimately end up being a tall (very tall) mid.

GCS are by a long way the worst defence in the league. (400 points against with number 17 at 329)

Attacking they are solidly mid table.

On paper should be a good win (but always beware of Goodwin Sands)

We had a good win against West Coast with Zanker on fire early, but we would be disappointed with our last quarter out pressured and out scored against. We have to put the pressure on for all 4 quarters, not just when we feel like it.

My possible team

B: Colvin, Gillard

HB: Goldrick, S.Taylor, Chaplin

C: McNamara, Hanks, Paxman

HF: Fitzsimon, Harris, Bannan

F: Gall, Zanker

FOLL: Pearce, Hore, Heath

IC: O'Hehir, Pisano, Wortherspoon, D.Taylor, Campbell

EMERG: Mahony, Ebert, Rigoni

10 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

We had a good win against West Coast with Zanker on fire early, but we would be disappointed with our last quarter out pressured and out scored against. We have to put the pressure on for all 4 quarters, not just when we feel like it.

My possible team

B: Colvin, Gillard

HB: Goldrick, S.Taylor, Chaplin

C: McNamara, Hanks, Paxman

HF: Fitzsimon, Harris, Bannan

F: Gall, Zanker

FOLL: Pearce, Hore, Heath

IC: O'Hehir, Pisano, Wortherspoon, D.Taylor, Campbell

EMERG: Mahony, Ebert, Rigoni

Loving what Mahony is doing. I wouldn't drop her unless she's really sore or tired.

An added incentive for attending our match this weekend…

If anyone is undecided about attending, the chance to win GF tickets might just be enough to sway them. The odds are favourable, a one in 2000-odd chance. That’s about the only positive for having poor attendance rates. While on the subject…

We need bigger crowds! The girls deserve to see and hear the love and support and the appreciation of their hard work and super impressive efforts.

The game is on Friday which is a public holiday. If you want to enjoy a cost-free day for your kids (under 18 free entry), a day that is full of fun (and free) activities, Casey’s the place to be. Kids are simply never bored there and you get to watch a very well-oiled machine in the form of our W team 👊🏼

4 hours ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

Loving what Mahony is doing. I wouldn't drop her unless she's really sore or tired.

Her pressure is pretty good but she can't kick. It's tight for spots. Someone is going to miss out.

Looks like strong winds and showers for Friday afternoon.

Perfect Casey weather

55 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Looks like strong winds and showers for Friday afternoon.

Perfect Casey weather

I'll still be there! 👏

They have just announced the side and O'Hehir and S.Taylor are out, Johnson and Rigoni are in.

Big blow S.Taylor has been one of the most improved players this year and O'Hehir is a young gun. Johnson and Rigoni have done very little. No Campbell or D.Taylor who I thought would be improvements on Johnson and Rigoni. We still should win but I'm worried especially if you come out like we did in the last quarter last week.

Edited September 25Sep 25 by WERRIDEE

Jeez. just when our injury outlook was starting to improve, we lose Taylor and O'Hehir

hopefully not too serious and they can be back involved again soon

Never a dull moment for us injury-wise! Hoping it's a cautious approach for both and nothing major.

Avg. games experience of teams as selected:

Melbourne: 44.8

Gold Coast: 34.4

Random fun fact: Zanker and Harris are equal 3rd in the league for contested marks. Harris still leads the competition for all-time contested marks, a full 27 marks ahead of second place.

Congratulations also to Ally Anderson and Ebony Marinoff, who this weekend become the first AFLW players to notch up 100 games. From an MFC perspective, the milestone will possibly occur late in the 2026 season, with the frontrunners at this stage obviously being Hore and Paxman.

Looking further into the crystal ball, our first 150- and even 200-gamer might also already be on our list. Anyone want to predict?

1 hour ago, Dees_In_October said:

our first 150- and even 200-gamer might also already be on our list. Anyone want to predict?

Short answer: Molly O perhaps?

Long answer: It will be a young player since the seasons are now longer and presumably they’ll continue to grow in length. In the (hopefully near-) future players won’t have to hold a day job thereby leaving more time to concentrate on their strength and fitness etc. Another factor is that because there are now structured comps for girls we’ll have more girls playing junior footy, rather than crossing over from another sport.

When you consider the first few seasons were only 7/8/9 rounds in length, it’s an incredible achievement for Ebony Marinoff and Ally Anderson to have reached their 100-game milestone.

Edited September 25Sep 25 by Ghostwriter

11 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

They have just announced the side and O'Hehir and S.Taylor are out, Johnson and Rigoni are in.

Big blow S.Taylor has been one of the most improved players this year and O'Hehir is a young gun. Johnson and Rigoni have done very little. No Campbell or D.Taylor who I thought would be improvements on Johnson and Rigoni. We still should win but I'm worried especially if you come out like we did in the last quarter last week.

I thought Rigoni did alright in her appearances so far, but Johnson is way out of her depth. Taylor has easily been our most improved player this season, so hopefully this is a short term injury.

Can understand not picking Campbell if it's going to be wet and windy, but they want her to replace Pearce long-term they'll have to find a way to get her back in the team eventually without making us ludicrously tall.

❤️💙 GAMEDAY! ❤️💙

Two really big outs. As others have said, Radar’s in great form currently but we should be fine with our other very capable defenders.

I’m hoping my girl LJ33 improves as the season goes on, starting today 🤞🏽

We should easily dispense with the Suns, but as always, we can’t assume anything. We can’t take any win for granted.

That said…

Us by Riggers Jnr & big Tahls - an even 10 goals 👊🏼

GO THE MIGHTY DEES!

Hanks is the classiest player in the league. so clean

brilliant run down rigoni

good snap wotherspoon

2 minutes ago, BDA said:

Hanks is the classiest player in the league. so clean

Keep it coming’BDA’, I’m stuck shopping…

good first quarter. linking well. took our chances whereas suns fluffed theirs

looked a soft free to me but we'll take it

harris converts to stretch Dees lead

and another to Gall. fell into her lap

we're well on top here

coast to coast and the goal to bannan

we look like clearly the biggest challenger to norf, but it's so hard to judge with the depth in the competition so shallow

well on top. dominant first half

clean hands and slick ball movement

hanks excellent. contributions across the board

Suns very limited. we should win it without too much fuss from here