LOL I ran into Paul Guerra and the first thing he said was “Essendon is dead to me.” I’ve got him so well-trained. Then a girl comes and stands next to him. He says “Ghosty, this is my daughter, Daniella” and she says “Hi Ghosty, nice to meet you… Essendon is dead to me.”😂

12 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

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

our fixture has been very kind

not sure how our game style will hold up when the heat is applied. We'll find out when we face the better teams later in the season

Tyla Hanks. What a star !! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Megan Fitzsimon.

9 tackles in the first half.

She’s just a heart and soul player

Love the way she plays

GC men’s side should wear today’s clash jumper against us next year if it’s at the MCG or Marvel.

Walked past a pub during lunch and the game was on, so annoyed I can't call Friday done.

Is it real that Hore is going at a clearance every second disposal?

And 550m gained by early in the 4th for Maeve Chaplin seems like a lot. Does that seem like a lot to you? It seems like a lot to me. To also have half a dozen tackles makes me think we've got something special here.

we are putting the suns to the sword here

one thing that cannot be said about this team is we fail to rack up percentage when the opportunity presents

looks set to be the biggest winning margin for the dees this aflw season so far

35 minutes ago, BDA said:

our fixture has been very kind

not sure how our game style will hold up when the heat is applied. We'll find out when we face the better teams later in the season

'Reward' for a poorer last season. And remaining opponents are at or near only 50% win/loss.

North's 'game style' seems essentially 'not a single weak link'. Ours then needs to be that. Who might ours be atm (if any!)?

No arguing with that result. we were utterly dominant

good for our percentage column and keeps us well in the hunt for a top 2 spot

Hanks BOG. A class apart. Hore very good as well. contributions across the board

not sure what a spectacle like today does to further AFLW. Suns so poor and totally out of their depth. completely uncompetitive. couldn't even muster a goal

Go Dees

A game that gives “never in doubt” true meaning.

MELBOURNE 3.2.20 6.6.42 7.10.52 13.15.93

GOLD COAST SUNS 0.3.3 0.4.4 0.6.6 0.6.6

GOALS  

MELBOURNE Bannan Harris, Hore 2, Fitzsimon, Gall, Hanks, McNamara, Paxman, Pisano, Wotherspoon

GOLD COAST SUNS Nil

BEST  
MELBOURNE Hanks, Harris, Hore, Chaplin, Fitzsimon

GOLD COAST SUNS Harris, Rowbottom, McLaughlin, Clayden

INJURIES  

MELBOURNE Zanker (head knock)

GOLD COAST SUNS Whitfort (right hamstring), Fitzpatrick (left arm), Dupuy (head knock)

CROWD 1,557 at Casey Fields

22 minutes ago, BDA said:

No arguing with that result. we were utterly dominant

good for our percentage column and keeps us well in the hunt for a top 2 spot

Hanks BOG. A class apart. Hore very good as well. contributions across the board

not sure what a spectacle like today does to further AFLW. Suns so poor and totally out of their depth. completely uncompetitive. couldn't even muster a goal

Go Dees

Bit of week-on-week déjà vu (except for the contrasting last quarters!): over a yellow and blue team, at the FOD 😊

Um what's hoping on with nth? Just saw the score.

Well done girls, great win

18 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

Um what's hoping on with nth? Just saw the score.

Clue: the game is being played at Windy Hill.

Now that is what I call a foot to the metal win

Looking forward to watching the replay later as I was out and about

Totally forgot we were playing against Lill.

How did rigoni go? I was disappointed when she was dropped last week

Here we have a perfect example of how the AFL has expanded the women's league too fast. It's nice to support the Dees but the competition is a joke with a large number of teams not competitive. It's not their fault there is not enough good players to fill out the teams. The blame lies squarely at the AFL's door.

22 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

Totally forgot we were playing against Lill.

How did rigoni go? I was disappointed when she was dropped last week

Rigoni done some good things played well even Johnson played well didn't have a bad player on the ground totally dominated. Hanks is sublime and how good was Wortherspoon? We are playing well but I still think we are playing for second. North are just that good.

North are an amazing AFLW team

But …

They will fear us

They can be beaten

Dees AFLW have players still to come back into our best 21!!

We have star power and scoring power !!

If we took our opportunities and kick straight, North are beatable 👍🏻

Really good signs with this team. Stinear in his presser said they're applying the learnings from the Port Adelaide loss and the 4th quarter against the Eagles when mentally they played the fourth quarter poorly. It is critical to have these learnings in season and not just before finals. Today's performance reflects excellent coaching and a mature team performance in applying the learnings with intent.

That we won by 14 goals with Kate Hore and Eden Zanker below their best and a spread of 10 goal kickers speaks volumes to this team performance.

That Kate Hore won the toss and decided to play against a very strong breeze in the 1st quarter (to Stinear's surprise), then we scored in the first minute, would have deflated the Suns' confidence. Then the Dees kept applying intense pressure.

I note Stinear took a page from Chris Scott's book and conservatively left some key players out of today's game. Boy I hope Steven King employs that strategy.

I used to think a tough schedule was critical to finals success, but the Cats have proved that theory wrong the last two seasons.

I'm pleased to see AFLW umpiring has improved substantially, the Cats women's team win last week aside.

6 hours ago, BDA said:

our fixture has been very kind

not sure how our game style will hold up when the heat is applied. We'll find out when we face the better teams later in the season

It has been a very easy fixture. Handy though, giving us time to get our injured players back. Really need Lampy and Mackin back by finals though to be able to challenge North.

Well there's really not much to say that hasn't already been said about that one!

It's still the same question of what this team can do against better opposition. Has been a similar story for our team in several AFLW seasons, so at least it's something Mick's used to guiding the team through. For this reason I was most happy with the last quarter today. There are standards being set, which is what our young players need to learn - that uncompromising, ruthless way, as that's what will help them stand up when the pressure comes. I suspect they might need to play through more of that to get there, but we'll see.

Random thoughts:

Wotherspoon, break out game? Should take huge confidence from that one.

Fitzsimon is putting together some kind of season. Tackle pressure incredible.

Impressed with Rigoni's energy on her return to the team.

Chaplin 25 disposals at 72% DE. Often had plenty of space, but made sure of her usage.

Loving seeing Harris super involved all round the ground and using that long kick to good effect with and against the main character of Demons AFLW: that damn Casey wind!

Me watching the game:

Good to see Wotherspoon getting plaudits. She looks a natural footballer. Does everything well. Interesting to see where she ends up playing her best footy.

Quick side note: I think just about everything Foxtel does is garbage, but an exception is Chyloe Kurdas. One of the best special commentators I've heard.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by The Taciturn Demon

1 hour ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

Good to see Wotherspoon getting plaudits. She looks a natural footballer. Does everything well. Interesting to see where she ends up playing her best footy.

Quick side note: I think just about everything Foxtel does is garbage, but an exception is Chyloe Kurdas. One of the best special commentators I've heard.

Agree on Wotherspoon - high footy iq and I love her kicking action.

Strong over the ball too, which is important because that's the area north have tge edge on us.

Generally i really like the coverage of the AFLW, on fox and 7. Compared to AFLM, less hype, less volume, Kessler rubbish inane banter and more focus on the game in front of them.

Most of all the special comments people are, like the AFLM, are ex players but very much unlike the AFLM, their knowledge is current and they use that knowledge to bring genuinely interesting and informative insights.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the majority of the commentatory crews are women

Maeve Chaplin is a star ❤️💙Love how she has controlled the backline. She’s only 23 !! Emerging leader. Give her a blank cheque.

Tahlia Gillard. 💙❤️Only 21. So strong. Reliable. Not much to do yesterday but she’s just come back and will be a key in the next few weeks and in finals versus the Kangas forwards. Must sign her up for multi years

@Demonland we have such a great AFLW program