16 minutes ago, BDA said:

our defence have not played well

It's a bit of a problem and has been for a while. Strom was sensational, but that was the difference. Extremely aggressive and confident tall and medium defenders versus our lot.

Desperately need to find a tall(ish) defender who can take a mark in the off-season.

We've done well after a down season last year - but I'm not sure we'll hold up in finals. A bit shaky when the pressure is on. We've all said it numerous times now, but we REALLY miss Liv Purcell.

10 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

Rigged over there 2 years in a row

Free kick count was 20-17 in Dees favour

2 minutes ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

It's a bit of a problem and has been for a while. Strom was sensational, but that was the difference. Extremely aggressive and confident tall and medium defenders versus our lot.

Desperately need to find a tall(ish) defender who can take a mark in the off-season.

We've done well after a down season last year - but I'm not sure we'll hold up in finals. A bit shaky when the pressure is on. We've all said it numerous times now, but we REALLY miss Liv Purcell.

i think we've stood up reasonably well in contested games

Freo had to be at their best to win while we made too many errors

Just now, BDA said:

i think we've stood up reasonably well in contested games

Maybe a certain kind of contested game is more accurate. Collingwood, Port and Freo all looked very similar to me. Intense pressure, our scrimmage stuff a bit off and, as you say, fumble after fumble.

I thought today we coughed up handballs more than any other time I can remember this year.

4 minutes ago, BDA said:

Free kick count was 20-17 in Dees favour

Did you watch the game? When they get two goals within 15 metres of goal from two of the most soft frees you will see then the free kick count means very little.

So frustrating. We should have won that but didn’t take our chances enough (or have such gifts). Backline is still a bit of a worry. We were much more steady with Saraid Taylor earlier in the season and could really use Lampard back.

Edited yesterday at 08:201 day by godees

I fear broken ribs for Harris, which would be a real shame given her recent form.

1 minute ago, godees said:

Did you watch the game? When they get two goals within 15 metres of goal from two of the most soft frees you will see then the [censored] count means very little.

So frustrating. We should have won that but didn’t take our chances enough (or have such gifts). Backline is still a bit of a worry. We were much more steady with Saraid Taylor earlier in the season and could really use Lampard back.

yes i did. the umps were terrible i agree but they gave us some head scratching frees also

i think we had it within our control to win umps or no umps and like you said we made too many mistakes

The umpiring is always frustrating, but we had our chances. And as @BDA said, there were numerous baffling decisions that went our way. Not sure we deserved to win that one at all.

What I will say is the holding the ball stuff is so disappointing. I was really optimistic that the harsher interpretation would make the rule far easier to umpire. It seems not to have at all. I'm not sure whether the problem is intractable because prior opportunity is so subjective, even if you put numerous sub-rules underneath it, or whether it can work as long as umpires clearly understand the difference between less lenient prior opportunity and zero prior opportunity.

45 minutes ago, BDA said:

Free kick count was 20-17 in Dees favour

But it’s a lazy option to blame umps as in the men’s as opposed to looking at

Basics like playing in front, lower the eyes or go lateral when the opposition drops an extra back, skill errors and really poor decision making

Like v Power game , hard to win interstate when the umps are clearly biased for the home team. We had our chances but again failed to do basics under pressure

Edited yesterday at 09:011 day by spirit of norm smith
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We are not going to win the flag, if we finish 2nd it will be a miracle can't expect to have half our midfield out and compete against the best.

Missed Gall badly I thought.

Too many easy intercept marks.

8 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

We are not going to win the flag, if we finish 2nd it will be a miracle can't expect to have half our midfield out and compete against the best.

It's nths to lose.

12 hours ago, godees said:

Did you watch the game? When they get two goals within 15 metres of goal from two of the most soft frees you will see then the free kick count means very little.

So frustrating. We should have won that but didn’t take our chances enough (or have such gifts). Backline is still a bit of a worry. We were much more steady with Saraid Taylor earlier in the season and could really use Lampard back.

Yep, the 4th goal to Freo in the 1st from a brilliant textbook spoil by Gillard and then the only goal in the third went to Freo from another great spoil which was paid against us.

But, Freo nailed those two which makes all the difference and they pressured us really well all day.

I thought our second QTR was sensational. Not they we played brilliantly, but we really ground our way back into the game. A sign of a great team.

Macca was magnificent and Wotherspoon keeps getting better and better.

Banno? Do we need to get her back up the ground?

I still think we can steal a flag, but we have to snag 2nd or 3rd or we're stuffed.

A challenging season with all of these injuries. You need a fully fit squad to grB a flag but I'm proud of how this team plays.

Go Dees

This game was a poor reflection on the AFLW brand. Our pioneering and top ranking women's team deserve better.

The TV commentary was dreadful. A netballer providing sideline commentary delivered pure fluff as did the amateur-hour commentators.

The TV coverage was very poor, produced for the Freo fan base. Pre-game, half time and game focus was all Freo.

The umpiring was abysmal for both sides. So many of these umps have simply no feel for the game. I wish there was transparency on each umps frees count by team. The AFL MUST develop a program to incentivise high quality players, who don't make the elite level, to become elite level umps.

The holding the ball rule is a blight on AFLW and just makes poor quality umpiring even more difficult. As the umps have no feel for the game, the calls and non-calls make the players second-guess, players don't want to take possession and it can lead to a "chicken scratch" with a group of players patting the ball around, unwilling to take possession.

It's as if the AFL is giving the women's game the budget associated with grave-yard shift TV. It's doing no favours to the AFLW brand.

It's a shame as AFLW is having a wonderful impact on society. Girl participation in Auskick is beyond expectations in all states. Young girls are inspired - a new generation believing nothing is impossible. More girls and young women exposed to the important life lessons delivered by team sport - leadership, resilience, team work, handling winning and losing, handling life isn't always fair, coping with one's strengths and weaknesses...

Investing behind women and girls is simply the right thing to do, regardless of current crowd and audience levels.

5 minutes ago, Dee in a Kilt said:

This game was a poor reflection on the AFLW brand. Our pioneering and top ranking women's team deserve better.

The TV commentary was dreadful. A netballer providing sideline commentary delivered pure fluff as did the amateur-hour commentators.

The TV coverage was very poor, produced for the Freo fan base. Pre-game, half time and game focus was all Freo.

The umpiring was abysmal for both sides. So many of these umps have simply no feel for the game. I wish there was transparency on each umps frees count by team. The AFL MUST develop a program to incentivise high quality players, who don't make the elite level, to become elite level umps.

The holding the ball rule is a blight on AFLW and just makes poor quality umpiring even more difficult. As the umps have no feel for the game, the calls and non-calls make the players second-guess, players don't want to take possession and it can lead to a "chicken scratch" with a group of players patting the ball around, unwilling to take possession.

It's as if the AFL is giving the women's game the budget associated with grave-yard shift TV. It's doing no favours to the AFLW brand.

It's a shame as AFLW is having a wonderful impact on society. Girl participation in Auskick is beyond expectations in all states. Young girls are inspired - a new generation believing nothing is impossible. More girls and young women exposed to the important life lessons delivered by team sport - leadership, resilience, team work, handling winning and losing, handling life isn't always fair, coping with one's strengths and weaknesses...

Investing behind women and girls is simply the right thing to do, regardless of current crowd and audience levels.

Spot on.

Whoever dreamed up this holding the ball thing has no perspective on the game or the quality of the officiating.

It's clear the AFL don't give a stuff about the quality of this competition.

Should be played when other leagues are playing. What happens to those players not selected every week?

2 hours ago, GM11 said:

Spot on.

Whoever dreamed up this holding the ball thing has no perspective on the game or the quality of the officiating.

It's clear the AFL don't give a stuff about the quality of this competition.

Should be played when other leagues are playing. What happens to those players not selected every week?

The HTB interpretation is now so over the top. Completely excessive amount of frees which regularly completely baffle the players. Giving less benefit of the doubt on HTB than previous seasons is ok, but has gone way too far. So often a player has no prior and there are six hands on the ball and apparently they aren’t trying hard enough to get it out. Umps with absolutely no feel for the game

Disappointing to lose two games to mediocre teams that won't be playing finals this year (maybe Freo sneak in but Port are BOG average)

Would really like to take a scalp in Brisbane in the last round to give the girls some confidence for the finals.

St Kilda was clearly our best win of the year, but I'm not sure I'd include them in the elite bracket.

Port and Collingwood have shown other sides how to beat us; bring intense pressure all match. Mick is going to have to work out a way for us to absorb pressure and get it cleanly to the outside. If we can’t work through this it will be a very short finals campaign for us

19 hours ago, BDA said:

If we can match them on the inside

19 hours ago, biggestred said:

Still, shouldn't let the other team kick the first 3 goals

18 hours ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

we REALLY miss Liv Purcell.

5 hours ago, Brownie said:

we really ground our way back into the game.

The above pretty much sums up my response to the game! I'll be honest and I'd bit my tongue because I hate to be a negatively nancy before a game, but I'll be that annoying person instead who says it after the fact: saw that coming a mile away. I know others felt the same. No Heater was a real blow against players like Bowers. Freo match up well on us and (despite the ladder) are exactly that level of team that can trouble us IF they come to play and play us smart. I guess what I'm thinking is, it's not just the best teams that are a problem for us in this way...which suggests something about where we're realistically at, regardless of ladder position.

They bullied us around the ball to get that early lead, in exactly the fashion that we should have expected, so that was frustrating. And they have the class to take their chances. It's stating the obvious, but our defenders are used to us controlling the ball, so when we're not, they're tested. And I was crying out for Zanker to get in front as well...

On the bright side, the fight back was impressive and it's exactly the type of grit this team needs more opportunities to practice and show - not that I'm saying we should give up three-goal leads every week! Also a shout-out to Wotherspoon who I thought played a great game.

Anyway, I think this game was a very accurate reflection of where we're at as a "could be great" team in progress with some big tests ahead.

Free kick count probably includes out of bounds and lassoo’s.

...and I wish Stinear would play Zanker up the ground or in the middle, to force her to get involved in the game. Looking for too many easy out the back kicks, and not going for the ball instead of trying to muscle her opponent as the first option.

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by george_on_the_outer