Are we ready? An overview

Melbourne wrapped up the AFLW home and away season with a hard-fought 14-point win over Geelong at Kardinia Park. The result secured second place on the ladder with a 9–3 record and a home qualifying final against the Brisbane Lions next week.

The closing stretch of games against Fremantle, Sydney, Brisbane, and Geelong has provided ideal finals preparation.  There have been plenty of learnings, but whether Melbourne’s best can truly challenge the top teams remains to be seen.

The Match

In perfect conditions under a rising moon, the match began as an arm wrestle.

Melbourne led by four points at half-time, but Geelong snatched the lead early in the third after a Lampard fumble led to a Bowen goal from a stoppage. Then came the Zanker show: a Hawkins-style ruck steal and snap over the shoulder, followed by a contested mark and goal in the square.

Zanker’s brilliance lit the spark, and soon after, Tyla Hanks strolled into an open goal before Kate Hore added a ripsnorter dribbler — sensational finishes from our leaders.  

Melbourne piled on five goals in the third quarter, including one from Tayla Harris after the siren, effectively sealing the game.

The final term saw a drop in intensity from the Dees, and the margin squeezed. The Cats were competitive throughout, andthe match served as a strong tune-up for finals footy next week.

Match Moment

A beautiful end-to-end play lit up the third quarter. Gally found Fitzsimon just outside scoring range. Fitzy paused, considered her options, then stepped back like a poker pro. Hearing a defender call for it, she released to fullback Tahlia Gillard, who streamed past and slotted her first AFLW goal. Teammates swarmed her in celebration. A moment to savour. Take ‘em when you can, Tahls!

Meggs’ musings

Melbourne didn’t look like a top-two side in the first half. The third quarter blitz was impressive, but the fade-out in the last was concerning. Meggs believes the workload is falling too heavily on a core group of 10–12 players. No passengers next week.  A whole-team effort needed to secure victory.

Marking under pressure was a concern, especially given the ideal conditions.

The midfield battle was incredibly fierce, with Geelong’s Georgie Prespakis best afield (32 disposals, 10 tackles, 8 clearances). Bowen and Morrison also starred.

Tyla Hanks was elite again, with 20 disposals, 11 tackles, and 519 metres gained. What a season she’s having.  

Good support again from Hore, Heater, Fitzy, Harris and Loz Pearce.

Eliza McNamara was exhausted last week and not surprisingly quieter against Geelong.  Use this week to freshen-up, Lize.

Maggie Mahony brought heat with a career-high 15 disposals (9 contested), though composure remains a work-in-progress.

Wotherspoon continues to impress and Mackin was busy working her way back to form.

For the 75 game milestoners, Shelley Heath (20 disposals, 9 tackles, 6 clearances) was outstanding again, and while Sarah Lampard had a mixed night, she featured in the play-of-the-day.

It was stirring to see the Cats and Dees players showing wonderful respect forming a guard of honour after the game for the retiring Cats trio Meg McDonald, Kate Darby, and ex-Dee Shelley Scott.

Injury news

Hore went down in the last quarter after clashing heads with teammate McNamara and underwent a post-match HIA.  

A collective sigh of relief — Kate Hore has been cleared to play next week.

Coaches and Next Week

Mick Stinear praised Geelong’s pressure and was pleased with Melbourne’s overall season. “Our best is good enough to contend, but we’ll have to get stronger to challenge the best.”

Dan Lowther acknowledged his team’s fight but lamented their inability to finish off work. He highlighted the elite skills of Zanker and Hore.

Home qualifying final against Brisbane (details to be announced).

Mick, please select our most competitive players next week.

Go Dees.

MELBOURNE 1.2.8 3.3.21 8.5.53 9.5.59

GEELONG 1.3.9 2.5.17 4.6.30 6.9.45

GOALS

MELBOURNE Zanker 4 Gillard Hanks Harris Hore Wotherspoon

GEELONG Bowen Morrison 2 Mason Moloney

BEST

MELBOURNE Hanks Harris Zanker Heath Chaplin Hore

GEELONG Morrison Prespakis Kearns Bowen A McDonald

INJURIES

MELBOURNE Hore (head knock)

GEELONG Nil

REPORTS

MELBOURNE Nil

GEELONG Nil

UMPIRES Kayne Nund Luke Porter Alysha Ramsay

CROWD 2,214 at GHMBA Stadium

The stat about Tayla and goals against all teams prompts another observation: the two top goal scorers in the 12 home and away rounds are both from one team, Port - Indy Tahau 25 and Gemma Houghton 23. Eden Zanker(*) tied for 3rd exactly, with North's Tahlia Randall(*), on 22 goals 12 behinds.

This says something about the comp but I'm not sure what: that the 10th team had the 2 top scorers while the 1st and 2nd teams had the next 2.

FWIW, North's 2nd and 3rd scorers were on 21 and 19, while ours were on 18 (Kate) and 14 (Tayla). Not too different, but the spread thereafter...

(* 'Mini-matches' beckon through the finals series, then; first to overtake Tahau and Houghton, and then between Edie and Tahlia. Or Kate to overtake them both??)

Edited Sunday at 11:492 days by Timothy Reddan-A'Blew

I listened to the live radio broadcast. The commentators said:

• Tahlia Gillard's goal represented the 18th individual goal scorer for Melbourne this season. That's very healthy and makes for a dangerous team to play against.

• Geelong fans would be marvelling at the intensity of how the Cats played against Melbourne, but frustrated they had no seen that level of play through the season. So it sounds like we took the Cats best shot - which is great prep for finals

It was great to get an away win and have that monkey off the back. It was also good to play against a strong mid-field as we head to finals.

Edited Sunday at 13:102 days by Dee in a Kilt
Some of my post was a better fit in the Brisbane QF thread