Unfortunately had to watch it "live" on replay

What a beauty of a game. Looks like we just ran out of legs in the last. The 25 game unbeatable Roos were definitely beatable today.

So close.

Just out of interest - there is definitely some bad blood between our girls amd Libby Birch - anyone know what the go is there? Is it just that she left after our premiership or something else happen between the group???

23 minutes ago, Deemented Are Go! said:

Ps- lovely to meet you today @Ghostwriter , albeit briefly! (I still maintain I was best dressed haha!)

Hey! You’re lucky I changed my mind at the last minute and decided not to wear that same t-shirt. It looks so much better on me 😝

PS: Glad your mum enjoyed the day, despite the result.

4 hours ago, darkhorse72 said:

3rd qtr and thew inability to convert into goals going into the last qtr really hurt us. Otherwise it was a great game by the girls against what has been the best team all year. As I said, we needed to win the first week of finals to avoid them in a GF. If we played like the last 2 weeks, then we would have beaten Brisbane but we dropped the ball that game.

Agree re the third quarter. I thought we really had them on the ropes in the later stages of the third but could not apply the killer blows and score a couple of goals. That seemed to be the scoring end and we rarely ventured forward in the last, after the North Melbourne/Tasmanian roos regrouped at 3 quarter time. Great effort by the girls,they gave everything.

7 minutes ago, Sideshow Bob said:

Just out of interest - there is definitely some bad blood between our girls amd Libby Birch - anyone know what the go is there? Is it just that she left after our premiership or something else happen between the group???

Where to begin?!

Birch burns her bridges when she jumps from club to club. Even her current teammates aren’t exactly enamoured with her.

She’s not a team player, never has been. She’s as selfish as they come and she couldn’t care less what anyone thinks of this.

Our girls don’t mince words when it comes to her. They don’t just dislike her, they can’t stand her. This goes back to her early days with us, even before she cracked the sh!tts because she wasn’t given the captaincy upon Daisy’s retirement.

She focuses on her media career more than she should. Were she playing in a less successful team this would probably need to be addressed. The thing is… she’s not even good at it. Her voice makes one’s ears bleed and it’s painfully obvious she doesn’t listen to anyone she interviews. It’s so cringe.

That’ll do for now. 😁

1 minute ago, Ghostwriter said:

Where to begin?!

Birch burns her bridges when she jumps from club to club. Even her current teammates aren’t exactly enamoured with her.

She’s not a team player, never has been. She’s as selfish as they come and she couldn’t care less what anyone thinks of this.

Our girls don’t mince words when it comes to her. They don’t just dislike her, they can’t stand her. This goes back to her early days with us, even before she cracked the sh!tts because she wasn’t given the captaincy upon Daisy’s retirement.

She focuses on her media career more than she should. Were she playing in a less successful team this would probably need to be addressed. The thing is… she’s not even good at it. Her voice makes one’s ears bleed and it’s painfully obvious she doesn’t listen to anyone she interviews. It’s so cringe.

That’ll do for now. 😁

Good on you for just saying it. She's an awful person and a laughably overrated footballer.

I met her once and really liked her. Thoughtful, engaging and approachable.

Each to their own.

1 minute ago, Slartibartfast said:

I met her once and really liked her. Thoughtful, engaging and approachable.

Each to their own.

That’s the key word right there. The first time I met her I also thought she was a nice person. Even the second and third time… nice person. Then the real Birch comes to the fore and you see her for what she really is, ie. as The Taciturn Demon so accurately put it, an awful person.

16 minutes ago, Melbournepotter said:

Agree re the third quarter. I thought we really had them on the ropes in the later stages of the third but could not apply the killer blows and score a couple of goals. That seemed to be the scoring end and we rarely ventured forward in the last, after the North Melbourne/Tasmanian roos regrouped at 3 quarter time. Great effort by the girls,they gave everything.

That match for the first 3 qtrs really reminded me of a boxing match in lots of ways.

2 of those points were goals in the 3rd and I reckon we would have had them down for the count. We had the poise and players to shut the game down.

Just couldn't land those final two punches in the third.

It's really understandable that we ran out of gas in the last.

The lions loss cost us big time.

Fitter team in 2026 and away we go

Really hope Mick stays to get us another flag

We overachieved this year in my opinion

Lions and north experience told in the end when we played them. They are just too good for us. For now.

Great experience for a young team to play a prelim. And some great youngsters coming through. We’ll be challenging again next year and hopefully be able to stay the course with the best teams

44 minutes ago, BDA said:

We overachieved this year in my opinion

Lions and north experience told in the end when we played them. They are just too good for us. For now.

Great experience for a young team to play a prelim. And some great youngsters coming through. We’ll be challenging again next year and hopefully be able to stay the course with the best teams

Overachieving for the year = Great coaching and player leadership.

6 minutes ago, Roy Boy said:

Went along too.

Very even game throughout, it was anybody’s game.

Difference was North took their chances in the last, converted 2 goals within 2 minutes, then it was goodnight.

Great atmosphere, 7000 spectators, very friendly crowd, no animosity between each other (in my area anyway).

1 hour ago, DubDee said:

which is inconvenient for the couple of thousand casey located fans we may have built up

you can’t expect melbourne based fans to not see their team play most of the year and then rock up in finals

I’m sorry …we could debate this for eternity but they are the Melbourne AFLW demons not the Casey Demons & if Nth ( not Blues..Pies..ESS ..Tigers) can get 6000..we can surely do better …

Do you think we saw Paxy’s last game as a Dee??

Based on the regular season, it had all the appearances the dramatic increase in player skill levels over 10 years had finally passed Paxy. But today she was brilliant and showed leadership.

Thoughts?

Went to the game and it was another cracker. Unfortunately didn't have the legs in the last and should have been further in front at 3 quarter time, can't give a good team a sniff. Said hi to Purcell she said hi back, should have asked her about her knee but didn't, said good luck to Stinear he said thanks. It was a good day too bad the last quarter didn't go to plan like last week.

If we can keep the team together and have no injuries then we should have a good crack at the flag. Purcell was probably the difference between not winning the flag and winning the flag, she will be a huge bonus next year and Brisbane and North can't stay on top forever.

GO DEES!

I’m bitterly disappointed with the result, but not at all disappointed with our team. I hope that makes sense.

@Dee in a Kilt Paxy. What can we say ? She’s a legend. Like Daisy, she has been Melbourne. Whilst the physical speed and intensity was up, she just stood up with her smarts and skill and showed glimpses of what she was able to do. However I think she will retire. At 36yo and after 92 games, I feel yes that’s it. But then the lure of getting to 100!! Perhaps …

5 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

@Dee in a Kilt Paxy. What can we say ? She’s a legend. Like Daisy, she has been Melbourne. Whilst the physical speed and intensity was up, she just stood up with her smarts and skill and showed glimpses of what she was able to do. However I think she will retire. At 36yo and after 92 games, I feel yes that’s it. But then the lure of getting to 100!! Perhaps …

Nice post.

You're right about her and Daisy being Melbourne.

You know, I liked that the club nursed Jonesy to 300. He deserved it. That was classy by the club.

Quid pro quo, perhaps we nurse Paxy to 100. It feels like there's something missing without 100 games next to Paxy's name.

I had to watch the game last night in replay (I did see the result so it wasn’t a complete heartbreak)

So proud of the team

We started on fire - first 3 goals

The intensity wow that’s finals footy

Just needed to take our chances in the 3rd

The fourth quarter yes I saw the girls effort just beyond them

Unfortunately allowed Garner be unmarked in that last ball up to get the sealer goal

Maeve was incredible

Shelley Heath tackles

Taylor in defence

Hanksy is heart and soul

TAYLA’s first quarter goal and mark

Kate was Kate. Just a shining star always

Wish we’d had Liv Purcell. She will be great to get back in 2026

Another year from the youngsters.

Let’s go again in 2026 💙❤️

I wonder what they have in mind for Molly O'Hehir.

I can't help but feel a few times this year we got beaten in the middle when it mattered most, and we have very few players over 170cm who can go into centre bounces and make a difference. Purcell, Hanks and Heath will give everything, but we seem to struggle when taller midfielders start to dominate (Garner is 175cm).

Beasley is 170cm and is robust. But I wonder if they might think about putting O'Hehir (180cm) into the middle every now and then next year.

14 hours ago, DubDee said:

which is inconvenient for the couple of thousand casey located fans we may have built up

you can’t expect melbourne based fans to not see their team play most of the year and then rock up in finals

Except yeah, you can. These are the very folks to whom I’ve been appealing for this finals campaign.

It doesn’t matter if they’ve not seen a single H&A game,* they don’t even have to like the W, they could’ve attended the finals at Ikon purely because their club is playing, and playing as underdogs, which means their presence is needed more than ever.

Yesterday’s turnout was disheartening to say the least. Our team made a prelim and so few of our fans attended. I’m not saying that affected the result but geez it wouldn’t have hurt it.

* This season we’ve played H&A games at Whitten Oval, Ikon and Vic. Park which are all inner-city. My point in noting this is that we don’t always play at Casey.

4 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Except yeah, you can. These are the very folks to whom I’ve been appealing for this finals campaign.

It doesn’t matter if they’ve not seen a single H&A game,* they don’t even have to like the W, they could’ve attended the finals at Ikon purely because their club is playing, and playing as underdogs, which means their presence is needed more than ever.

Yesterday’s turnout was disheartening to say the least. Our team made a prelim and so few of our fans attended. I’m not saying that affected the result but geez it wouldn’t have hurt it.

* This season we’ve played H&A games at Whitten Oval, Ikon and Vic. Park which are all inner-city. My point in noting this is that we don’t always play at Casey.

Just wondering what people who attended yesterday thought the rough ratio of Norf vs MFC supporters was?

The club had a great opportunity this finals series to grow interest and support for this team getting people along to watch some great footy.

Thanks to those that went along

1 minute ago, Brownie said:

Just wondering what people who attended yesterday thought the rough ratio of Norf vs MFC supporters was?

The club had a great opportunity this finals series to grow interest and support for this team getting people along to watch some great footy.

Thanks to those that went along

I’m not good at estimating the ratio of fans but I’m excellent at knowing when my team has nowhere near the support of the opposition 😕

A DA member who is good at estimating said he thinks of the 7,000-odd fans, we’d be lucky to claim 1,000 of them. I think he was being generous 😕

6 minutes ago, Brownie said:

Just wondering what people who attended yesterday thought the rough ratio of Norf vs MFC supporters was?

The club had a great opportunity this finals series to grow interest and support for this team getting people along to watch some great footy.

Thanks to those that went along

I estimate about 75% of the supporters were NM. Very disappointing because top level women's footy is now very watchable particularly when conditions are good.

Hat's off to the Demon Army who are just wonderful. The effort, the banner, the noise they create make up for a lot.

30 minutes ago, Brownie said:

Just wondering what people who attended yesterday thought the rough ratio of Norf vs MFC supporters was?

The club had a great opportunity this finals series to grow interest and support for this team getting people along to watch some great footy.

Thanks to those that went along

i reckon 6,000 north fans v 1,000 dees supporters. We were very outnumbered

for whatever reason our fanbase has not taken to our womens team. I'm sure Casey is a factor but doesn't explain the extent of the lack of interest

not sure what the answer is to generate that interest. maybe its a lack of marketing or promotion by the club?

for me, right from season 1, the women all play with heart and endeavour. a few outlier performances but very rare.

and the standard has come a long way. Yesterday's game had plenty of skill and had a real finals intensity. i thought it was a great spectacle and advertisement for the womens game.

the team give everything and thats all i can ask for as a supporter.

compared to what the men have been dishing up its been chalk and cheese that last 2 years (the men were brilliant 21-23 to be fair)

anyways, to all dees fans out there, there are worse ways to spend your time that head along to an AFLW game to support this team.

and another thing, scheduling finals for 1pm on a saturday and sunday is braindead

does the ALF want to promote the game or not?

Putting the team success to one side this AFLW season was a total failure from a growth/sustainment viewpoint.

The competition needs drastic structural change if it is not to diminish let alone grow.

The first is the season. Unfortunately the men's season is now so long there is no "free air" for a women' season. Given this the season should perhaps run from March for 12 weeks plus finals.

Second is venues. There are way too many and in reality they are primarily purposed as training venues for AFL men's teams. Victoria Park is the answer. Sink some money into making it like the beautiful Nth Sydney Oval. Promote the games as family friendly etc etc.

Beware the VFL has shown how quickly a once thriving competition can be decimated by the powers that be.

Big question.... Should the Women's League split from the AFL. Funding aside one cannot help but think that the AFL's heart isn't in the competition