Craig T

The only thing I can think of is if, in regards to Havana Harris, we are are "marking her card". In other words, we have let her know we rate her very highly, so should she ever decide she wants to leave GC she just might consider nominating us as her preferred destination. 😉

IIRC she wasn't picked up by any AFLW club the following year (2020). I think she went back to playing in the SANFLW for a year, did well as a forward and the Crows then signed her the following season.

She played the first four games of the season (2019) as a defender. Didn't do too well and was dropped and didn't make it back. Others with more inside knowledge may know more and I'm happy to be corrected, but I got the impression she lost confidence and dropped her bundle a bit, and was delisted at the end of the season.

You are so right re the men's comp observation. I'm going by what was said on the MFC website (though that is not infallible by any measure!); https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1702674/inaugural-demon-heads-north-dees-secure-pick-no-2

And 46.

So we get picks #2 and #20 for Lil, picks 10#, #28 and #46. #2 is great, but then only #20 till #64? It's supposed to be a strong draft with lots of talent, hope we aren't going to miss out. Unless there is still some trading to be done.......

While the draw was a joke, I believe it was the injuries more than the draw that hurt us. We've ALWAYS had a tough draw (other than 2017-2018 when the fixture was fairer) and it's never really stopped us being one of the top sides. That said, it will be interesting to see what draw we get for 2025. We should be given a middling draw, but if, say, that means we get three of the 2024 top six I bet we get North, Adelaide and Brisbane, not Freo, Port and Hawthorn. 😠

This could be a win for everyone. I've felt Lil has had the game go past her for a couple of seasons now, but she's such a club person, foundation player, best mates with the captain (as I understand it), that tapping her on the shoulder at 26 and telling her she needs to look elsewhere could be problematic. But if she gets a decent offer from another club that she's happy with, and takes it, much awkwardness and potential unpleasantness could be avoided.

Not defending Hawthorn in any way, but Brisbane, the defending champion, played two of the top eight this year. 17 games or stop pretending the AFL is serious about women's football.

Possibly the issue is that coming off our "compressed" schedule we still haven't been give a full week between matches. Three games in eleven days is about what very team copped at some point, but then we had a six day break to Richmond then five days to Hawthorn. Why, of all teams, schedule us to play on the Thursday?

When you have only ten or eleven rounds in a competition with 18 teams you are always going to get an unbalanced fixture, even if the organizers try to keep things balanced. The problem we have with the AFLW is that the organizers don't care. In fact it is even worse than that, as they are happy to take advantage of the short season to actively rig the draw to try to give the impression of a balanced competition. I guess the key is to remember that the AFL is not running a sporting competition. From their perspective they are managing a product. Shameful.

We haven't helped ourselves by letting Richmond kick the last 3.2 this week and us beating St. Kilda by 1.8 last week. We could easily be only 7% behind Essendon now instead of 18%. But we had so much percentage to make up that it will probably come down to us having to beat Hawthorn and Collingwood and hope that Richmond beats Essendon next week. If that happens we are in regardless of percentage. Freo and Port should be able to keep ahead of us given their draw, though I suppose there is a chance the Suns at home might beat Port now they've found some form. But we just have to win both matches!

Yep, that's how I see it. We have a much, much tougher draw than those we are up against for a final eight spot. And that's not even considering the injuries we've copped. But then it bodes well for next year - Harris, A. Mackin and Beasley back, games into Gall and Campbell this year, and a number of our key players still 25 and under.

If we win all three remaining H&A games and finish 7-4 we'd have to be very unlucky to miss the finals, regardless of percentage. If we go 6-5 with a poor percentage I suspect we'll almost certainly miss out.

A four day break is bad, but at some stage every team is copping it. What makes it worse for us is that it is after an interstate game at night. That really cuts into recovery time. No need for it to be that way, but constructing a balanced and fair draw doesn't even register as an issue with the AFL.