Craig T

Yay! Heater, S. Taylor and Lampy all back, and Tay, Goldy and Ryleigh fine after their scares! 😁

Do we have employee in the women's program whose job it is to smash mirrors/walk under ladders/encourage black cats to cross their path?

If Tayla is right to go and Heater, Saraid and Lampy are all Ok this week that's a big jump forward. Then hopefully Blaithin and Georgia G next week and, providing no one else goes down, that's about as good as it will get this year. I'm assuming Beasley won't be back, I don't know if it would be wise to bring her in for finals having basically missed two seasons.

Need to get a handy lead, if it stays close Freo win.

Jas Garner now one goal ahead of Kate in the race to the ton, 96 to 95. Big game tomorrow hopefully!

I'm happy to be corrected by people who have better knowledge of these things, but my understanding was that Tayla's potential move to Hawthorn last year was not of her doing. I believe Hawthorn made overtures with promises of a top ten draft pick for her, and given our young tall forward stocks of Zanker, Gall, Campbell and Hose we decided to consider it. But it transpired Hawthorn had no genuine intention of delivering what she was worth so the deal died.

I could well be wrong but my recollection is that she was touted as a key forward, possibly one good enough to walk into the team for round one in her first year if she hadn't been carrying the ACL.

I'm guessing no one was out at Casey watching the training session yesterday for a first hand report! No update yet if Zanker's head knock is nothing to worry about, or how bad Taylor's hamstring and O'Hehir's knee soreness are.

On the way home from Casey on Friday I was waiting at the bus stop on Punt Road by Gosch's Paddock and it didn't look like it was undergoing maintenance to me. The number of people running about kicking footballs around was the big clue. 🤨

Wow. I was very close to heading to the session today, glad I didn't. If it had been moved to Princes Park I would have understood, but that is disappointing.

I'll still be there! 👏

Yes, Campbell will be available for selection; https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1902012/injury-report-two-demons-to-test Sad that Lampard has been 3-4 weeks for three weeks now. 😥

Hmmm, the Irish girls are great but when you're selecting one team from a pool of 40 players and the other from a pool of 500 I think there will only be one outcome - if it was Aussie Rules. But if it was the old combined rules the men used to play, then it might be very interesting. 😁

Very happy with the games from Pisano and Wotherspoon. Alyssia particularly seemed confident and decisive. Really looked like she belonged. Best game this year by a country mile from Loz Pearce. I wonder if not having Campbell as back up meant she spent more time in the ruck and that is best for her. I don't think her resting in the forward line is a great idea - if she's fit and firing have her do the bulk of the ruck work and let her come off when she needs a break. I'm loving E Mac's terrier ball winning, but I've been a little concerned for a few weeks with her disposal at times, both in decision making and execution. Hopefully just a temporary glitch!

Great if we can get both Gillard and Goldy back this week. And D. Taylor next week if she comes through the scrimmage match. Wonder who will be making space?

I think some people may not be aware that there is no added time on for the first 15 minutes of a quarter in the AFLW, except for after goals or if there is a major hold up, such as play being stopped if someone is injured. Regular time on, such as the umpires automatically blowing the whistle to stop the clock for an out of bounds or ball up, only happens in the last two minutes. The ball rolling about on the bowling green occurred in that 15 minute period so the umps didn't immediately blow the whistle. Having said that, the point at which it should have been obvious to the umps that we had a protracted delay and time on needed to be called was reached way before they actually did so. I haven't watched it back but I guess they should have pulled the trigger at least ten to fifteen seconds earlier, possibly more. Certainly enough time for us to have another attack on goal, given where the ball was. Certainly I'd realized what was happening and was shouting "Blow time on you (expletive)! at the screen. 👿

Put Gillard, Lampard and Goldrick in that back line today no way we lose, despite our atrocious goal kicking and over use of handball. I knew our patchwork, inexperienced back line would get caught out eventually. They've done a great job to date so plaudits for that. Agree with the earlier comment about seeking perfection, it's the biggest criticism I'd have of Stinear's coaching over the ten seasons. Looks amazing when it comes off but it's low percentage. Trust our quality forwards to win one out contests most of the time, and get the ball down to them quickly.

According to her bio on the club website her DOB is 01/09/03. Would make her 24 at end of contract. I'm sure she is loving being aged up! 🤣

But that would have veered dangerously close to promoting the women's game. We can't have that. 🙄

That's starting to look a lot better. Fingers, toes and everything else crossed! 🤞

Yes! I've always noticed she does that and wondered why, and the only reason I could think of was that it would make it harder to grab hold of her jumper. But I thought if that was the case why weren't more players doing the same? So one mystery resolved, but another one raised...... 🤣

Well at the game I initially thought we were getting a gift goal when the umps started running the ball back to the goal square, I thought a Tiger had done something silly and given away a free off the ball. Then I thought maybe they'd infringed the 5-6-5 rule for the second time, but then remembered that'd just be a free to us in the centre, not in front of goal. Magic chips in the ball and the ensuing confusion was a new experience! One that was not entirely resolved by watching the reply the next day! 🤔

Just watched the replay. Couldn't agree more. They're making a complete pig's breakfast of the changes to the tackling rule. They weren't too bad the first couple of weeks, a few teething problems but that's fair enough. The last two weeks have been horrendous.

How is Maeve? Bit worried about her elbow, I think, from late in the match.

Seems about right. Does anyone know how many we got for the St Kilda ball drop extravaganza? Definitely seemed a bigger crowd than average, but the match report still says TBC.