Craig T

Don't get me started on Casey. I head out to most of our games out there, always by public transport. 👿 One other venue possibly worth considering is Olympic Park Oval. As of now it has effectively zero seating or cover, but in the shadows of the 'G and right beside Gosch's Paddock it's a great location. The Pies usually only play a game or two there each season so finding spots in the fixture wouldn't be an issue. Just need the will to invest in some facilities - we apparently can do it for Caulfield. 🤔

By which stage, hopefully, we'll have everyone, bar Liv Purcell sadly, fit and firing!

And now Goldy's gone down. Labral tear in her shoulder. As I understand it the time frame for return would usually be in months. 😭

Sadly nothing I didn't already suspect. Several player movements/non movements involving some of the expansion clubs seemed very fishy.

Mackin's MCL was originally declared a grade 3 tear, which is at the bad end of the spectrum. It's now been re designated as a grade 2, but strangely still 10-12 weeks. Yesterday Josh Keily, the high performance manager, said she'd be seeing a specialist today and the timelines would be dependent on the consultation. Hopefully she'll be back well under the current official estimate. Same for Lampard - if it's not too bad four weeks should cover it.

AFLW has wings, but only five forwards and defenders.

Updates on the weekend's injuries: Liv Purcell - ACL as we knew. Blaithin Mackin - grade 3 MCL, so I'm guessing 6-8 weeks. Sarah Lampard - calf strain 4-8 weeks. We just can't take a trick. 😥 https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1876095/injury-update-purcell

A little worried about Chaplin. Noticed she pulled up right at the very end of the game and was hobbling and looking concerned after the siren. Hopefully nothing, perhaps just a touch of cramp. 🤞 Also do we have any news on how bad Lampard's calf is? As for Liv, I recall early in our premiership season Banno went down as if shot in the same half of the ground with a knee injury and was carted off, and I'd resigned myself to not seeing her out there for a year. She played the next week. There is always hope!

I just can't wait till tomorrow. That, but 3x as many golf balls. It will be the undoubted highlight of this 10th season of the AFLW. 🙄

Yeah, there is some definite confusion. But this is from https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1851810/aflw-round-2-details "Inspired by Mansfield Football Club’s annual Easter ball drop event, a helicopter will fly over Casey Fields immediately after the final siren, dropping thousands of numbered balls on to the ground." So obviously the players will be wearing helmets and other protective gear for at least the last quarter. 🫣

I think after the game is all we've been told. So allowing for the post game shenanigans - players shaking hands, winning team singing the song, autographs and selfies with fans along the boundary, etc. - could be 15-20 mins after the match finishes. Unless they hurry the players off the field post haste. We don't want half our team missing next week due to gold ball injuries. 😮

Probably go to a Saints fan attending their first ever AFLW match. 😠

I'm guessing we'll need to keep Taylor for the height in the backline.

Gab told me 2-3 weeks when I spoke with her at the game on Saturday. Hopefully the club estimate is playing it a little safe and she'll be back sooner then they are saying. 🤞

They also had total, unrestricted access to the NT in their first few years as well. Got them Danielle Ponter, Stevie Lee-Thompson and multiple others.

My question is how high is the chopper going to be when they release the balls? If they are high enough, with Casey's wind, I'd be concerned about just how likely they will be to hit the playing surface. We could end up with the balls being blown off course and sconing hundreds of people in the crowd with a hail of footballs. 😮

Memories. 🤣

Well done on pointing this out. To this you can add they were lucky to be so close in the GF, WC had five more scoring shots in a relatively low scoring game. Had the Eagles taken their chances in the last quarter the game would have been well and truly over long before any Dom Sheed heroics were necessary. The "Buckley was a kick away from a premiership" argument is really ignoring just how lucky he was to be so close.

Just watched the post match chat with Shae Sloane, and she said while she hadn't yet spoken with the medical staff she had spoken to Kate who was laughing and in good spirits, so she didn't seem too worried. Hopefully when Kate cools down, and when she wakes up tomorrow morning, it will still be good news!

Campbell under concussion protocols so quite possible she was resting up today.

Just wondering if anyone got down to the Friday training session and has anything to report on Hanks?

Looked a good session, apart from the Hanks Injury. Hope it isn't too bad. Was impressed by Mahony, and also Ebert, as somewhat lesser sung recruits. Paxy looked to have been replaced by a Paxy from five years ago, and Campbell looked effective around the ground. I'd have to guess the plan to play Harris in the backline has been abandoned. A forward line with Zanker, Harris and Gall as permanent fixtures is going to stretch the key defensive abilities of every team, and that's not mentioning Bannan. Hope it's not top heavy, though North seem to have made Randall, Shierlaw and King work.

Macca has a hand issue? Hoping to get along to training next Wednesday. Might need to lay down the law about minimising injuries as we don't want a repeat of last year.

That's good news re Heath, but bad news re O'Hehir. Hope it's nothing serious, she looked the good in the VFLW game she played. Very poised and seemingly had lots of time - usually the mark of a class player.

They were friendly ear-bashings. 😁 More like questions and discussions, I've never had anything but respect for Todd. He was always extremely polite with me despite my unsolicited ramblings. 😆