Dees_In_October

Western Bulldogs v Melbourne at Mission Whitten Oval, 7.35pm AEST WESTERN BULLDOGSB: I.Grant 3 L.Ahrens 27 HB: E.Georgostathis 17 K.Kimber 28 B.Gutknecht 18 C: R.Wilcox 37 J.Fitzgerald 23 J.Smith 10 HF: S.Hartwig 15 E.McDonald 9 E.Blackburn - C 2 F: L.Stephenson 14 H.Woodley 19 Foll: A.Edmonds 33 D.Carruthers 8 I.Pritchard 4 I/C: C.Buttifant 20 E.Grigg 5 E.Gavalas 25 S.Poustie 1 E.Bennetts 11 Emerg: B.Barwick 12 K.Hardingham 24 A.McKee 26 MELBOURNEB: L.Ebert 19 S.Taylor 28 HB: M.O'Hehir 11 S.Lampard 8 M.Chaplin 13 C: P.Paxman 4 T.Hanks 5 E.McNamara 22 HF: M.Mahony 20 A.Bannan 6 E.Zanker 29 F: K.Hore - C 10 T.Harris 7 Foll: L.Pearce 15 O.Purcell 2 S.Heath 30 I/C: B.Mackin 31 G.Campbell 1 L.Johnson 33 M.Fitzsimon 24 A.Pisano 3 Emerg: R.Wotherspoon 12 A.Dethridge 14 S.Goldrick 23

Knowing the Casey wind, the balls will probably swirl around and change directions a few times on the way down. Good chance of scoring a free footy or yeah, getting sconed.

Of course, let's hope so. And I do appreciate that there's some real effort being made to put that game on people's radar (so to speak). Is two weeks enough time to build momentum? We'll see...

From @binman's post, it's clear what most people will choose - as the people who are mainly men's fans wouldn't forgo the men's to support the women, even in the situation where the women's is much more convenient to home, and even in a situation where the men aren't in finals contention. That isn't a dig at you, binman, it's just illustrative of something the AFL STILL somehow fails to understand when scheduling the W Demons - that many won't go to Casey, so Away fixtures at other Melbourne venues should be scheduled with an eye to picking up that audience. Rather than the approach taken in this case, which I think is, "It's a Bulldogs home game, so the timing with the Dees men's game doesn't matter" as long as it doesn't overlap for TV. It just boils to the same old lack of foresight that has been consistent for 10 seasons now. Hopefully when the men's is over, aside from Casey games, people will look to these more conveniently located matches: Round 3 v Collingwood at Vic Park Round 8 v Essendon at Ikon Park Back to the positives:

melbournefc.com.auInjury Report | Triple test as sights set on Round 1Check out Melbourne’s latest AFLW injury newsInjury list (12/8) Tayla Harris (ankle) – available S.Taylor (calf) – available B.Mackin (hamstring) – available Rigoni (knee soreness) – available Campbell (concussion) – available Hore (knee soreness) – test Chaplin (hamstring awareness) – test Goldrick (dealing with being a champ, round to oval ball transition, jet lag) – “slow approach” Gall (ankle) – 1 week D.Taylor (foot) – 4-5 weeks Colvin (MCL) – mid-season Beasley (ACL) – mid-season Gillard (MCL) – TBA

12th. 4 wins, 7 losses, all wins to bottom 8 sides. Very apt! And great write-up, Meggs. I think Mick Stinear is technically on 86 games, as he did miss one game somewhere along the way, for the birth of his child. Not sure if the records will actually reflect that though! It's going to be a great milestone either way. Haha we’ll see. As far as I can remember, the reason for my name (years before AFLW) was that I wanted to still be talking about the “Dees in October”, rather than getting to the end of the season and wanting to move on to the next year in the never-ending hope of a brighter horizon. Well, I was definitely still talking about the Dees in October in 2021, and October in 2022 on the AFLW side of things was certainly much discussed by me as well. Taking both into account, maybe it should be “Dees_in_December”? “Dees_Year-Round?” If the Hawks fans give you any lip, just remind yourself that we’ve supported women’s footy from the beginning, unlike those Johnny-come-latelies who had to beg for an AFLW licence because they dragged their feet... I have an intricate plan to try to get to both games, but it's going to be tight and the weather makes the prospect less appealing given the wracking cough I currently have. Might have to wait for what I’m calling “The Helicopter Game” at Casey in Round 2, which has some real "elephant at Arden Street" and "batmobile at the Grand Final" energy. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1851810/aflw-round-2-details

Good to see the recognition for Tyla. But Kate? Shoulda been higher.

Latest injury update. Reading between the lines: Harris - ankle (available) Campbell - concussion (available) B.Mackin - hamstring (test) S.Taylor - calf (test) Rigoni - knee soreness (test) Hore - knee soreness (test) Goldrick - wild celebrations (TBA) Gall - ankle (unavailable, TBA) D.Taylor - ankle (unavailable, TBA) Colvin - MCL (mid-season, running next week) Beasley - ACL (mid-season) Gillard - MCL (TBA)

Haven't read everything here, so apologies if this has been posted, but I thought this was a nice reflection on Goody and the evolution of the game, with some points we tend to forget about our dominant few years: Credit to Du BoisHistory doesn’t repeat itself, but often it rhymes — Cred...Simon Goodwin’s tenure as coach can, more than any other, be defined by a rule. Fitting for the coach of the Demons that this rule would be 6-6-6.

Kate also gave some promising comments regarding Tayla Harris's injury and Round 1: "A little ankle sprain. I don't think it's anything too major so she should be fine to go for round one. A little bit of a bump in the road but no doubt she's fine."

Apologies, think I misread what you meant here - yes, the coaching situation on the men's side will probably do a lot of drowning out! Even Kate Hore was asked for comment at the AFLW captains day today, to which she played a straight bat.

The seasons have overlapped since 2022, so it'll be the same as it's been for a while now. And really, when the men are not competing during September, there's less overlap.

Best wishes to Goody, always a premiership coach and no one can take away from that. I guess we'll never know now what a speech from him after winning a premiership would sound like (I'm still annoyed about how they skipped him in 2021!). With all the rumours and the media's relentless pursuit of him regarding off field stuff, he's had a lot to put up with. My overall sentiment at this point is that I have no idea what has actually gone in the club, and the checked out feeling I have about it all might reflect the need for change. We'll find out more about "what really happened" over the next several years, though I can't really say I'm looking forward to it. While I think the timing makes sense, I hope we can pay proper respect to Goody in some fashion in the coming weeks. Of course, he may not have been interested in a farewell game, which is understandable. Or maybe he even had one under the radar last weekend... Strange to think this is our first coach sacking since 2013. All I can hope for at this point is that there has been some planning behind this. I'm sad to see a premiership coach go, but I'll admit there is a part of me that's more excited for 2026 than previously.

Two words: Kozzie Pickett.

Amusingly after missing much of the praccy match, I found myself awake in the early hours and managed to watch quite a bit of Dublin's victory! Like so many others, Goldrick is one of my favourites just for the pure attack she has on the game, and it will surprise no one that this was on show in this game. She plays a very similar role as we see in AFLW, hustling and scrapping then providing lots of bounce off the defensive area. It was apparent why every time she gets the ball in Aussie Rules, the instinct to play on is so, so, ingrained. Weird thought I had while watching, I wonder how many people warned her about the Jimmy running over the mark incident when she first came to Australia? Or maybe it was a "let's not speak about it" situation... Anyway, I must admit as the minutes ticked away, and with Dublin well in front, I was keen for Sinead to maybe just take it easy. Of course, that was never going to happen. You can imagine my consternation when she went down with a leg issue late in the game. Seemed ok though and played out the final minutes despite several other substitutions being made, so nothing to be concerned about. So that's 4 All-Ireland championships for Goldie, to go along with her AFLW premiership. Super effort. Hope the winning feeling continues in Australia.

Only saw the last several minutes, seems I missed the best of it! Bit of a scrap fest, but we were at least dominating territory at that stage. I pretty much heard them say "Kate Hore hobbling off" as soon as I switched it on, so yeah. That's probably my fault for thinking as I did so, "Don't care about the score, just no more injuries to talls!" As Craig says though, Kate was at least having a laugh, according to Shae Sloane, post match here: afl.com.au/aflwAFLW practice match Highlights: Melbourne v AdelaideThe Demons and Crows clash in the AFLW practice matches I'd be keen to hear from those who watched if there was anything that stood out in terms of prospects for Round 1. Are we thinking O'Hehir debuts? From the scoreline alone, as Dees fans, we must rejoice in the straight kicking.

Adelaide v Melbourne at Thomas Farms Oval, 11.30am AEST Melbourne has named top-up player Lauren Jatczak (Casey Demons) at full-back after Tahlia Gillard suffered a torn MCL last weekend, with forward Madison Ibrahim (Essendon VFLW) called in on the bench. Tayla Harris will sit out with an ankle injury. Given the extended squads for practice matches (26, benches of eight), the Dees have named injured players as emergencies. MELBOURNE B: S.Lampard 8 L.Jatczak 34 HB: M.Chaplin 13 L.Ebert 19 M.O'Hehir 11 C: P.Paxman 4 T.Hanks 5 E.McNamara 22 HF: M.Fitzsimon 24 A.Bannan 6 E.Zanker 29 F: A.Pisano 3 G.Gall 9 Foll: L.Pearce 15 O.Purcell 2 K.Hore - C 10 I/C: M.Ibrahim 44 A.Dethridge 14 L.Johnson 33 S.Heath 30 M.Mahony 20 R.Wotherspoon 12 J.Rigoni 43 S.Taylor 28 Emerg: B.Mackin 31 T.Harris 7 How to watch: Live stream will be available on club websites.

Also meant to add that teams for the praccy match will be released Saturday arvo. And there'll be a live stream of the game on Sunday, 11.30am AEST on the participating clubs' websites.

Thanks for the great reporting Kev. Happy about that! And this. Any improvement in this area can only help us. In the past we've got away with some truly horrific goals to behinds ratios, winning through sheer weight of numbers. But I think as the competition evens out there will be fewer and fewer teams that won't make you pay for that, plus more games in which teams need to capitalise on fewer opportunities. Having said that, we do have some really reliable shots on goal in the team and at full strength there's a great commitment to getting high percentage shots within players' abilities (since not everyone's Tayla Harris kicking from 50m off a step!).

Great work, Kev! Good to hear. AFLW live blog puts Tayla at a chance for Round 1 best case scenario.

Timelines are vague at this stage, but reading between the lines, it's something like: Gillard (10-12 weeks) MCL Colvin (no timeline given, but will miss early season) Lower grade MCL Beasley (mid-season) ACL Harris (2-4 weeks) Ankle B.Mackin (TBA but sounds optimistic?) Hamstring D.Taylor (Possibly available for Round 1) Foot Campbell (Symptoms pending, likely available R1) Concussion L.Pearce (Available) Head/neck Goldrick (TBA) May be delayed due to wild celebrations :) So at this stage we're minimum 4 players down for Round 1 (including Beasley, which was known) plus possibly B.Mackin and Goldrick. In terms of having a replacement spot for Gillard, I'm not sure how that works if the injury only just rules her out for the H&A season length. I guess they'll wait for more on the injury to get a clearer timeline. All the best to Tahlia; at least she won't be alone in rehab (clutching at straws here!). It's a credit to her that she's such a loss to us for a young player.

Yeah not ideal. At the very least, if Gillard's injury is season ending (hopefully not), I think we qualify for a replacement because it has happened in preseason. S.Taylor also comes into the mix. Beyond that, there's not much depth in the tall defenders, though I guess Harris could go back when recovered or some other shuffling from the forward line.

Injury updates from the AFLW website with a somewhat misleading headline. Harris under an injury cloud, ruck enters concussion protocols– Sarah Black MELBOURNE is hopeful Tayla Harris has escaped serious damage to her ankle, but the jury is still out on Tahlia Gillard’s knee after an eventful match sim against Hawthorn. An official update is due on Tuesday after the pair had scans on Sunday. Harris is currently in a moonboot, but the expectation is that she has escaped with a rolled ankle. Key back Gillard is on crutches, and while the extent of her knee injury is unknown, it is believed to be more serious than Harris’. Tall Georgia Campbell will sit out this weekend’s practice match against Adelaide with concussion, while ruck Lauren Pearce has dodged the concussion protocols after a head knock, and is set to play. The Dees have a number of players already sidelined, including Gab Colvin (MCL), Blaithin Mackin (hamstring), Denby Taylor (foot) and Grace Beasley (ACL), while Sinead Goldrick is still in Ireland, with Dublin playing in the Gaelic football Grand Final.

Don't like the sound of that for Tayla. It would be tough to lose Gillard on top of Colvin being out. Fingers crossed for all!