Dees_In_October

Nothing like a reality check before finals, but I could have done without QUITE such a bad performance! Several players put in season-worst games. Many played as though they expected a repeat of last week, which is wild considering the stark difference in setting and opposition. It doesn't exactly fill you with confidence for what's ahead, but here's hoping we can regain some form and understand why Carlton's approach was so effective in curtailing us. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, so you'd think we'd be onto it, it's just a matter of having the legs, mental freshness and persistence to apply what we need to do. I only saw one end of the game due to my seating position (trying and failing to gain some wind protection), but based on that it felt like the one who had the most zeal was Heath. She's sky-high on confidence right now. P.S. According to Zanker's interview with the ground announcer pre-match, she'll be right to go for finals.

Goldie with the win!

No blatant stand-out like West was, probably several players who are contenders though and some more time against the harder VFLW teams will tell more. I feel like, from the outside looking in, there's good cohesion between both levels as well, so our ability to draw from VFLW to fill gaps during the expansion phase is in a good place - compared to some other clubs where the link is less established.

I flip-flopped on this about 15 times writing the match report, and have changed my mind again... 5 D Pearce 4 Hanks 3 Mithen 2 Paxman 1 Bannan Apologies to all but especially West, Hore, Harris and L.Pearce.

Fan fave Goldrick has a Mark of the Year nomination this week! Vote here: https://www.womens.afl/markoftheyear

ROUND 4 Checked out how our VFLW team fared, and, well: CASEY 2.1.13 6.4.40 10.5.65 15.7.97 WESTERN BULLDOGS 1.0.6 1.0.6 1.0.6 1.0.6 Now, to be fair, the Western Bulldogs are struggling, but still. It's not every day you kick a combined 204 points across the VFLW/AFLW programs! There was some really classy goalkicking from all angles by Casey. Casey goalkickers: Fellows 3 Dowler 2 Reiter 2 Borchard Harasimiuk Hogg Johnson Kirkwood McCrossan O'Connor Petrevski VFLW stand-outs: Hogg - 1 goal, 20 disposals, 4 clearances Dowler - 2 goals, 19 disposals Fellows - 3 goals, 19 disposals, 6 marks, 6 tackles Johnson - 1 goal, 17 disposals, 5 tackles AFLW-listed players: Tarrant - 32 disposals, 11 clearances 5 tackles. She played in the midfield - I think I've seen her do about every role possible now. I'd be surprised if she's playing Casey VFLW next season. It'll be Melbourne AFLW or another AFLW club. Magee - 21 disposals, 5 tackles, 4 clearances. Just as I was thinking I'd love to see how she'd look in a different role, she was moved to the midfield. Yes, the opposition wasn't much chop, but I saw some other attributes to her game we haven't seen at AFLW level yet. Obviously, she won't play midfield there, but hopefully the experience will help grow her game. Brown - 20 disposals, 3 marks. In full control across the backline. Petrevski - 1 goal, 18 disposals, 6 tackles, 4 clearances. Another one who, if she wants AFLW game time, has a good chance to find it next season, somewhere. She plays some really smart footy at times.

Votes thread now posted on the AFLW board. Good luck choosing!

Give your 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 here.

P.S. Anyone got some money lying around for a couple of grandstands at Casey?

Well, sometimes when things click, they really click. 105 points in AFLW is about equivalent to 160 points in the traditional game length. The fact that we left at least 5 goals on the park makes it all the more incredible. Complete domination, with a definite asterisk on it, but you can only play the team in front of you. Next week we could be just as diminished. Loved Colvin's game early when it was there to be won.

If we lose, Parry was clearly the glue holding it all together, we just couldn't see it.

How good is the word "unfurl"? Never had cause to use it so much before!

If only that's all she had to concentrate on. What a luxury that would be!

No surprises, another MOTY contender from Tayla: Vote here: https://www.womens.afl/markoftheyear And just rounding out the round, loved this new tradition created by Krstel Petrevski and Matthew Whelan, the JoogBoo Birlirre (hunt and spirit) award for indigenous round, awarded to Paxman: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1068925/paxman-receives-inaugural-joogboo-birlirre-award

5 Paxman 4 Harris 3 Mithen 2 L Pearce 1 Heath

ROUND 3 No stream this week - and to be honest, completely forgot about this game (men's praccy, AFLW, VFLW; it's all happening!). In the first of the VFLW/AFLW double-header at "the Fields", Casey had a third-straight win. Looking at the players listed below, we had all fit players on our main list involved at either VFLW/AFLW level today. A successful day for our women's program. CASEY 2.2.14 3.3.21 6.5.41 6.8.44 NORTH 1.0.6 2.1.13 3.3.21 3.6.24 Casey goalkickers: Caris, Chaplin, Fitzsimon, Johnson, McCrossan, Tarrant VFLW standouts: McCrossan - 1 goal, 17 disposals, 3 tackles Dowler - 16 disposals Hogg - 16 disposals, 6 tackles Fellows - 14 disposals, 3 marks AFLW-listed players: Caris - 1 goal, 14 hit outs, 3 clearances Fitzsimon - 1 goal, 19 disposals, 3 marks, 5 clearances Tarrant - 1 goal, 18 disposals, 6 tackles Brown - 14 disposals, 5 tackles Campbell - 4 disposals, 2 tackles, 5 hit outs Magee - 13 disposals, 6 tackles Petrevski - 15 disposals, 4 tackles

Getting the job done, yep, that about sums up this game up for me. Every player did some small or big part to get us over the line and all seemed very aware and focused on what needed to be done, even if it didn't always come off. I think I wrote in a match report a few weeks' back (or maybe I had to cut for brevity's sake!) that Heath is so clearly a player that loves to have a really defined task and just dig into it. So I loved her role in this one: stop Kearney. And she sure did. If only she'd kicked that goal, it would have been so well deserved!

I read/heard Max say that it was something to do with a music festival they'd both attended. Something to the effect of "This is so much better than XYZ festival." But that could just as easily have been Max making stuff up. Whatever it was, it certainly tickled Fritta.

On the umpiring, yes, the quality is not ideal but it matches where the competition's at. For the most part, I'm pretty sure these are developing umpires working on their craft. So I agree, while it's frustrating, it's just where things are for the league. Goldie as a Viney type is spot on! Attack of the footy, occasionally tries to do too much, but brings a great hunger. Agree and interesting point. Tayla's been through more in terms of media stuff - both positive and negative, a double-edged sword for anyone, particularly a young person - than any other AFLW player. People who know nothing about AFLW see her as an over-hyped player who got an undeserving statue. I agree she comes across as someone who marches to their own drum, and to some extent the pressure/commentary she's received comes with the territory of being a face of the game (not the sexist stuff, obviously that's just not on). Doesn't make it easier to deal with though and still just 24 years old. She comes across a bit defensive about certain aspects of her game in interviews and chooses her words carefully because she knows they will be thrown back at her. So good to see her happy though - that's what fans should want for all players. Agree completely (no big surprise there!). Like a lot of players in the league at this stage, she can get away with having one poor aspect of her game because she's got a couple of very good attributes. Her kicking likely won't improve in-season, but her college basketball background means she'll hopefully be very coachable in this regard. And pretty sure this is her second season of footy, full stop. It's the same reason cross-coders in general will continue to get a run for a while yet - brings a certain standard of fitness and training habits, ability to implement a game plan at least in theory, and the transferable skills ideally cover the potentially costly downsides (like 50-metre penalties due to lack of game awareness or an unsuccessful running bounce attempt, etc.) I keep repeating myself, but more players like West will be extremely important in the next expansion phase.

5 Harris 4 Hanks 3 Bannan 2 McNamara 1 D.Pearce Apologies to Paxman and L.Pearce in particular.

Yeah you can see in her post-match interviews that she's been given a really clear message about her role and it's given her confidence just to do her thing.

Have just posted the VOTES thread on the AFLW board. Lots of opinions in this thread, please give your 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 over there and have your say!

Get your votes in here!