Dees_In_October

I stumbled across this morning's Casey game on the AFL website while catching up on men's news, so naturally I got sidetracked. ROUND 1 Casey 0.1.1 0.3.3 2.3.15 5.5.35 Port 1.0.6 3.1.19 4.1.25 4.1.25 Goals Casey: Dowler 2, Chaplin 2, Hogg Port: Locke 2, Barton, Stutt Great fightback by the Dees after being goalless in the first half. Just a quick wrap-up of the AFLW-listed players and a couple of other standouts: Petrevski (19 disposals, 9 tackles) was super busy, applying plenty of pressure and having a key role in keeping the ball moving forward with some clever play. Gillard - well, off one game, we've got a player here. 11 hitouts, 5 clearances and 6 inside 50s, and was instrumental in the second half comeback. Purcell is building back to AFLW nicely, with 20 disposals, 4 tackles and 3 clearances, a class above. Chaplin, who is a top-up player for our AFLW list, had 2 goals in the last quarter to snatch the win, and was really lively around the ball. Dowler was also lively up forward with 2 creative goals. Campbell had some good moments (and a shot at goal to forget) but plenty to work with there. Tarrant took one great strong mark but wasn't prominent, while Brown chipped in with some good defensive stops (although there are some real look-alikes, so I might be attributing someone else's efforts incorrectly). This season, all VFLW games will be shown either on the AFL website https://www.afl.com.au/vfl or Youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/AFLVictoria

I think this happened before Round 5, but for anyone that missed it: Also saw a round-up of the stats leaders at the halfway point: https://www.womens.afl/news/84380/stats-stars-who-is-leading-at-the-halfway-mark-of-the-season- Dees players who feature: Avg. Intercept possessions - Birch 2nd Avg. Hitouts - L.Pearch =5th Avg. Score Assists - Hore 1st, D.Pearce 4th, Hanks 5th Total goals - Harris 2nd

Injury report. Also apparently VFLW is starting this weekend. Who knew? Not me! Glad there's now somewhere to drop players to rather than leaving them to languish.

In a way, I think the AFL decided to sacrifice improvement of skill level to give the competition a 'hook' into as many markets as possible at a time when the women's sport market is at a critical juncture in terms of hearts and minds (and wallets). I've come to accept that they won't consider increasing players' training hours/introducing longer or year-round contracts until all teams are in the competition, and that's the main thing that will improve skills and players' ability to execute game plans/styles consistently rather than trying to build that after a six-month gap. The competition still largely seems to operate off the goodwill of many involved, which is great and worthy and all but can only last so long. Several players are already sitting out this season essentially because they couldn't afford to play. Same thing with coaches. Not sustainable for many without a full-time role in a club for the AFLW offseason - assistants earn $6000 per AFLW season, apparently, and so at some clubs there's a constant merry-go-round of coaches, which means inconsistency and almost starting from scratch between seasons - Melbourne has actually been quite good in this regard, although some would argue we've failed to upgrade on those we have. Adelaide and Brisbane have been among the most stable in this regard. Surprise, surprise. Covid hasn't helped, of course, considering most teams are in Victoria and second-tier and junior competitions have been severely impacted here. What has an 18-year-old or 19-year-old Victorian draftees' last few years looked like? While previously we might have expected a fair chunk of those players to be having a major impact at AFLW level as many top draftees did in 2019 and 2020, that's been a much less prominent feature of 2021/2022 with some notable exceptions. In reality, most of this is to be expected in a five-year-old competition in a global pandemic and coming off a very low base in terms of resources. So I'm happy to ignore people who bizarrely expect elite standards from part-timers because they simply have no idea what conditions these players are (willingly, gratefully) dealing with to play in 2022. BUT I will be critical when skills are missing that I've witnessed before, and I think I've got a fairly good gauge of what most players are capable of - and they've got nowhere near it yet this season. To be honest, some of them (I won't name names) look how a lot of us probably feel: worn down by a pretty crappy few years...I'm potentially projecting a bit there 😉 This is an interesting point I hadn't considered.

5 Zanker - When she's on, she's on 4 Mithen - Back to her usual output 3 Birch - Just so consistent 2 L.Pearce - Follow up crucial in Hanks & Gay's absence 1 Heath - Did all the little things needed

Not too shabby...

Agree completely. And one thing that's interesting to think about is that a lot of the sizes (i.e., really tall) and shapes (i.e., strong in the middle, muscles, anything larger than rake thing) that are of advantage in sport, particularly Aussie Rules, are physical features that have rarely been seen as an asset in modern society for women and girls, and that's understating it. I'm talking about the bog standard size and shape of many of the very best players in the league, not the anomalies. Also...Perko has more footy smarts than probably 75% of the league. I'd have loved to have kept her - our forwards could learn a lot from her.

Tayla's up for another nomination for MOTY. Get voting! https://www.womens.afl/markoftheyear

Better news on L.Pearce than I'd expected.

Co-signed. The options are: Caris, Magee, Brown, Petrevski, Tarrant and potential debutants Chaplin, Campbell and Gillard. Purcell is definitely looming large to breath some new life into the midfield in a couple of weeks.

Agree with this completely. Even her body work in marking contests will help down there, while her limitations will be minimised. One thing about Daisy is she knows her strengths and will play smart. And her biggest asset now is to bring others into the game and show the way, not necessarily make the impact herself.

Monday after a loss - I don't like it! One thing I'm grateful for is that this happened in Round 4 not Round 8 or whatever. It's a good thing I'm not a coach because I'd be super reactive to this, which is probably not the way to go. They can't throw out the baby with the bathwater and make drastic changes to the game plan in a ten-week season. Obviously they need to find a different approach or just a clearer idea of what to do when that Plan A isn't working. How to get back control in that situation. Because it seemed like they had no idea, no response except "try harder to do what we're clearly failing to do", which is fine to a point, but a switch in approach needed to come earlier. The poor start did us absolutely no favours... While I'd love to see us come out firing, I think they need to work their way into games more strategically. Not all guns blazing necessarily, but build from contest and pressure - basically, put on the heat that the Crows did (no mean feat, of course).

Agree but it was consistent across the games I saw across the round. 'Rule of the week'

Yep, a struggle: McNamara Hanks Lampard Goldrick D Pearce

Some interesting behind the scenes info from the Lil and Ben podcast this week (AFLW Gus and Gawny equivalent). Gay, Sherriff and Lampard had just moved in as housemates when Gay tested positive in the lead-up to R2. They decided to isolate within the house, and neither Sherriff or Lampard ever tested positive, hence their quicker return. Lots of laughs in this one about that situation, as well as Lily's own isolation: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/podcasts/lil-and-ben

Another one to thank Daisy for. If memory serves, she had a part in getting Libby into footy from netball and then across to the Demons from the Bulldogs.

Just to tie up the round, congrats to our second Rising Star of the season, Megan Fitzsimon. Well deserved! https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1052092/fitzsimon-a-rising-star-in-round-3

Loved that! Seems like a great person to have around our young players as well - to pick up a sport in your late 20s and keep learning and pushing to get better all the time, on the other side of the world. Great stuff.

I didn’t really consider it given it’s a Pies jumper. Always looks ugly to me! But at least they’re selling them…

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this!

I'm with you there. I find giving votes difficult at the best of times, but this was tricky. 5. L.Pearce 4. Hanks 3. Harris 2. Birch 1. Fitzsimon

Just saw that the Pies have theirs on sale so checked if happening for ours too - unfortunately, doesn't look like it. There's are tshirts available at Cotton On though, not nearly as nice! https://cottonon.com/AU/aflw-2022-pride-tee/9630712-09.html?dwvar_9630712-09_color=9630712-09&cgid=afl-melbourne&originalPid=9630712-09

Some random thoughts: Weird not seeing Mithen at the bottom of a pack a million times today! Thanks to the footy gods for the Saints' inaccuracy... That last quarter blitz was a delight but you wouldn't want to rely on that against the better teams. Slow starts are becoming a bit of an issue. Big ups for Fitzsimons' game today. Taking strides every week and really loved her repeat efforts. Harris could kick five and still have detractors, but where would we have been at half time without her?

The competition has caught up in a way that denies her some of what she's previously got away with, BUT I agree her experience and endurance are what will keep her in the game for a while yet. To me she looks rusty more than declining, but I admit that's a fine line! I remember Daisy saying (of her own game) that she knows there are certain elements, certain little tricks that won't serve her as well as the competition develops, e.g., relying on knowing what a probably skill error will result in to read the play, as some of those will happen less and less frequently.

Success!