Dees_In_October

Also watch for Neal-Bullen's early start to the celebrations - he was confident!

Weirdly, as another poster who falls in this category (although not in terms of post frequency!), I'm pretty sure I had Hunt listed in my faves at one point too. Must have been squeezed out. Although, looking at my current list, it could do with an update. It's just too hard to choose these days!

Also, just watched the last 2 minutes for the, what, 20th time? Well done to the trainer who leapt over the fence and into the seats to retrieve the ball after the 50m penalty was paid. They were lightning (don't mention the lightning!) fast. Seriously, that could have been a crucial 5-10 seconds longer for Geelong to set up if this person wasn't so on the ball and dedicated to getting the ball back ASAP.

For similar reasons, it's probably the closest I've ever come to walking away at half time. I didn't, but the urge was there in a way it never really has been before (despite some truly terrible performances). I put it down to the kind of day (week, year) it's been. Just a big case of "I don't want to deal with this right now". So I get where you're coming from and I don't blame anyone who was in a similar boat and made the same choice - we all deserve to savour every tiny bit of this victory. (Glad you got to see the end though!)

We've got to stick together for this next part of the ride, even if (maybe especially if) it has to be virtual.

Good to see our Dublin trio reunited for a semi-final win! Goldie in her natural game was great to witness (a bit rusty perhaps but definitely that same dynamic movement we see in Aussie rules). Lots of AFLW representation in this game, with the Kelly sisters from the Eagles and Rowe from the Pies for Mayo as well. Another composed performance from Dublin. Some classy precision kicking going forward and for goal saw them again build up a nice lead to then control the game. Mayo seemed put off by Dublin's physicality and got too caught up in that rather than playing their own game, in my humble opinion! A bit of carnage all round. McEvoy looked proppy at the end and Magee with that blood rule, though of course that couldn't keep her from returning late in the game. Onwards to the final in a couple of weeks. Following this has been a nice lockdown distraction!

Just caught up with the game against Donegal - disconcerting seeing the opposition in the green and gold after binging so much Olympics! Another solid win for Dublin. Magee with the body on the line as always. In fact, all round one of the most physical games I've seen, plus a lot of 'chat' between the players. Thought this was one of the best games by McEvoy I've seen, or at least the most obviously influential. She really brings others along with her and sets things up well. Plus a classy finisher. I also like the way Rowe plays - wouldn't mind seeing her weaving through traffic with the Sherrin. I'm sure the team would have liked to do it a bit more comfortably but after a slow start they had fairly good control and kept the scoreboard ticking over well. I do like how the relatively small margin between a point and a goal means a consistent string of points is a valid way to build a score and a goal doesn't end it all. Or maybe I'm just frustrated from watching too much of the other round ball of late! Interesting post-match interviews with the coaches, with their comments about the lack of continuity in the game due to so many whistles for contact stuff. Seems like there's a desire for the whistle to be put away somewhat for a more free-flowing game. Although the Donegal coach also wanted more fouls called in his players' favour, so he kind of contradicted himself. In my biased and inexpert opinion, I felt the Dublin players walked the line well enough!

Great selection to shore up our defensive line. A good player for Casey this season, so already part of the Dees' system, which is always handy with the short preseason.

Thanks for posting! Will check it out at some stage. Is it likely that Goldie will make an appearance if Dublin go deeper into the finals? She's had such a long layoff, is she an immediate inclusion or does it depend a bit on match-ups and circumstances?

Yep, I think you're on the money there. Other clubs surely came knocking - best of luck to her.

Love this! Hopefully the first of many. Destination club ?

Up the Dubs! Enjoyed the goal-fest against Waterford. They really flicked the switch in that game!

Oh wait, and also the lengthy pause after Daisy (or anyone, but it's noticeable with her) says something intelligent and then the other commentator (BT mostly) basically goes, "Anyway...". No give and take, no acknowledgement except maybe a condescending "Good one". Double gah!

The one I hate (perhaps a bit irrationally) is when the umpire mic picks up something the umpire's said explaining their decision or just making their call and the commentator proceeds to say, "You heard the umpire", putting the viewer in one of two annoying positions: #1 Yes, I did hear the umpire, thanks for redundantly pointing that out Or, worse #2 No, I didn't hear the umpire and now I'm left to wonder what they said because instead of using your commentary to summarise or (heaven forbid!) expand on what they said, you've instead utterly wasted that time with a statement that's utterly worthless. Yes, if you're in position #1, it could be slightly annoying to have to listen to a repeat of what the umpire said if you've just heard it, but I'd hazard a guess that it would be MUCH less annoying than being in position #2 still with no idea what was said. Also when one commentator repeatedly gets a player's name wrong within the game and apparently no one quietly corrects them off-air? Even though clearly the other commentators are all saying it correctly. Do they not have any quality control? Case in point: how BT has always ALWAYS pronounced Salem "Sah-lem" not "Say-lem" like everyone else for some reason? And on one memorable occasion, "Slalom" and no, not even for some weak snow joke either. Gah!

ELIMINATION FINAL Unfortunately, it’s a 0/3 weekend for the Demons. Has to the first time that’s happened this year! I was planning to watch the video stream after the men’s game, but in an attempt to lift my spirits on the way home from the G, I checked the VFLW scores only to be disappointed. A three-point loss. A close game’s a good game though, so I checked out the stream despite knowing the cruel result (cruel turned out to be very apt considering the dying stages). AFLW-listed for the Demons: Fitzsimon, Heath, Colvin, Bannan, Parry, Tarrant, Zanker, West, Sherriff FIRST QUARTER The Bombers had the ball camped in forward 50 for most of the quarter, except for a solitary early foray forward that Casey thankfully capitalised on with a nice goal from Fellows. Essendon were unable to take advantage on their cleaner ball movement and forward pressure on the scoreboard. For the Dons, former Pie McIntosh (42 years young!) ran amok, so too did former Demon and Cat Mia-Rae Clifford. Also notable for Essendon was Georgie ‘sister of Maddie’ Prespakis—congratulations to whoever is lucky enough to draft her. About ten minutes in I began to wonder, where’s McNamara? This prompted me to discover she hasn’t played for a few weeks. Fingers crossed no injury there as she was going great guns and was sorely missed by Casey in this game. Casey by 3 points at quarter time. SECOND QUARTER Essendon kicked things up a gear in the second, their relentless tackle pressure denying Casey any time and space, and their composure and precision passing leading to four unanswered goals for the quarter. Meanwhile, Casey was sloppy with their tackles and struggled to hold possession. Tarrant was moved on to McIntosh to try to curtail her influence in place of young Kendall. Late in the second, Essendon had 21 to 3 inside 50s, testament to their dominance. Essendon by 23 points at half time. THIRD QUARTER Parry was moved into the ruck and provided such much-needed spark and first use for the Dees. Bannan was the beneficiary of an early forward entry, with a handy goal out the back. West built on a solid first half to become more prominent in this quarter. Heath upped the tackle pressure as well. A precise long kick by Parry set up a strong overhead mark by Bannan and another goal. Then an impressive 50-metre goal from ex-AFLW Demon Humphries saw the Dees claw the margin back to 5 points. All of this off the back of hard work at ground level and more success setting up handball chains going forward. Parry in the ruck was a bit of a revelation, and it was particularly enjoyable to see her palm the ball to the taller Zanker with success. It was a big turnaround, with Essendon failing to register an inside 50 in the third. Essendon by 4 points heading into the last. FOURTH QUARTER Casey had the momentum early, keeping the ball trapped inside 50 (at the non-scoring end). Bannan had another impressive mark, while Sherriff lifted, with a big impact on the wing. Mid-way through the quarter, it was a stalemate, with both teams applying immense pressure and not much happening in the way of composed ball movement. The work of Tarrant and Colvin stopped many Essendon forward entries, with Colvin being a bit of an enforcer as usual. Then, an excellent contest by Bannan halved a contest at attacking 50 allowing Heath out the back for a nice running goal. This put the Dees 3 points up with about ten minutes remaining. And then the cruel ending I referred to at the start. A controversial 50-metre penalty resulting in a goal was paid by the non-officiating umpire, with Casey player Fellows pinged for being in the protected zone. It was extremely unlucky, as she was basically in line with the mark and tried to exit the area, but the Essendon player went to kick quickly and was in the motion of swinging around on an arc to take her kick, inadvertently putting Fellows in the way as she exited. There was very little she should have done differently. Am I being biased? See here for the exact moment it all went down and let me know! To their credit, the Dees gritted their teeth and got on with it, but with 4 minutes on the clock in 20-minute quarters with no time-on… Time ran out and that was the end of Casey’s first VFLW finals campaign. They can hold their heads high after an impressive comeback (keeping Essendon to 1 goal from a controversial 50 in the second half). And a great season! FINAL SCORE Casey 5.2.32 Essendon 5.5.35 Goalkickers for Casey: 2 Bannan, 1 Fellows, Heath, Humphries. West lead the disposals again for Casey with 23, followed by Sherriff (20), Parry (18) and Tarrant (17). West has plenty of upside, clearly knows how to get the ball and with some more skills work could be anything. Meanwhile, Zanker (a late inclusion for new Casey player Gillespie-Jones, recently delisted by North) looked rusty and a bit out of sorts. She unloaded an epic barrel (maybe unintentional?) at one point that was a bit of fun. But generally, she got caught holding the ball trying to break tackles too many times and had a frustrating game. Though Essendon dominated the tackling, Heath led the way for Casey with 7, followed by Bannan and Johnson (6). Love that effort from Bannan; she had a pretty complete game. I think we’ll also see good things from Tarrant at AFLW level next season. I liked the efforts of Brown in the backline and Fairchild’s tenacious second efforts around the ball. Also the best I’ve seen from Kendall. NEXT UP: The 2021 AFLW draft will take place on the 27th of July. Preseason begins around September, in preparation for the 21-22 season commencing in December.

Update: Casey will take on Essendon in an Elimination Final at Casey Fields this Saturday at 12PM. You can probably guess what I was doing at 5PM today and why I won't be there! Will have to follow from afar. Potentially there will be a video stream on: https://www.youtube.com/user/AFLVictoria/videos

@Demonland Might be too late, but would be nice if you could mention Casey's first VFLW finals campaign on the podcast! ?

ROUND 14 The home and away season is over, which didn't look certain at one point, so that's something to celebrate. Not the finish the Dees would have liked, going down to the Western Bulldogs, who in turn would have been disappointed that their victory wasn't enough to secure a finals berth. Obviously the Dogs had lots to play for and definitely seem to have brought great endeavour that our team wasn't quite able to match. Two points up going into the final term, the Bulldogs finished strongly at Whitten Oval to run out 12-point winners, seemingly a margin that might have flattered Casey given the Dogs' inaccurate goalkicking. Then again, hard to say without actually witnessing the game! Interesting to note though, not much AFLW experience in this week's team. Resting? Going with the youngsters into the finals? Time will tell. AFLW-listed for Casey: Fitzsimon, Heath, Bannan, Parry, West, Sherriff. FINAL SCORE WB 5.10.40 Casey 4.4.28 Goalkickers: 2 Parry, 1 Bannan, Sherriff AFLW rookie Eliza West once again led the disposal count for Casey, with 24, followed by Brown, Hales and Sherriff, who also had a game-high 8 marks while Heath led the tackles with 13. The ladder: Casey finish the season in 4th, 0.6% above Essendon! The top 6 were: Collingwood (14 wins), Geelong (10), Port Melbourne AKA Richmond (10), Casey (8), Essendon (8), Southern Saints (7) NEXT WEEK And so the Casey Demons enter their first VFLW finals race. They'll play Essendon, date, time and venue TBA. If it's Sunday, I might just get there! Go Dees!

Thanks for your detailed reply! That does clarify things for me, especially in terms of it being about not impeding the player going forward with contact. I can definitely see that now. I appreciate how they use their footwork to corral the opponent and restrict their movement - a useful but maybe somewhat under-developed skill in Aussie Rules. I did get the sense that they are allowed to push the physicality to a certain extent, but it's very hard to see the line when you don't really know the original rules! And yes, I think the 5 second advantage was what I was picking up with the 'double tackles' and why that seemed to slow the play sometimes but not others. I watched the Tipperary game on the weekend and saw some great examples of Dublin dispossessing the opposition while they were soloing. It's all in the timing, I guess. As for the language, I still keep it on because it's quite soothing to listen to and it helps with picking up players' names. Also funny to think that not too many generations back in my family they'd have been able to understand! Will try to catch up with the rest of the games at some point. Hopefully more victories to come for Dublin.

ROUND 13 (finally!) Well, the Demons are back on the winner's list and Casey VFLW are a shining light on an otherwise thin weekend for red and blue content. Did I jinx a lockdown by complaining about the VFLW games never aligning with my own personal weekend schedule? Yes, that must be it! It was a welcome return to footy and Casey Fields (I can only imagine, since crowds were not allowed), with the Demons victorious by 53 points against Darebin, a name that once struck fear in the hearts of women's footballers and of course, the original home of so many of the league's very best. AFLW-listed for Casey: McNamara, West, Colvin, Parry, Fitzsimon, Heath (and Kendall, currently de-listed) It seems the game went pretty much as you'd expect for a top-4 contender against an almost winless team, but danger games only become more dangerous the longer you have to wait for them, so a dominant performance was welcome. The inside 50s perhaps tell the tale: 46 to 9 in Casey's favour, while 99 handballs to 55 likely speak to Casey's ability to move the ball in a more dynamic way despite ruck dominance by the Falcons. The Elizas combined to lead the disposal tally for Casey, closely followed by another young Demon in Fitzsimon, which hopefully augurs well for AFLW season 21-22 and beyond. FINAL SCORE Casey 9.6.60 Darebin 1.1.7 Goalkickers: 2 Milford, Parry, 1 Fellows, Fitzsimon, Gillespie-Jones, McNamara, West Casey's Disposal leaders: 22 McNamara, West, 21 Fitzsimon Good to see new AFLW rookie West hit the scoreboard. And always good when a player you notice is almost immediately recruited to the big-time! She's actually the 4th-ranked in disposals in the league so it probably wasn't my recommendation that did it. Other notable league-wide stats leaders (since I just found them on the app): Milford is 2nd in goals with 19, one behind the leader; and Fairchild is 5th in tackles. The sign and trade merry-go-round has come into immediate effect at VFLW level, with Casey snapping up ex-Carlton and North player Gillespie-Jones, who just might be a handy addition to the AFLW side. From memory, she can play either key forward or back so might add the kind of versatile depth that's so valued by our team. The ladder: Casey retain 4th place Next week: Casey take on 6th-placed Western Bulldogs at Whitten Oval, as was originally planned for R13. This is the final home and away game. A win would cement a top 4 finish for the Dees and great lead-in to their very first VFLW finals campaign!

I checked out the game against Cork - thanks for sharing, very enjoyable and a bit of nail-biter! Dublin are clearly a well-drilled team that's able to find another gear when challenged. Was fun to watch 'our' girls in their natural element as well. McEvoy, when she came on, seemed to be a bit of an organiser of the play behind the ball, leading an (almost ill-fated!) attempt to suck some time out of the game. Interestingly, Magee's speed really stood out to me among what is obviously a speedy bunch of players. She has so much up-side for Aussie Rules with a bit more time getting used to the game. There was another player who stood out to me as having great potential, but her name escapes me right now - I'll try to pick her out next game I watch! One question - where exactly is the line with a legal tackle? It seems like a player can be sort-of grabbed once but if they go in again it's a penalty? But then other times that's allowed.

Thought some of you might be interested in this piece by AFLW expert Gemma Bastiani. It's an in-depth look at how the Dees' 2021 list was put together and how the club is developing its young players in the unique AFLW environment: https://sirensport.com.au/aussie-rules/aflw-player-development-how-the-demons-are-getting-it-right/ I've cherry-picked some highlights: - Melbourne fielded the fewest Victorian top-ten draftees in the 2021 season - While most Victorian clubs built their 2021 lists through the draft, Melbourne has looked to cross-code rookies more than any other Victorian club. A strategy somewhat making up for their limited access to high-end draft picks. Of the four inaugural Victorian clubs, the Demons have had access to just eight top ten Victorian players since 2017, compared to 11 at Collingwood, 12 at Carlton and 17 at the Western Bulldogs. - Players aren’t the only ones putting in extra time outside of contracted hours year round. Head coach Mick Stinear and his coaching panel run extra skills sessions twice a week, and willingly conduct one-on-one sessions with players whenever requested. - L.Pearce, on the turning point in her form ahead of her All Australian 2019 season - Pearce would head down to the men’s training sessions outside of her contracted hours to work with men's coach Greg Stafford. “Prior to that, obviously, I was working during the days and stuff and it was not until that 2018 [VFLW] season that I was able to drop off work quite a bit, which therefore gave me more time to invest in my game outside of normal training hours.” The fact that the club and Pearce were able to negotiate this extra position-specific training time meant the ruck was able to develop her ground-level game during team training sessions. - Also some interesting stuff from the likes of Hanks, Heath and Tarrant about their progress in the last few years.

In better news, Eliza West from Casey has scored a spot on our rookie list: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/955804/west-earns-spot-on-dees-aflw-rookie-list Definitely stood out to me in the bits and pieces of Casey I've seen this season - no way I'd have guessed it's her first season of footy (ex-basketball)!

Cunningham definitely copped some flack over the years (from me included!), but considering she was a cross-coder who switched to footy in her late twenties, she got the absolute best out of herself and was evolving even in her last season. Unfortunately for Downie, injury caught up to her in the last few seasons. I'll always remember that massive hit she took in season one - did her hamstring and then got hit immediately. She did have some bad luck but I sense she'll be missed around the club. I can't help but imagine what both these players would have been like if they'd played since childhood and had a proper pathway to follow. Their games totals will seem small in the not distant future, as seasons get longer and players have 10+ year careers, but hopefully fans and the club will remember the important part they had in our foundation years.

Well this turned out to be a bit of a steal. I was concerned by what we'd have to give up for Tayla...as it turns out, nowhere as much as I'd thought. Sad to lose Emonson, but key forwards are at a premium. Not sure what's gone on at Carlton - perhaps they're trying to clear out before expansion and got too many players off side in the process? The retirement of Cunningham also puts things in a different light for us. The thing about Tayla is, regardless of form, opposition coaches aren't going to underestimate her, which will give the likes of Bannan some more development time.