Dees_In_October

And narrower, to a different proportion. The length isn't a problem because you can just size down from a men's shoe, but then the width is usually still too wide. It probably isn't an issue for kids' sizes, but after that, it makes a difference.

Thank you football gods. I'm yet to see the actual second incident (in the marking contest), but from the verdict, it sounds like common sense prevailed and the description in the initial report made it sound worse than it was. George on the outer - the incident shown in the footage is the first incident, which was just a reprimand.

Everyone could see from the get-go that it was a terrible idea, even if they managed to guess well enough to make even conferences - and yes, it would be a guess! It's nigh on impossible to know who will rise and fall from season to season, with expansion teams, the rate of improvement, the significant movement between clubs, the immediate influence of draftees. Having said that, they sure did make some weird choices based on teams' standings in the first 2 seasons. Regardless, it's not a true competition if all teams don't play each other once. It just isn't. The number 1 thing the AFL can do to improve the standard is to give teams the chance to play together for as many games as possible.

Sounds like the Cunningham report was for a separate incident to the one the commentators talked about, which was the earlier incident shown on replay that was clearly on body. Who knows what the second one was like because I'm pretty sure they never showed it. I don't like her chances the way it's described though. Bye bye 30% of the season! Our players that made the Team of the Week: Defenders: Harriet Cordner Midfielders: Lauren Pearce Forwards: Aliesha Newman Interchange: Karen Paxman

Excellent win and very even across the board - I reckon everyone out there played their role and contributed in some way. That's probably a strength this season compared to some other teams who tend to rely on their top 2-3. Cordner had a standout game and was well assisted by the way the rest of the backs organised themselves and set up. To Lions were super predictable (in part due to our pressure on the ball carrier) and we read them like a book. Once we had it hemmed in our forward line it was all over, especially given our dominance out of the middle. By contrast, when they had it trapped in their forward line in the third quarter, our defense was tenacious (helped along by some let offs by their players). Perhaps Newman's best game? Could have easily had 4! The day that Zanker kicks a bag is approaching, but for now I just love her follow-up and forward pressure. L.Pearce has improved out of sight of the back of an excellent VFLW season and I think really thrives being the sole true ruck, although they seemed to share it round more yesterday. Some of her spot up kicks into the forward line were excellent. Also probably Phillips best game this season, much more involved. If Cunningham was reported for that only slightly late and not particularly forceful hit when it wasn't even paid as a free kick I would have been annoyed. Glad it was just a mistake by the commentators, who do tend to take things and run with them. Agree with Meggs about Kat Smith, an underrated player and worth swinging forward if we need a shuffle. Our chances next week? If we can play our utmost best, anything might happen but it won't be smooth sailing. Will be trekking out to Casey to see how it goes and looking forward to seeing lots of red and blue out there.

For the most part, I like having the separate board as it makes it a little harder for people who don't have constructive contributions to interrupt those that do. The key word being constructive - criticism is fine but the boring "I'd rather do X than watch blah blah" comments are so tired and unnecessary, luckily there has been less of that here lately than in other places. It's just annoying when people feel the need to rush in and say they're not interested when everyone else just wants to talk about what's actually happening on the field. Having said that, the more the merrier, so if having the game thread on the main board brings more people along for the ride, why not?

Yeah, by 'usual level' I meant 'amazing' but maybe she was better than that - named in the team of the week! Can't say I noticed Gay's input much on the weekend, definitely more impact last week. Early days yet, but here's where the Dees stand for some key stats across the first 2 rounds: 1st: handballs, contested possessions, hit outs, cont. marks, clearances 2nd: behinds 3rd: goals 7th: marks 8th: disp. eff. and kicks 9th: tackles

Every time I see that clip I always watch out for the camera flash. Perfect timing from all involved!

Great atmosphere at Vic Park - by which I mean thousands of very quiet Pies supporters and a bunch of happy Dees! Just the way it should be. Again the wind wreaked havoc but we played it much better than they did. I liked our players' persistence and willingness to go again and again even when we weren't quite linking up. We looked much tighter and steadier down back. Although the Pies forward structure was nothing to write home about, we'll gain some confidence from being able to shut them down. Solid returns from Guest and Kemp. We looked better with Jakkobson down back and Cordner, Lampard and Downie took it up a notch. Emonson is very composed. Woodland also seemed more comfortable in game 2. Mithen is having the kind of season I was hoping for in the absence of Daisy. Her positioning's spot on and she's finding some space. L.Pearce's workrate and follow-up are great. Would love to know how many times she was able to take possession straight out. O'Dea and Paxman brought their usual level although Paxman really should have converted some of those chances. Not great conditions for getting the ball to Cunningham on the lead and Zanker didn't have many opportunities either but both found ways to be involved. Probably needed more out of Scott, Hore and Newman. On the other hand, Hanks showed some real spark. Must-win game next week. They all are, plus we'll be counting on some upsets down the track...

AFLCA Votes Round 1: Melbourne v Fremantle 9 – Karen Paxman (MELB) 7 – Kiara Bowers (FRE) 6 – Ebony Antonio (FRE) 4 – Dana Hooker (FRE) 2 – Elise O’Dea (MELB) 2 – Lauren Pearce (MELB) AFLW Leaderboard: 10 – Emily Bates (BRIS) 10 – Nina Morrison (GEEL) 10 – Lauren Spark (WBD) 9 – Jasmine Garner (NMFC) 9 – Karen Paxman (MELB)

2 players in the team of the week: "Midfielders: Lauren Pearce (ruck, Melbourne), Ally Anderson (Brisbane), Ellie Blackburn (Western Bulldogs), Ebony Marinoff (Adelaide), Nina Morrison (Geelong), Karen Paxman (Melbourne) Pearce had an excellent winter, finishing second in the VFLW best and fairest playing for Darebin. She was one of Melbourne's best in its loss to Fremantle with 32 hit-outs, 11 disposals (10 contested) and five clearances. Karen Paxman continues to cement her status as one of the competition's elite midfielders with 18 contested possessions and a round-high nine clearances."

So unlucky and cruel after waiting so long to play.

A frustrating loss in stupid conditions - of course, both teams have to deal with it, by why schedule it during the hottest part of the day?? Wish we could have taken advantage of the breeze in the first and being down a player for the second half didn't help - super bad luck for Sloane in her first game. Unfortunately, as we well know, one loss can break a season. Especially since we seem to be in the stronger conference. That third quarter was something to behold though and I hope we can continue to put that kind of score on more consistently. (Incidentally, the difference in Round 1 average scores and Round 7 average scores in both seasons definitely trends upwards, so it's unfortunate when people latch onto a couple of low-scoring games in the first round). Anyway, I liked our spread of goals, some other teams are quite reliant on 1 or 2 forwards. Zanker and Gay stood out. Hanks did a few nice things too. Overall defense was a shambles though, far too many players looked lost out there. Jakobsson is one of our best for intercept marking and positioning so with Sloane potentially out she might go back. The other players that stood out to me were L.Pearce who dominated the hit outs and Mithen who was in everything and probably cleanest by hand from my vantage point. I agree with DeeSpencer that Scott and Smith need to spend most of their time in their natural HF and HB positions. Looking forward to a more pleasant watching experience at Vic Park next week ( hopefully the result is more pleasant too!)

Same. Wouldn't miss it! Jakobsson forward? I like it.

It's also not as though the consequence of injuries like these are only felt by the 'employers'. Players at this level (mostly) are super competitive - they hate being on the sidelines. Anything they choose to do is with this risk in mind, there's really no greater deterrent that could be imposed on them than the idea of missing a season or having a career-ending injury.

Great report Meggs, love your work. There's going to be a lot of focus on the absence of Daisy but I agree the loss of Hickey and Rocky will be just as impactful. I'm looking forward to seeing the new batch as well as the continued progression of the likes of Hore, Mithen and Zanker.

Thanks for your report. I wasn't able to make the game so good to hear from someone who was there. Am hoping to get along to training again before the season starts. Glad to hear our set-shot kicking was okay... the numbers of points is concerning, though as always it's a matter of once we start converting properly - watch out! It's been that way for the past 2 seasons, though; we tend to score through the weight of numbers of opportunities rather than great conversion. Hopefully it comes together when the real stuff starts.

I chose my name during the period when there were more frequent October Grand Finals. Now I think of it as, if I'm still celebrating in October, it's a good year for the Dees.

It’s that rare beast – an AFLW training report. Disclaimer: I’m terrible at recognising players without their numbers and haven’t put names to faces for the new recruits. So my observations are quite generalised. The main drill I witnessed was moving the ball from end to end, re-setting once the defensive team touched it. The players were divided into four teams for this, at first playing on two smaller sized areas, which saw lots of missed short kicks and drops marks (at least in the drill closest to me). Paxman stood out and was constantly in motion, even while the drill was re-starting. Then the area was expanded, with the four teams rotating on and off. They had more success with this, hitting targets better and switching with some fluency. Someone got put down in a hard tackle; after a short break, play resumed, so probably just precautionary checks. There were some nice evasive moves in this drill from players who were not familiar to me so that either bodes well for our new additions or poorly for my eyesight. Next up, they split into line groups – no positional surprises there in terms of this year’s players. Defenders practiced spoiling from behind; mids roved to L. Pearce and worked on clearing to outside runners; forwards practiced goal kicking. Rushed set shots was a major bugbear of mine this year, so I was happy to hear them being exhorted to take the full 30 seconds. Even still, some were taking them too quickly in my reckoning. Zanker has a great action and Cunningham struck a nice one from a fair distance. Back to the mids – away from the main group were Paxman, O’Dea and (I’m fairly certain) Mithen, practicing their positioning and bodywork at ball ups. Onto the most critical part of any pre-season training report: hats. A startling lack of hats – perhaps as summer players most prefer to practice as they play? There were some visors though, all facing forwards, none backwards. There were a couple of players running laps, my best guess would be Patterson and Emonson. Aside from that there were no noticeable players recovering or absentees, although now that I think of it, I didn’t notice Kate Hore or Talia Radan, who I guess is the first AFLW premiership player on our list. Daisy stood out as always but for different reasons than usual, of course. She was behind the boundary line when I first got there but was soon between the drills providing encouragement and feedback with the coaches. Overall, there were positive vibes. I wouldn’t say they’ve quite trained the house all the way down, but I hope to get along to a post-Xmas session to check the progress.

Great idea! This is what I came to add. In my mind though, Viney actually dropped his mouthguard and STILL managed to pick it up and catch Selwood in time. Did I completely make this up?! Either way, awesome moment.

It's like having Knickers the cow X2

We should really re-analyse the fixture after each season, to see if what we thought was 'hard' the previous November really turns out to be. But we never care by then. One positive is I used to look at the fixture, clutching for any straw that might give us a sliver of hope, whereas now I figure we either stand up to the challenge or we don't. Most likely, sometimes we will and sometimes we won't. The stuff around the NT games annoys me because we're doing the AFL a service in promoting the game there (not just lining our pockets, although that's obviously part of it). So when there are clear solutions that would give us a slightly longer break, it's frustrating that they don't. I kind of wish they'd just have everyone play each other once and be done with it but then it would be much harder for them to disguise the inequality I guess. Also the $$$ factor.

Very sad. Far too young to go. RIP

Aside from the ridiculous conference system and the uneven, nonsensical fixture that results - I could rant forever - the positives for me are some better venues and I do like one of the new teams getting the chance to open the season. The summer games at Casey have a fun atmosphere and though it's a bit of a hike from anywhere on the other side of the city, it's worth it to support our team at home. The games at Etihad and Victoria Park in 2019 are also good opportunities to check the Dees out in more central locations with better seating facilities. Apparently, they haven't finalised the broadcast deal yet, which is odd considering that was what they were supposedly prioritising over every team playing each other. But anyway.

Glad we've bolstered the forward line some more. Maybe an experienced defender for the interstate free agent. I guess we don't really have a true second ruck now but not as necessary, fingers crossed, over the short season. Noticed that Paxman was representing the players at draft day - maybe captain or vice captain in 2019?