Dees_In_October

While I'm in AFLW mode, I've broken down our 2020 list in terms of my opinions for definite keeps and those who could be potential trades/de-listings. I've included all the first-year players in the latter because even though we had glimpses of them all, it was not enough to make any big statements (though I'd take Parry as the pick of that bunch). Without a proper VFLW season, there'll be some tough choices and less to base it all on. Keep: Birch, Cordner, Downie, Emonson, Gay, Guerin, Hanks, Heath, Hore, Lampard, Mithen, Paxman, D.Pearce, L.Pearce, Scott, Sherriff, Smith, Zanker Potential trades/de-listings: Colvin, Cunningham, Kemp, Newman, O'Dea (controversial and unlikely!), Parry, Petrevski, Tarrant. There are question marks over Jakobsson, who was planning to come back via VFLW but is still best 21 in my books. Perkins was an injury replacement player so would have to be re-taken through the draft. Given what she gave us, we mightn't be the only ones interested now, though she'll likely go to the Hawks whenever they come in regardless. Sloane (rookie) has struggled with injury for a few years now so it might be time to look elsewhere. The other two rookies Goldrick and McEvoy added plenty but their return from Ireland is understandably an unknown quantity. Like every Melbourne team, we need an established and proven full forward to fall in our laps, but I don't see that happening given our picks will be low and I see there being less movement trade-wise as the expansion settles for a bit.

In among all the drama, the AFL has announced the plan for the 2021 AFLW season. https://womens.afl/news/51667/statement-afl-reaffirms-commitment-to-aflw-2021-season-model-unveiled In summary, it's going ahead as planned by the previous CBA, kicking off in February, with a 9-week home and away season then a 3-week finals series. Player payments and the current soft cap will stay the same. Great commitment shown by the AFL and to have this laid out so quickly. While most other state league comps seem to be going ahead mostly as planned, the VFLW will be drastically reduced to a 4-team series. Not much info at the moment about how the teams will be put together, but the focus looks to be on players trying to break into the AFLW. That makes sense but is a shame for the AFLW players who rely on the VFLW season to play more than a handful of games a year. But it's exceptional times, of course. The key dates for the AFLW sign and trade period have also been announced: Monday August 3 AFLW Sign & Trade Period commences (12pm) Wednesday August 12 Trade period closes (2pm) AFLW List Lodgement # 1 (4pm) Monday August 17 Re-signing and Restricted Free Agent period closes (2pm) AFLW List Lodgement # 2 (4pm) Friday August 21 Delisted Free Agent period closes (2pm) AFLW List Lodgement # 3 (4pm) AFLW Draft order confirmed During this period, Clubs will be permitted to sign up to 27 players, including rookie players. Rookie players in the AFL Women’s Competition are those that have not been listed with any Australian football team for the past three years.

Got to love it when a truly deserving player who's barely spoken of outside the club gets the win. She went to another level this year and has been among our most consistent since Season 1. Great effort. Also good to see some youngsters on the leaderboard in Hanks, Zanker and Sherriff.

Interesting read about Paxy and her job with the Police Association. Definitely a rollercoaster week. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/paxman-earns-aflw-honour-in-the-midst-of-tragedy-20200427-p54noa.html

Great effort! This is the extended squad, with the final 21 player squad to be announced at the (possibly virtual) W-Awards. If Paxman makes it, as she surely will, she'll be one of just two players to be a 4x AFLW All-Australian.

Great player, probably our greatest across the first 4 years. In the first couple of seasons, she always looked like she was playing a different game to everyone else, such was her talent. It's less apparent now, even as she somehow stepped up her game further this year. My favourite story which shows her commitment and professionalism is how she arrived around 11am for the Friday night Whitten Oval game, all kitted up and ready to go, not wanting to get stuck in traffic. Just a note on this award for those who are unaware. The award Paxy has won is the Afl Women's website Player of the Year. A nice accolade, but it's not the Brownlow equivalent as the name might suggest. The league B&F Award (as yet unnamed) will be announced at the W Awards, along with the All Australian Team, Rising star etc. Last year this was held after the Grand Final so it's TBA when this will be announced. I think Paxy is a smoky for that award because there are few players who'll take votes off her, compared to the other favourites. Unfortunately her standard is so consistently good, that she sometimes goes unnoticed.

I don't think the Hawks were going to be in until 2023 at the earliest anyway. I don't see how they could have added more teams while the current 3-year CBA was in place. All irrelevant now, as any more expansion is surely put off altogether. Which is what most fans/women's footy people wanted anyway, since 2017!

I reckon Lily's match-winner and celebration might end up my footy moment of 2020! And all things considered, I'm ok with that.

As for the game, well, wow. We didn't give the greatest account of ourselves in the first three and a half quarters, looking very disjointed up forward and loose in defense (Missing Lampard and Downie, plus the speed of the Irish). But what we did have is the one thing this team has had in spades since day 1. They never give up. It doesn't always come off, often they leave it too late or shoot themselves in the foot with conversion. But they just keep going. That's what I want above all else in a footy team so even if we got lucky, I was very proud. Perko - let's keep her, Daisy - immense, Scott's marking and second efforts kept us in it. O'Dea (Junior) was just willing us over the line and you could see on the bench after Lily's goal that she knew it wasn't over yet - focused. Newman worked hard and played selflessly. Heath and L.Pearce did well to last the distance on their return and were important. Obligatory mention of Paxman, of course. Hore found ways to get involved despite being well held at times. Cordner made some mistakes but also had some important touches. Special mention to Sherriff who's quietly gone about a great debut season- I've wanted to mention her every week but keeps slipping from mind! My favourite part of the game review? Injuries: Nil. Shout out to (just some!) of the injured at home and to McEvoy and Goldie who were probably stuck in an airport somewhere on the way home to Ireland. Petrevski, a debut to remember. Hopefully her cousin can celebrate similarly tomorrow! Next week? Let's just get through tomorrow. And then Monday. It's a long time away.

I'll give it a go because it's a great example of our "one club" spirit. This kind of thing is so important to a strong culture and we all need to support each other, especially at the moment. Also we must identify the player who said "she won't make the distance" so Lily can tell them what for! Just kidding, it was a tough kick and I'm sure few were confident!

This team is okay on paper but a lack of cohesion might hurt us, as it's quite different structurally. Can't quite believe we're playing in a final tomorrow! It's come so slowly and so quickly at the same time. I only hope they're able to give it their best in strange circumstances and enjoy what might be their last game for a long time.

Yep 23 including emergencies. 21 in the game. We've listed an ex-player who's in a coaching role this year and a player with a concussion concern as our emergencies...so I don't think the league is taking the need for 23 very seriously at this point.

For those jumping in for finals action, here's where the list sits after a tumultuous season. These are just "long-term" (3+ week) and season-ending injuries/absences so far, from the original list of 30. In the end, we did have 16 players who played all 6 home and away games. Before R1: Smith (knee, season), Sloane (knee, season), Jakobsson (work absence, season), L.Pearce (R1-3, 5-?), Mithen (R1-4) R2-R6: Kemp (knee, season), Guerin (knee, season), Heath (appendicitis, ?), Downie (illness, ?), Lampard (knee, season), Goldrick (home to Ireland, season), McEvoy (home to Ireland, season) So from last week's team we have 18 players. Then, possibly available for this weekend: Downie, L.Pearce, Heath, Colvin, Petrevski and apparently former Docker and Blue Kirby Bentley, another train-on. So we'll get to 21 in one way or another. But we go into this game quite depleted. Of those now missing, I'd say 6 at absolute minimum are in our best 21.

Former Demon vice captain and current Geelong captain Mel Hickey is the first go. A great ambassador for women's footy over many years and a friend to many current Dees. AFLW Geelong captain: 2019– AFL Women's All-Australian team: 2017 VWFL/VFLW 7× VWFL/VFLW premiership player: 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 VFL Women's team of the year: 2016

And just to add, there are many players across the league who will now have played their last game without knowing it, due to age, injuries, the competition passing them by or the need to return to careers. An all too brief footy career for some but I'm sure greatly cherished. Nothing major in the scheme of the world but I think worth noting.

Love the way these two have attacked the game - no fear. They've obviously been told to just give it crack, not to worry about mistakes. I think they've had a great impact and have been a positive in a season where we've had to rely more on depth players than ever before.

8- team final series. https://womens.afl/news/49363/aflw-finals-structure-revealed-after-season-cut-short Thanks to the AFL for its stellar communication during this time /end sarcasm In all seriousness, I doubt there'll be a Grand Final. Things could look different quickly. Let's all enjoy the possibly brief moment where the Dees are still in the hunt. (Also, can we even field a team? With Lampard down and Goldrick maybe out, we're still around 1 fit player.)

As much as I don't enjoy the injuries and mystery illnesses, it's great the Perko gets another go. As soon as we hit that 23 fit player threshold, she can't play, so this might be her last go unless they continue to drop like flies. And the game? I can't pick it. Carlton are a good team, solid across every line and fast. It'll be a big test, especially for our defense, which has the lowest against score in the league (aided somewhat by the low-scoring poor weather games). Carlton are the 3rd best attack though, so who knows. A win sets us up, a loss sets us back. All failing, barrack against Collingwood.

Yep, I'm pretty much as dedicated as they come for our AFLW team, but I still go to Casey with dragging feet. It always feels like there are only Melbourne supporters there from that side of Clayton onwards. The team probably hasn't gained as much traction among our traditional supporters as it has for the inner city clubs. The plus is that it felt like the majority who were there were young families. Lots of little Demons running around and I remember when that was a rare sight. As to the game, well there's not much more to say about a good win against a clearly inferior opponent. I was glad they were able to put down the pedal in the second half and get the percentage boost, as this has been our downfall too many times. As an aside, the girls looked like they were having so much fun out there, which of course is easy when you're smashing a team, but I thought it was a good energy boost in what's been a tumultuous year so far for the list. The way they got around Perko was great and Mithen's selflessness in forgoing another attempt at her own first goal for a teammate's is hopefully a reflection of the team ethos.

Kat Smith presented her jumper so maybe her? Glad Sarah gets another go around this week, but as soon as someone else becomes fit, unfortunately that's it for her per the rules.

Yep, we sure did look better. The flow on effect of having L.Pearce was crucial, freeing up Zanker, Scott and Cordner to play more of their natural roles and in turn taking pressure off each line. Agree with others that, while they didn't exactly set the world on fire, Cunningham and Newman were improved. Seven individual goalkickers reflected a team effort - especially that chain of handballs to set up Scott, started by Newman on the boundary. We had the 2nd highest number of marks i50 and 2nd best disposal efficiency for Round 4. Was great to see Parry do so well on debut, joining the "goal with first kick" club. Time will tell if her massive goalkicking numbers in the Canberra league will translate at the top level. Clearly recruited to help our goalkicking, wish she could've been out there sooner. This was the 25th game for both Paxman and O'Dea, meaning they've played every possible game for us so far. No mean feat across 4 seasons. Scott will likely notch up her 25th in R5. For reference, the players with the most games in the league are 2 Adelaide players with 28. Some stats for the mid-way point of the season: league-wide Paxman is 7th for disposals (avg. 20.3 at 70% eff.), 7th for metres gained, 10th for contested possessions and eq. 5th in i50s. Daisy is averaging 14 at 71% and is eq. 5th in intercept possessions (Birch is eq. 6th). Scott is equal 4th in score involvements, Hore is eq. 6th, Zanker is eq. 12th. Hanks is 8th in tackles. Looking ahead to next week, we might actually face some selection dilemmas! Mithen is apparently ready to go. The obvious switch would have been Heath, but she already went out last week. With appendicitis because, of course. Our injury stress lessens slightly, with now 3 fit players outside the 21, although we're clearly not going to be as fresh as other teams. Every game's a danger game from here on out! We have two games left at Casey, so get along if you can.

My thoughts are mainly: WHAT A SHOCKER! Yep, that classic danger game. When I said last week "watch out for Greiser", who knew it would come to such devastating fruition. What a kick though. Wish she was ours. Patrikios too. 18 years old! Scott's kick was pretty good too. It seems like the conditions in the first few weeks really did disguise our flaws, the same ones since year 1: goalkicking and fwd 50 efficiency. And it felt like our ruck situation really started to have its toll. Cordner is 9th in the league hitouts, which is a good effort and all for a non-ruck but can't come close to the quality of L.Pearce. And there isn't a single Demon in the top 10 clearance players (Paxman and Gay are 13th). Cunningham was MIA and needed to capitalise when she did get it, which she failed to do. Wasn't alone there, of course. What bothered me was the number of times a Saints player was able to touch set shots on the line, uncontested. Where were our talls? I actually thought Newman was quite lively, but she needs to hit the scoreboard soon. Still, we haven't got much choice in selections. Unless L.Pearce, Parry and Mithen are recovered, with Guerin out, we're at 22 players and need to select 21. This was the kind of performance I'd actually expected in the first few rounds. To be honest, both North and the Bulldogs really failed advantage in the way they should have. The Saints played our weaknesses well. The way they'd pushed Adelaide the week before marked them as the expansion side with the most potential. Their defensive pressure was great and played a part in preventing us from getting the scrappy goals we've relied on in the first two rounds. We needed to put them away early or they were always going to put everything into getting that first win. Two players down didn't help, but we still should have been able to grind it out. We won basically every stat except the one that matters, so none of this was through lack of effort. We had the top 5 fantasy point players (not always the most reliable of measures, but does say something). It was just the finishing. Daisy is 3rd in the comp in intercept possessions - but do we need her to be the one making more of those i50s? I appreciated the efforts of Paxman (26 disposals), Hore, Zanker (8 tackles) and Hanks (who led with 9 tackles) in particular. After our great marking performance in the wet, Hore seemed to the only one who brought her hands to this game! As an aside, well done to the Saints who really pulled out all stops to make for a great atmosphere at Moorabbin. Even in the frustration of a defeat and a woeful attacking performance, I was pleased for their fans. Next week? Who knows. The potential return of L.Pearce and Mithen could give us a much-needed shake-up. Do we persist with the likes of Cunningham and Newman? At Docklands...I lean towards yes but am by no means confident. Still, at the start of the season, all things considered, I would have seen 2-1 as a win.

Great win last weekend. Daisy - 100% kicking efficiency before half time in the wet. Tyla Hanks - getting a young footballer's education as a negative mid; great to see, since her offensive side is so strong as well. The Irish duo - all class, please run the clip from the 1987 prelim during the week, just to be sure. Kemp - super sad, deserved some luck. Hoping we can bring our hunger and discipline to some dry and still (surely!) conditions tomorrow night. Cunningham and Newy, it's your time to shine. I wonder if we've been able to upgrade a train-on, as with Kemp out that takes the list down to 23, assuming that Parry isn't yet fit. Likely to be Guerin or maybe a debut for Brenna 'snakes in the library' Tarrant. The Saints were strong against an injury-stricken Crows last week and have a solid mix of experience and top-class youth. Watch for Patrikios and the new 'G-train' in Greiser.

Late to the game here, but I welcome any and all research on this topic. It absolutely falls under reasoned and justified discussion of the league, purely because, for top-level footy, it's a completely new area that all (or most) players, teams and clubs have to learn to address. This goes down to changeroom design, training of coaches in this regard, and so on. People who say that if there is a link to injury, then women shouldn't be playing, blatantly ignore the massive health and social benefits that the many players who'll never do an ACL enjoy. More research can only help, given that men's bodies have historically often been the default in medical science. There'll be more and more data as women's sports (particularly contact ones) move into better-resourced, semi-professional territory. Probably if menstruation is a factor in ACL injuries, it's likely to be a risk factor that coincides with several others to create a 'perfect storm' scenario. Anecdotally, it feels like there are fewer ACL injuries at VFLW level, for example, but that's just an impression not actual numbers. On a slightly different angle, openness about menstruation, while uncomfortable to some, is of vital importance for girls and young women's continued engagement with sport. It's not so much about someone's cycle impeding their ability to play (there's wide variation in the impact for individuals), it's the stigma and silence around it that causes worries - without going into too much detail - about uniform design, facilities and access to knowledge about how to manage it or even who to turn to for that support. I hope AFLW can be part of addressing that - I've gone into it here just because, how often does this topic come up on Demonland! ?

Usually I'd have something to add when I stroll in here mid week but everyone's already covered the main points. (Plus the traditional derail that must occur in every AFLW convo, yawn. Got to say that most Dees supporters commenting here seem to understand the context of the league better than the average AFL men's fan...no surprise there, of course ?). Love seeing the enthusiasm for an unexpected win here after the loooong offseason! My favourite thing about watching footy is seeing players develop and improve, picking out the ones with potential and then (hopefully!) seeing that realised at the highest possible level. Obviously, AFLW has that in spades, so for that and many other reasons, I find it very enjoyable. So there are are two players I do want to highlight who I didn't see mentioned up thread. Shelley Heath and Harriet Cordner. Heath is one that I could see great potential in when she debuted in 2019. Her game on the weekend, especially when it was there to be won in the last quarter, showed all of that starting to come together. She just went and went and went, super tenacious and looked really fresh as other players tired. Harriet is a sentimental favourite for obvious reasons but she's improved so much over the first 3 seasons and had a big VFLW campaign, winning Casey's B&F (Birch, Zanker and Jakobsson were joint Runners-up, for those playing at home). It was a massive task for her to shoulder most of the ruck duties against North's ruck duo, particularly King, who is some 10 cm taller and much more experienced in the role. Harriet did a great job and was well supported by her teammates. Here's some photographic evidence of her efforts (credit to Cassidy Captured photography). Ok, so I guess I had a bit to say after all. Go Dees!