Dees_In_October

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?

We've got some big gaps to fill and not much to work with here. Hopefully we'll be able to make the best of it.

3 votes Max Gawn in the midfielder's award

Just posting to move us along off 186.

I can't remember if we knew this already, but Bartlett mentioned in his B&F speech that this had been 2 or 3 years in the planning so far.

To be honest, I never really thought of Max as necessarily leadership group material. Definitely an on-field or spiritual leader in the way he goes about it but not as a motivator or serious role model. His speech at the B&F made me see him in a new light. I was hanging off his every word, not just laughing at his jokes, and was about ready to take myself off to the dietitian he was so convincing. Certainly, I got the impression that the other players look up to him in more ways than one in recent times.

Back pocket royalty