Dees_In_October

I'd hoped to watch the replay before commenting, having seen it live, but no dice. Anyway, yeah, we stole that one. So many mistakes. Dropped marks, fumbling, bizarre decisions with ball in hand. We lacked that run and gun, and the Pies were onto it (credit to them). Do we persist, given the the personnel situation, or tweak it? When it came to the crunch, the class and desperation of Hanks, Chaplin, Hore, McNamara and Bannan led the way. Aided by the Pies’ inability to put the game away, of course. Harris was also huge in the air on a day when we saw costly, uncharacteristic, spilled marks from Hore, Gall, Zanker and Campbell. Would have loved to have had Heater on Bonnici in the second half. Glad she's seemingly ok. Shout out also to our young brigade who toughed it out. At one point our backline was: S.Taylor (6 games), Wotherspoon (11), Ebert (3), O’Hehir (3) and Rigoni on debut. As a wise man repeatedly said, there were learnings. On O’Hehir, she’s gotten better in every game of her short career so far. Keep that trajectory and the sky's the limit. Love that bit of dash and long kick; is fairly accountable defensively as well. Rigoni competed hard and it was just so good to see her out there—supported by a big contingent of family, friends and ex-Demons including David Schwartz, who I saw seated at the cheer squad end when I went to grab a drink at quarter time. On the venue – love it. Actually, I think I'll make a separate thread about this, because it's something we all have views and ideas about, and it's probably the biggest off-field topic for this team.

Thanks for this update, it was very concerning. Really glad that every precaution was taken - as Mick basically said, health (and Heath!) is more important than footy.

Interviewer - "Have you kicked 7 in a game before?" Noah Yze - "I don't think so. I've kicked 10."

Ooooozzzeeeee!

Yze, Brown, Woewodin, White, Rigoni. It's throwback central around the club of late! Go Casey! Bring it home.

Avg. games experience of teams as selected: Narrm: 37.3 Collingwood: 34.8 More than half Narrm's named team is aged 22 or under, with a median age of 22 compared to the Pies' 24. Meanwhile, Paxy, the only player left on our list born in the '80s, becomes the third Narrm player after Kate Hore and Lily Mithen to crack 80 games in the AFLW.

In Round 3 we celebrate the debut of Jemma Rigoni. Selected at Pick 29 in the 2023 Draft, Jemma is the Dees' second father-daughter. Guy Rigoni debuted age 24, playing 103 games from 1998-2005, including the 2000 GF, as well as then-VFL affiliate Sandringham's three-peat (2004–2006). Described as an athletic and versatile defender and winger, Jemma has faced some injury setbacks (post the 2024 season, she was the only active player yet to debut), but now gets her chance! melbournefc.com.auRigoni makes her mark | Daughter of star AFL Demon to debutJemma Rigoni will make her debut against Collingwood on Sunday

SUNDAY, AUGUST 31Collingwood v Narrm at Victoria Park, 1.05pm AEST COLLINGWOOD In: N.Morris-Dalton Out: R.Schleicher (concussion) NARRM In: R.Wotherspoon, A.Pisano, J.Rigoni Out: B.Mackin (MCL), O.Purcell (ACL), S.Goldrick (shoulder)

From the AFLW website: PLAYER INJURY ESTIMATED RETURN Grace Beasley ACL 8-10 weeks Gab Colvin MCL 2 weeks Tahlia Gillard MCL 5-7 weeks Jacinta Hose Knee Season Sarah Lampard Calf 4-8 weeks Blaithin Mackin Knee 10-12 weeks Olivia Purcell Knee Season Denby Taylor Foot 4 weeks Updated: August 26, 2025 Colvin getting closer, which will be handy. Gillard is back running this week. If we're lucky, some of these ranges will trend shorter than longer... If only we could fly in A.Mackin to replace B. Think anyone would notice? Also noticed that Pies' captain Ruby Schleicher is in concussion protocols, which is a big loss to them, great player.

These are the stats that matter. I expect you to keep track of this and report the season totals 😉 Confident, I like it. I'm just hoping we can field a team in a few weeks haha. And I think Paxy becomes the first Demon to crack 80? [edit: nope that would be Kate, last week, oops!] Wild to think that Daisy finished up on 55 AFLW games, meanwhile someone like Fitzsimon, at 22 years, is on 47 now so will surpass that shortly. Puts things into perspective!

They fence it off for AFLW. Free for MFC W members though, as are games at Ikon Park, Moorabbin, Windy Hill, etc. And adding to Craig's point, wingers are arguably more impactful in AFLW. Because of that 5-6-5 structure imbalance, they play really varied roles to fill gaps/bolster either end, probably beyond the way wingers drop forward or back in men's. McNamara, Mackin and Paxy are our main ones in this role at the moment. Well said. Lots of opportunity, exciting for these players. Wotherspoon showed plenty last year and Rigoni's debut would be the kind of positive story we need. At a quick glance, we could have over half the team aged 23 and under this week. Let's back them in!

With injuries to Lampard, Mackin and Purcell (are we doing alphabetical order injuries now, or what?), we're now back into top-up territory, with 7/30 unavailable. Barring anything else that crops up - Chaplin looked sore as well, though hopefully just a bad corky - here's those left standing: B: Ebert, Taylor HB: Chaplin, O'Hehir, Goldrick C: McNamara, Hore, Paxman HF: Fitzsimon, Harris, Bannan F: Gall, Zanker FOLL: Pearce, Hanks, Heath IC: Campbell, Johnson, Mahony, Wotherspoon, Pisano EMG: Rigoni, Dethridge, ???? Plenty still to like in that team. Maybe we'll uncover a jet as a top-up. How's that for positivity?

Enemy territory! But it's not like the old days. Which, to be fair, I never experienced. Even still, which end will the cheersquad be? Safety in numbers haha.

Sunday August 31, 1.05pm Victoria Park

The footy gods have a lot to answer for.

Votes 6. Hanks 5. Hore 4. Harris 3. S.Taylor 2. Paxy 1. Fitzsimon Apologies to basically everyone.

A lovely day at Casey Fields. Didn’t go home richer in $$$, but richer in Demon delight*. Was the helicopter stunt a success? Will the response (mediocre at best?) see any shift in strategy around playing there? Probably that's a discussion for another time. Anyway, the game itself. Loved our intent to start the game. The Saints would have been riding high after last week, so that tackle pressure right from the start and two early goals was important. And we were pretty much in control from there. Shout outs: Saraid, best game yet! We're doing something right in how we develop players Tayla, one of a kind Hanks 12 tackles Zanker 7 i50s (and yep, we're going to need some midfield options) Pearce and Heath with 12 contested possessions each Combo of Pearce and Campbell working well Hore 14 score involvements Goldie’s “superman” spoil Fitzy always gets the hard stuff done and starting to hit the scoreboard O’Hehir - all the signs are there It took Johnson’s goal (and a nice one it was) for me to realise she’d replaced Lampard as a late change. Anyone know what happened there? The fact that we made fewer interchanges (47/60 to 53/60) despite being a player down for over a half is also telling. Good to see Mick throwing around the magnets in the last; crucial early in a short season to work on Plan B and C and D and so on before it's forced through injury or opposition. * The huge asterisk on any enjoyment of course is the injury to Purcell… I can’t even. Just have everything crossed for some kind of miracle. She’s a gun and though we’re better positioned than last year (barring another injury plague), we simply can’t replace her.

Got the nom. A rollercoaster of a game in terms of hand-eye coordination for Tayla!

Dees in the media ICYMI. Eliza McNamara on the W Show afl.com.au/aflwW Show: Crows ‘complacency’, cross-coder on club radars,...Eliza McNamara joins the W Show to discuss all the biggest topics in the AFLW, how she plays footy despite constant pain from a back injury and the comp’s 74-player gameInteresting to hear how the non-selected players are getting match time during the season (basically, huge scrimmages involving several clubs, with 74 players rotating in and out). afl.com.au/aflwWhy this star Demon's 'other' job is more than a labour o...Eden Zanker worked a full-time job over the off-season that sparked plenty of questions from her teammatesFrom last week: afl.com.au/aflwBatman mask and Nanna Jill: How Demon made it through hor...When Liv Purcell had to decide between wearing a mask or missing a season, the choice was easy

Avg. games experience Melbourne's R2 team: 45.0 games StK's R2 team: 40.0 games Hoping to see Kate's lead extended in this game! Top 5 AFLW all-time leading goalkickers: Hore 83 goals (from 79 games) Ponter 82 (73) Garner 79 (90) Brennan 78 (64) Houghton 77 (75)

Good luck to all attending in winning the 10k! Would be cool if one of us got it. Heaven forbid it's a Saints fan.

I'm just grateful for ANY kind of selection headache. And feeling very wary of the Saints! @Ghostwriter Now that you know the sporting definition of "white line fever", who do you reckon has the worst case for the W Demons? I could speculate a few but hard to say without knowing off-field personalities! The most extreme case I've ever encountered was a school friend's mum who was the meekest, most gently-spoken and kind person, very unassuming. But get her on the netball court and watch out! The niggle, the aggression, the sledging. Then I'd see her in some other context and she was like a differently person again, bizarre. I suspect it's quite common in professional athletes though and might be quite a good thing psychologically to have separation between on and off-field.

Would like to find room for Gall but not sure how...

The eye must be ok if they let her fly that chopper 😁

Yes, and having people working across both programs is also crucial in retaining coaches in our AFLW program. I'm sure Mick is doing ok, but certainly the assistant and development coaches need to supplement their roles elsewhere for it to be financially viable. Ben Brown is an example of someone we lost to the women's team, and the club, because the club couldn't provide that.