Dees_In_October

Amusingly after missing much of the praccy match, I found myself awake in the early hours and managed to watch quite a bit of Dublin's victory! Like so many others, Goldrick is one of my favourites just for the pure attack she has on the game, and it will surprise no one that this was on show in this game. She plays a very similar role as we see in AFLW, hustling and scrapping then providing lots of bounce off the defensive area. It was apparent why every time she gets the ball in Aussie Rules, the instinct to play on is so, so, ingrained. Weird thought I had while watching, I wonder how many people warned her about the Jimmy running over the mark incident when she first came to Australia? Or maybe it was a "let's not speak about it" situation... Anyway, I must admit as the minutes ticked away, and with Dublin well in front, I was keen for Sinead to maybe just take it easy. Of course, that was never going to happen. You can imagine my consternation when she went down with a leg issue late in the game. Seemed ok though and played out the final minutes despite several other substitutions being made, so nothing to be concerned about. So that's 4 All-Ireland championships for Goldie, to go along with her AFLW premiership. Super effort. Hope the winning feeling continues in Australia.

Only saw the last several minutes, seems I missed the best of it! Bit of a scrap fest, but we were at least dominating territory at that stage. I pretty much heard them say "Kate Hore hobbling off" as soon as I switched it on, so yeah. That's probably my fault for thinking as I did so, "Don't care about the score, just no more injuries to talls!" As Craig says though, Kate was at least having a laugh, according to Shae Sloane, post match here: afl.com.au/aflwAFLW practice match Highlights: Melbourne v AdelaideThe Demons and Crows clash in the AFLW practice matches I'd be keen to hear from those who watched if there was anything that stood out in terms of prospects for Round 1. Are we thinking O'Hehir debuts? From the scoreline alone, as Dees fans, we must rejoice in the straight kicking.

Adelaide v Melbourne at Thomas Farms Oval, 11.30am AEST Melbourne has named top-up player Lauren Jatczak (Casey Demons) at full-back after Tahlia Gillard suffered a torn MCL last weekend, with forward Madison Ibrahim (Essendon VFLW) called in on the bench. Tayla Harris will sit out with an ankle injury. Given the extended squads for practice matches (26, benches of eight), the Dees have named injured players as emergencies. MELBOURNE B: S.Lampard 8 L.Jatczak 34 HB: M.Chaplin 13 L.Ebert 19 M.O'Hehir 11 C: P.Paxman 4 T.Hanks 5 E.McNamara 22 HF: M.Fitzsimon 24 A.Bannan 6 E.Zanker 29 F: A.Pisano 3 G.Gall 9 Foll: L.Pearce 15 O.Purcell 2 K.Hore - C 10 I/C: M.Ibrahim 44 A.Dethridge 14 L.Johnson 33 S.Heath 30 M.Mahony 20 R.Wotherspoon 12 J.Rigoni 43 S.Taylor 28 Emerg: B.Mackin 31 T.Harris 7 How to watch: Live stream will be available on club websites.

Also meant to add that teams for the praccy match will be released Saturday arvo. And there'll be a live stream of the game on Sunday, 11.30am AEST on the participating clubs' websites.

Thanks for the great reporting Kev. Happy about that! And this. Any improvement in this area can only help us. In the past we've got away with some truly horrific goals to behinds ratios, winning through sheer weight of numbers. But I think as the competition evens out there will be fewer and fewer teams that won't make you pay for that, plus more games in which teams need to capitalise on fewer opportunities. Having said that, we do have some really reliable shots on goal in the team and at full strength there's a great commitment to getting high percentage shots within players' abilities (since not everyone's Tayla Harris kicking from 50m off a step!).

Great work, Kev! Good to hear. AFLW live blog puts Tayla at a chance for Round 1 best case scenario.

Timelines are vague at this stage, but reading between the lines, it's something like: Gillard (10-12 weeks) MCL Colvin (no timeline given, but will miss early season) Lower grade MCL Beasley (mid-season) ACL Harris (2-4 weeks) Ankle B.Mackin (TBA but sounds optimistic?) Hamstring D.Taylor (Possibly available for Round 1) Foot Campbell (Symptoms pending, likely available R1) Concussion L.Pearce (Available) Head/neck Goldrick (TBA) May be delayed due to wild celebrations :) So at this stage we're minimum 4 players down for Round 1 (including Beasley, which was known) plus possibly B.Mackin and Goldrick. In terms of having a replacement spot for Gillard, I'm not sure how that works if the injury only just rules her out for the H&A season length. I guess they'll wait for more on the injury to get a clearer timeline. All the best to Tahlia; at least she won't be alone in rehab (clutching at straws here!). It's a credit to her that she's such a loss to us for a young player.

Yeah not ideal. At the very least, if Gillard's injury is season ending (hopefully not), I think we qualify for a replacement because it has happened in preseason. S.Taylor also comes into the mix. Beyond that, there's not much depth in the tall defenders, though I guess Harris could go back when recovered or some other shuffling from the forward line.

Injury updates from the AFLW website with a somewhat misleading headline. Harris under an injury cloud, ruck enters concussion protocols– Sarah Black MELBOURNE is hopeful Tayla Harris has escaped serious damage to her ankle, but the jury is still out on Tahlia Gillard’s knee after an eventful match sim against Hawthorn. An official update is due on Tuesday after the pair had scans on Sunday. Harris is currently in a moonboot, but the expectation is that she has escaped with a rolled ankle. Key back Gillard is on crutches, and while the extent of her knee injury is unknown, it is believed to be more serious than Harris’. Tall Georgia Campbell will sit out this weekend’s practice match against Adelaide with concussion, while ruck Lauren Pearce has dodged the concussion protocols after a head knock, and is set to play. The Dees have a number of players already sidelined, including Gab Colvin (MCL), Blaithin Mackin (hamstring), Denby Taylor (foot) and Grace Beasley (ACL), while Sinead Goldrick is still in Ireland, with Dublin playing in the Gaelic football Grand Final.

Don't like the sound of that for Tayla. It would be tough to lose Gillard on top of Colvin being out. Fingers crossed for all!

Fingers crossed for whoever it was! Watched this in case anything mentioned, but no. Paxy happy with the hit out though. Hopefully a match report to come later. You wouldn't know from the AFLW website that games were even happening today.

Great news! Just looked it up, the championship match is the 4th of August, 1.15am our time. We'll dream of victory for Sinead. Up the Dubs!

Some more mildly interesting trivia, this time looking at our 2022B (S7) list and team. - 26 of the 33 listed players (including inactive) are still on an AFLW list for S9, 19 of them at the Demons. - 15 of the 21 premiership players remain (the outs being Birch, Gay, Mithen, D.Pearce, Sherriff, West). And just out of interest, I've compared this with the men's premiership team (I've included the medi-sub) and how the outs went. Remaining in 2025: M = 16/23, W = 15 of 21 Traded: M = 4, W = 5 Retired: M = 3, W = 1

No worries, was a little surprised by the quick progression! Hopefully she gets some games in later on in the season if ready.

I love this after we all prematurely retired her for about the third time! Fingers crossed. Would have to be our second most important player... Good signs for Beasley to be playing only about 10 months post ACL. Probably a bit off the pace. Watching a VFLW game a few weeks back I was constantly confusing them! Glad it's not just me. Also good to hear. We really had to test our depth last season and hopefully that exposure has fast tracked some development. Silver lining. I wonder how we'll approach the praccy matches in terms of selection; try some things out or go full strength or what.

Also of interest to AFLW fans may be this article by Jason Lassey at SportsIndustryAU, which provides a deeper look into how the AFLW is faring in the lead-up to the 10th season. It covers attendance numbers, as well as TV audiences, impact on participation and the finances of the league. https://footyindustry.com/index.php/2025/07/08/the-aflw-endures-despite-the-same-old-critics-and-criticisms/

In the lead-up to Season 10, I've been looking back over the 10 seasons and how our list has evolved since those early seasons and how our 2025 list shapes up. As we know, in 2025, three players (Lampard, Paxman and Pearce) remain at the Dees from the inaugural 2017 S1 Melbourne list of 28 (list size expanded to 30 for S2 onwards). After a lot of turnover initially, the number of original Dees players has remained fairly stable: S2 (20 inaugural players), S3 (14), S4 (11), S5 (6), S6 (5), S7 (5), S8 (4), S9 (4), S10 (3). Who will be the last one standing? Outside of the Demons, there are about 20 additional inaugural players still playing for their original AFLW team in 2025. There are also 11 inaugural Demons still on other AFLW lists. The average retention of active listed players between seasons has been 23 players. The retention of players between S9 and S10 (26 players) is our second-most behind the 27 players retained between S7 and S8. On our 2025 list, all but four players were originally drafted or signed to the Dees, the exceptions being Harris (Brisbane), Purcell (Geelong), Johnson (Port) and D.Taylor (Geelong). Including inactive players, on our list we have 24 Victorians, 3 Irishwomen, 2 Queenslanders, 1 South Australian, 1 Tasmanian and 1 Western Australian.

Yes, was just coming to post these. I like how, rather than getting them to speak about themselves, which usually is difficult for people and can end up in kind of boring responses because no one wants to talk themself up, they've got others to explain why these players have been voted in, which gives us all a much better insight into what the group feels (the emotions!) and values.

Thanks for your thoughts on Dethridge. I feel like we've had a pretty high success rate with cross-coders making quick progress, so nothing would surprise me! I'm looking forward to some more debuts this season (hopefully not forced by injury). It'd be special to see Jemma get a go, after some bad luck with timing last season - and for sentimental reasons for Dees fans, of course.

There's one or two relegation games left in the LGFA for Blaithin and Aimee (who has just returned to play). So Blaithin will presumably be back in a month or so. Not sure what happens after the All-Ireland season for Aimee but hopefully her recovery continues well.

After Saturday's men's game, I soothed my soul by watching Casey's first VFLW win of the season! Essendon 2.6.18 Casey 10.13.73 (Ah yes, a classic Demons goals-to-points ratio) This was aided, it must be said, by an influx of AFLW-listed talent replacing... mostly the previous influx of AFLW talent. IN: A. Bannan, Z. Burn, G. Campbell, M. Fitzsimon, G. Gall, T. Harris, S. Heath, D. Madigan, M. Mahony, E. McNamara, A. Pisano, K. Phillips, G. Proy, E. Zanker OUT: M. Chaplin, G. Colvin, T. Gillard, S. Lampard, M. O'Hehir, L. Pearce, J. Rigoni, S. Taylor (managed), B. Lyne (shoulder), L. Jatczak (unavailable), A. Kirkwood, Z. Mitchell, A. Robinson, A. Vrsecky (omitted) In the commentary, it was mentioned that Casey's ladder position (bottom of the ladder for the first time since the league's alignment) probably doesn't quite reflect the team's season, as there have been some close losses. It was also apparent that clubs have varying approaches to when/if/how much they play their AFLW players, so it's a bit all over the place. Certainly there have been fewer of the developing AFLW players for Casey throughout the season compared to previously and a higher level of player getting a run now. The commentators were a little in awe of some of our stars out there, which was nice. Onto the game. I'll focus on the AFLW-listed players, though I did like the game of Phillips in the backline. The standout across the board though was McNamara who absolutely tore it up with 40 disposals - yes, that's right 40 disposals in 20 minute flat quarters (so that would be what? A casual 60 in a men's AFL length game? Amazing). Zanker played on the ball in the first half or so and was energised and proactive, then went forward and kicked a couple. Gall took some great marks, but I was more impressed by some really good decisions with the ball into forward 50. Harris looked fit and ready up forward, and there were a few almost pack-crashing moments that she would hopefully follow through with in season proper. Three goals to Bannan, while Fitzsimon worked hard as usual with 21 disposals and 9 tackles. New draftee Mahony (14 disposals, 5 clearances) won some hard footy and was good in traffic, plus kicked a really nice goal on the run. I won't make any big claims, but at the very least she's exactly the type of player we lacked depth in last season. I'll admit I struggled to lock on to which one Dethridge actually was - absolutely on me for failing to look up numbers and relying on the commentary. I suspect the commentators didn't know either, though, as I never heard her name called despite the stats showing she had the footy plenty (15 disposals). So I can't comment there! No obvious injuries, except perhaps a bit of the old leather poisoning for Eliza!

An AFLW training report! Rare and appreciated. I used to try to go once a preseason but that kind of fell by the wayside during Covid and once they shifted to more daytime training. Is it usually Gosch's on a Wednesday morning and Monday at Casey, @Ghostwriter ? I can see the lineup evolving after last year. Every active player on our list (plus a few top-ups) got a game last season, apart from Rigoni whose injuries coincided with the wider plague. So we know exactly what we've got, plus some newbies who could make an impact. And based on training photos, good to see that Paxy is apparently unhampered by that injury we all basically retired her over!

Posting this as well in case anyone missed it. Great article on inaugural Demon Sarah Lampard. Love that they chose to focus on her, as the most unsung player of the few remaining at the Dees from season 1. It's been a bit of a winding road for sure, with two ACLs and interesting to read what she's doing off-field now for her PhD: https://www.afl.com.au/aflw/news/1342197/the-inaugurals-this-reliable-melbourne-demon-sarah-lampard-went-from-tagging-daisy-pearce-to-becoming-flag-teammates

Some other news from around the grounds, this time a bit further afield. Both Mackins featured at the weekend in the Ladies' Gaelic All-Ireland Senior Championship finals series. Unfortunately, Armagh was knocked out. But promising signs for Aimee, who was a substitute in her first game returning from her ACL just over a year ago.