Dees_In_October

Agree, though I wouldn't mind Colvin getting a go at some point. Tough team to break into.

I heard Bob Murphy on a podcast earlier this week and he was asked what's the one thing he'd add to the league. He said representative football, which I think would be a good way to do what you're getting at. Round 1 men's H&A, have a double header with a women's representative game with the top 42 players from around the country. Would get eyes on a good standard of footy, easier to fixture. I reckon there's plenty of people who tuned in during Season 1 of AFLW and never again. Agree that Casey is pretty inconvenient for most. Ikon is better, so I'm glad we're playing some home games there.

Can't speak for Katrina, but I know I get a bit twitchy at the idea of a women's game being a "curtain raiser" for the men's. I think that has a connotation of being less than though I know you don't mean it like that at all. Double headers for sure though. I really liked it when the AFLW practice matches last year were aligned with men's H&A games for double headers. I think every team should play one double-header early in the season. The problem is that the overlap is with finals so can't be fixtured in advance or to match up teams. And it seems they're (finally) set down this time of year for the season, so they'll want to stick with that for a while.

ROUND 3 TEAM IN: Paxman OUT: Wilson (omitted)

Great to hear! Thanks for speaking up on this. And I'm glad to hear the club fought for the fans. And that the AFL listened!

If this is to be the case, I hope it's well-communicated via all channels before the game. Nothing worse than having to cart your seats to one of the outer carparks while missing the entire first quarter. Well, except for missing the game entirely because you need your seat to attend). If this is true (and I suggest we all check in case it's overturned last minute), at least 2 of the people I was going with will now reconsider. EDIT: Just found this on the gameday guide. I know the deck chairs provided won't be suitable for all, but it's an option if you're a member or want to throw $30 at the problem.

Alright, last one and then I'm going to attempt to re-focus (not move on, never moving on). BRING THE HEAT PLAY WITH DIGNITY IF ALL ELSE FAILS ULTIMATE FRISBEE

Reckon we can slip this past the censors for the banner? Enough plausible deniability? Yeah, probably not. CLAYTON’S JUSTICE DEMON REVENGE HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE THE WRATH OF FRIENDS And yes, channelling white hot anger into poetry is very stereotypical MFC.

Just going to rant here for a second. Got to get it off my chest somewhere and this is it. One thing I keep coming back to is how often do you see a player leave the ground to smother in this fashion (vertically, with significant momentum behind them)? Rarely. Why is that the case? It's not from lack of ability, fear of physicality, psychological weakness or any such thing, as we know professional players have those covered. It's because it's a low percentage play. There's a high likelihood of infringement (head high contact). There's a strong possibility of injury to self and/or opposition. Balance those against the reward, the small possibility of a smother executed legally, and there's a clear reason why player don't do this often, why it's not a "football act" you see hundreds of times a game. Personally, I believe that once you choose to leave the ground, you know that split-second decisions in mid-air are likely and that you have less control over your body. There are football situations where this happens repeatedly and players choose to do so because it's a percentage play to win the ball, e.g. in a marking contest. In these situations that happen hundreds of times a game, players are on roughly equal footing in terms of spatial awareness of the players around them. More importantly, all players are expecting contact. They (should) expect that someone might come in from the side or from behind, etc. In those situations, there's a chance of a spoil going awry, a knee from the back or someone landing badly on top of you, with terrible consequences. There's typically no responsibility assigned to individual players so long as they act in a reasonable and expected way in the situation and within the rules. In this instance, the two players weren't on equal footing, so in my view, one had a duty of care to the other, in the same way that the tackling player has duty of care. Angus had his eyes forward and on the ball, with some awareness of a player coming at him. The reason he was so "open" to the contact, though, was that no player would reasonably expect that they'd be taken out high and with such force by a smothering player in this situation. Maynard's focus was on Angus. He knew exactly where he was because his focus was to smother the ball. I personally don't think he was intending to take Angus out, just that his actions were reckless in making that a likely outcome. This is not an approach to the ball carrier that we should want to see in our game. You'd think it would be hard to top the sickening nature of what unfolded, yet somehow the media response and that of some Collingwood fans has done so. I'll get no satisfaction from a suspension. Thinking of Angus and his family, teammates and all fans affected by witnessing this and the aftermath.

6 Hore 5 Hanks 4 Purcell 3 Lampard 2 Pearce 1 Bannan

That was good for the red and blue soul. Soothing. The Dees without Paxy and Daisy - once unthinkable, in this game, barely noticeable. Great team performance with a few standouts but very even contribution. Shout out to the likes of Lampard, Sherriff and Mithen who are often unheralded but contribute so much. Nice to see Chaplin back out there and a run for Wilson. Campbell again some promising signs. L.Pearce dominant and looked more mobile. I had the microscope on how we responded after losing the way a bit in the third and was very happy. It’s so important to maintain standards regardless of the scoreboard and they did that in ruthless style right til the final siren. As much as the AFL wanted to equalise the league by spreading top players around, and we’re seeing the fruits of that in other teams, I think these early games by the Dees this season are a great advertisement for what teams can and should become, in terms of cohesion, which is equally as important. Also how good do the blue shorts look?

IN: Chaplin OUT: Fitzsimon (back)

A little background: Melbourne's Manuka win-loss record: First game at Manuka GWS's Manuka win-loss record: 2-4 Melbourne's win-loss record against GWS: 4-1 (Melbourne last played GWS in R6 2022A, a 37-point win) GWS's 2023 formline: 0-1 (a 5-point loss to Sydney) Will be interesting to see who comes in for Fitzsimon, in a classic 'mystery injury of the week' scenario!

The "v" not "vs." for the St Kilda Adelaide game is what's making me twitchy. Clearly we're focused on the important things.

Invisible moonboots, knee tape, a mystery training absentee and a birth. And yes the sausage pun spiral tipped it over the edge. The chaotic nervous energy in general is off the chain!

Walking into Demonland the day before a final...

Would love to see King Gizz on GF Day! Saw them in 2016, awesome. But to really cross genre, in the words of Destiny's Child, I don't think the MCG is ready for this jelly:

Someone said in the gameday thread that if Banno can start taking more overhead marks, watch out! Well, here's our chance to encourage that: https://www.afl.com.au/aflw/mark-of-the-year (And kudos to Tayla for the set-up kick)

Since it's a joint trophy for men's and women's, perhaps it should be on the main board?

A coupla other points of interest: After that "16-point" game, we've drawn level with Collingwood in the McClelland Trophy ($1 mil for the best-performed club across M and W). And here's a look at the average Round 1 aggregate scores per game from Season 1 AFLW until now. There might have been a few more quarter length changes in there somewhere. Round 1 is typically a low-scoring round for AFLW, with the middle of the H&A season usually the peak once teams have found cohesion but before teams have dropped off. Of course, scoring is aided by there being more one-sided contests as teams were added, though the new teams also score less themselves. The difference this season might be the longer quarters.

In one of the interviews going round this week Eliza mentioned that she'd "had running taken away" from her even before the accident, which suggests that building a stronger frame was already the focus. Obviously this recovery was not the way she'd have wanted to do it but can definitely already see the results Friday night.

And adding onto to this, pure anecdata, but plenty of AFLW fans I know aren't traditional footy followers. AFLW was the start of their interest in the sport. Or it was their way back into it after disconnecting from the men's game (for a wide array of reasons).

8,412 per the match report

I hate doing this because I always forget someone important but here goes: 6 Heath 5 Hore 4 Bannan 3 B.Mackin 2 Paxy 1 Hanks

Far out that was a shaky start. But this isn't a team that's fazed by a bunch of behinds on the scoreboard (it's a familiar enough scenario heh). A few of ours will be better for the run, to put it politely. Haven't seen us turn the ball over so badly in ages, especially in the back line. Once the engine room clicked into gear though, we were unstoppable. The opposition can't find forward line space if we just never let it down there, I guess. Highlights: - #1 has to be the return of McNamara. Wore a big tackle early in the game - the mental strength is admirable. Had a solid game too and love her and B.Mackin as a dynamic wing duo. The latter was everywhere. 396 metres gained, the second on the ground. In her second season of footy...ever. - Heath, talk about scoreboard reward for effort. Davey is a tough customer and you might look at Heath standing next to her and wonder, but Dees fans know Shelley's tenacity personified. - Bannan is such a rollercoaster of a player. Looks completely out of it at times then just lights it up. - Campbell was as I'd hoped and her role was welcome because L.Pearce is going to need increasing help I think. - Calling it now, Paxy will play til 40, one of few who held the standard for a full four quarters. They've still got it! Lowlight: - Didn't manage to hear the "We are the girls from Casey Fields chant" all night - must have been in some kind of sound vortex cause I don't doubt the Demon Army were loud and proud as usual.