Despite heavy rain, thunder and some poor luck, the Carlton Blues came away with a comfortable win over the GWS Giants on Friday night.
» Click here to read the full match report
Final score
GWS Giants 1.3 (9)
Carlton Blues 3.12 (30)
Last year’s wooden spooners the GWS Giants have a chance to take their first win of the 2018 AFLW season when they host the Carlton Blues at home on Friday night. Join The Roar for score updates and a blog of the match, brought to you live from Drummoyne Oval, starting from 7:05pm AEDT.
If you were to hand out a lucky loser award from Round 1 of the competition for the side that had done the most to deserve to win without getting there, GWS would be the obvious choice.
They travelled to Casey Fields but pushed the premiership fancies Melbourne hard, and only lost the game in the final minutes as Richelle Cranston kicked her third goal of the day.
As for Carlton, they did get a win last week, but weren’t really as impressive in victory as the Giants were in defeat.
With the combination of Tayla Harris and Darcy Vescio up forward it’s pretty clear they’ve got players who can kick goals, but their midfield seems like a battler.
For example their clearance differential of -6 was one of the worst in the league in Round 1, while GWS, with +6, were one of the best.
They had the second-least disposals of any team in the league last week and were -46 in total disposals compared to their opponents Collingwood.
The good news for Carlton is that they are one of the better teams at the league when it comes to turning opportunities into points on the board, and might really have walloped the Pies if they’d kicked straighter last week.
That said, given the high-scoring match the Giants played in last week, they can hold their heads in high regard and they’re on par with or ahead of the Blues in most scoring stats – off a very small sample size, of course.
Their chief concern would be that they conceded a big total to Melbourne last week and if they give Carlton that opportunity, the Blues will probably take it.
Prediction
It’s hard to say how the battles in the forward and backlines will work out, but I suspect GWS will come out on top in the midfield and that will win them the game. Plus, they’re at home, alebit not a ground they’re particularly familliar with.
GWS Giants by 12.
Join The Roar for score updates and a blog of the match between the GWS Giants and the Carlton Blues on Friday night, brought to you live from Drummoyne Oval, starting from 7:05pm AEDT.
Cat
Roar Guru
Tax? Really? Have AFL prices for anything risen because of the very minor ‘cost’ of the AFLW? Nope. So where is this ‘tax’ you speak of?
Blue
Guest
It's no real problem, just another AFL tax we have to pay. Women's footy is a Good Thing, so we may as well pay for it regardless of the standard. Makes at least as much sense as some of the themed rounds in the real season.
Josh
Expert
Match report here from a wild night at Drummoyne. Thanks all who followed the blog!
Josh
Expert
Full Time Yet more Blue behinds to finish the game - Carlton the winners and by a very comfy margin.
GWS Giants: 1.3 (9) Carlton Blues: 3.12 (30)
Josh
Expert
Behind Vescio with another set shot but it's just another behind for the Blues.
GWS Giants: 1.3 (9) Carlton Blues: 3.10 (28)
Josh
Expert
Behind Another one narrowly strikes the padding - Lauren Brazzale rolls one along the wet ground and it looks like it's going to be a miracle goal, but just not quite.
GWS Giants: 1.3 (9) Carlton Blues: 3.9 (27)
Pope Paul VII
Guest
Carlton are a bunch of scraggers.
Josh
Expert
Behind A behind for Tayla Harris, good shot but touched on the line.
GWS Giants: 1.3 (9) Carlton Blues: 3.8 (26)
Cat
Roar Guru
I think you need to harden up fella. Every sporting woman I have seen have been proud as punch of the league. Is it perfect? No. Nothing new ever is.
Josh
Expert
Bad news for Brianna Davey who is being carried off the field on a stretcher. Fairly innocuous incident but it looks like she's got a knee injury as a result. Fingers crossed it's not those dreaded three letters.
GWS Giants: 1.3 (9) Carlton Blues: 3.7 (25)
Cat
Roar Guru
Sucks for bree davey
McNaulty
Guest
the answer to your question is keep the top league but get it off TV and out of the media until it is halfway presentable. It looks like these girls have never played sport before. This is poisonous to womens morale. Germain Greer should step in.
Josh
Expert
I'll need a team of six CIA operatives, a world class hacker, and a Taiwanese contortionist.
Josh
Expert
Behind That's just awful luck for Renee Forth and the Giants - she looks to have kicked a ripping goal but it has scraped the inside of the post on its way through.
GWS Giants: 1.3 (9) Carlton Blues: 3.7 (25)
Josh
Expert
Final term is on.
Cat
Roar Guru
This last quarter would have been a lot more interesting had Farrugia kicked that goal
on theafter the sirenMaggie
Guest
Great goal!
Cat
Roar Guru
on my PC. Dual 27" screens, game in one, roar in the other
Josh
Expert
Three-Quarter Time A comfortable win coming up here for Carlton unless something strange happens in this final quarter.
GWS Giants: 1.2 (8) Carlton Blues: 3.7 (25)
Josh
Expert
Behind The Giants have a set shot after the siren through their captain Amanda Farrugia, but it's a miss.
GWS Giants: 1.2 (8) Carlton Blues: 3.7 (25)