When the Carlton Blues AFLW team travelled to Drummoyne Oval in Sydney to face the GWS Giants they were without two of their key leaders and their coach.
Blues coach Damien Keeping is currently in hospital while Lauren Arnell and Madeline Keryk were both unavailable for the match.
Oh – and Carlton’s captain Brianna Davey went down in the final quarter with a knee injury also. The Blues must have walked under a few ladders this week.
To make matters worse for both teams, the massive downpour of rain and some rumbling of thunder – most of it in the distance, some of it very much not in the distance – put a damper on the first quarter and delayed the start of the second.
It was GWS who struck first – Phoebe McWilliams calmly converted a set shot shortly after the match started, and the Giants looked to be on top.
That came to end pretty quickly though, especially as the weather picked up. The rain seemed to favour the Blues and they dominated possession for the rest of the quarter.
The bad news for Carlton was that all they could manage was a string of behinds, and that was the case even into the second term, when at one point they actually took the lead by virtue of scoring seven behinds to one goal.
A pair of ripping goals first from Nic Stevens in the second quarter and then Katie Loynes in the third gave the Blues a decisive advantage however, while the Giants struggled to get near their sticks let alone put the ball through them.
Things went from bad to worse for the home side when they conceded a free kick to Darcy Vescio directly in front of goal shortly before the end of the third term, and she made no mistake.
The final term was a quiet one with neither side able to put a major score through, though Carlton pelted on a few more behinds to make the final margin 21 points.
No one would call it a skillful display of footy in the end with the conditions seriously affecting both sides’ abilities to execute, but you couldn’t fault the commitment and effort of both teams, while the goals from Stevens and Loynes provided a bit of thrill factor.
A well-deserved win for the Blues, who adapted better to the conditions and were victorious for it.
GWS Giants 1.3 (9)
Carlton Blues 3.12 (30)
Penster
Roar Guru
I was there and most of the crowd left when the lightening was directly overhead. 4,900 might be correct. Having never been to Drummoyne Oval before it's hard to tell, but I'd have guessed there was upwards of 4,000 there easily - entire girls footy teams and clubs with their banners were there. GWS put on an excellent footy clinic for U15 girls from the Sydney clubs prior to the game at 5.00pm and there was a queue at this point. We also brought a dog and he was probably counted so deduct 1 from the total.
mattyb
Guest
What a shocking argument....in 1991?
Maggie
Guest
Decent football? Hope you watched the Dees this afternoon.
Cat
Roar Guru
Says the guy running around defensively name calling everyone who won't buy into his 'opinion'.
Lion tamer
Guest
Don’t bring Batman into this ?
Lion tamer
Guest
Just so funny to see all you arguing
Lion tamer
Guest
Do they use a lady to do head counts still
Kangajets
Guest
wookie I’ve never seen a bunch of defensive people as the afl people. Grow up Accept other people have opinions
Cat
Roar Guru
Shame for Bri Davey – season over – confirmed ACL.
Cat
Roar Guru
I do love you people, The AFL can't possibly count crowds accurately ... but I can! ... seriously do you even think about your claims before your type?
Big Country
Guest
In the spirit of your post AD........ And pointing out such rebubuttle is equally flawed isn't being overtly sexist in much the same way that supporting AFLW regularly doesn’t equate to legitimately caring about the code and trying to improve it. I think you’ll find that we do point out the AFLW has real, obivious flaws, but most are largely optimistic about the still young competition. On the contrary, you’ll find most of the fanatical supporters women’s footy rely a lot on their preconditioned ideaogly about women’s sport and back up their ‘claims’ using hyperbole, exaggeration, and, occasionally, just plain lies. They’re making themselves become increasingly irrelevant because of this, and seem to want their ideas to become mainstream thought because they can't simply get over the fact, that yes, that men and women are different and that the AFLW could possibly end up failing..... And as for people arguing on emotion rather then facts, just look at posts in various AFLW articles where people have been labled 6 ways till sunday just because they say they don't watch it (after an initial viewing) beacuse they aprreciate a higher standard of competition, when everybody basically admits that yes, it could be a lot better.
I ate pies
Guest
Decent football is what we want. You don’t have to have any skill to go hard. We want people who are held up as being ‘elite’ to live up to it, regardless of gender.
I ate pies
Guest
They really are warriors aren’t they. Not all hero’s wear capes.
chappy
Guest
They must have counted the crowd going in than going out. Smart! you double the crowd.
Mike
Guest
Why exactly were they playing at Drummoyne?? It is inner west Sydney and far removed from what GWS is supposed to represent. It seems the GWS franchise moves further east each year. They've gone from Blacktown to Homebush to Drummoyne. They may as well just co tenant with the Swans at the SCG.
Maggie
Guest
Exactly right Cat. That’s why I referred to ‘the entry crowd of 4,952’. I estimate about half the crowd left when play was stopped for 30 minutes for the electrical storm. There was no shelter for those of us not in the restricted stands, except under trees which was in itself dangerous with lightning very close to the ground. I was actually very impressed by how many stayed.
Mat
Guest
I live near the oval and have been there many, many times. The crowd was somewhere just over 2k before the rain. The "official" figure is either a joke or the AFL is treating people like idiots.
Blue
Guest
"1991 at the Western Oval". Yes, they're very, very rare and run close to the lowest ever scores in the 100+ years of the foundation clubs' histories. Many (most?) AFLW games have multiple quarters with no goals. It's simply not what we're used to seeing on a footy field. Either we'll all come to accept it as a quite different game or the league will intervene to pump up the scoring.
jonboy
Guest
Soccer has thousands of nil all draws, Cricket plays for 5 days often no one wins.Goals are pretty,but a contest is what you want and most of the woman’s games have provided that,Give them a break.
Cat
Roar Guru
Let me guess, you did your counting after the multiple lightning strikes and the bucketing down rain that saw the game halted for half an hour or so and sent many people home.