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Just over twelve months ago, the Western Bulldogs were locked in a play-off for the wooden spoon against the GWS Giants in Canberra.
They had only won one match for the season and were in last place on the ladder entering that Round 7 match against the Giants, but won by 32 points to eventually finish the inaugural AFLW season in sixth place.
Fast forward to now and after finishing on top of the ladder with five wins and two losses, claiming the club’s first minor premiership in any league (VFL/AFL/AFLW) in the process, the club has won the second AFL Women’s premiership, by defeating the Brisbane Lions by six points in the grand final.
In testing conditions, the Bulldogs failed to kick a goal in the first half, but a three-goal-to-nothing third quarter saw them take a 13-point lead into the three-quarter-time break, and despite a late challenge from the Lions the Dogs held on to claim the club’s third premiership in the past 18 months.
Their men’s side famously broke a 62-year premiership drought when it upset the Sydney Swans by 22 points in the 2016 AFL grand final, while their reserves side also won that year’s VFL premiership.
Just like their AFL side, the women were also without their captain after Katie Brennan was suspended by the judiciary during the week for rough conduct on Melbourne’s Harriet Cordner in their final round clash at the Whitten Oval.
The Dogs did everything they could to ensure their skipper could play, first contesting the grading of Brennan’s rough conduct charge, which was unsuccessful, before taking it to the Appeals Board where her suspension was also upheld, meaning she will also miss Round 1 next year.
But, as was the case when Bob Murphy missed the men’s 2016 premiership win after suffering a knee injury last year, her absence didn’t seem to affect the team at all.
After all, Brennan had missed three matches during the regular season due to an ankle injury, with the only loss in that period coming against the GWS Giants in Round 6.
She also missed the majority of last season due to ankle and quad injuries.
The grand final didn’t come without the drama, as Jessica Wuetschner pegged back a goal for the Lions late in the final quarter to reduce the margin to just five points.
(Photo by Jono Searle/Getty Images)
Earlier, Emma Kearney appeared to have got the Dogs home when she earned a free kick for a tackle on Kaitlyn Ashmore, calmly converting to put the Dogs up by twelve points before Wuetschner’s heroics ensured that the match would go down to the wire.
The grand final then had its Leo Barry moment when Naomi Ferres took a diving mark inside the Lions’ fifty-metre arc right on the full-time siren, denying the Lions a chance to kick a goal and therefore force extra time.
Sadly, as was the case last year, the Lions were forced to endure the heartbreak of a six-point loss in the AFL Women’s grand final, with the match finishing in their forward 50.
They had been beaten by the Adelaide Crows by the same margin last year.
This left the Western Bulldogs to celebrate the glory of premiership success, which comes just twelve months after they avoided the wooden spoon in the final round of the inaugural season.
When the time came for stand-in captain Ellie Blackburn to accept the premiership cup, she called Brennan onto the stage to help her lift it – reviving memories of when Murphy lifted the premiership cup with stand-in captain Easton Wood after the men’s team won the flag in 2016.
First-year player Monique Conti, who juggles her footballing commitments with a career in the women’s NBL, was named best-on-ground ahead of Kate Lutkins, who actually earned the most possessions of any player on the field.
The goal she kicked only seconds before the three-quarter-time siren proved to be the turning point in the match as it completely swung the momentum her side’s way, with the Bulldogs not relinquishing the lead in the final quarter despite the Lions’ late challenge.
And so, the second AFL Women’s season has come to an end with the Western Bulldogs becoming the first team from Victoria to win the premiership cup, after the Adelaide Crows took out the inaugural title in 2017.
(AAP Image/Hamish Blair)
The competition will expand in the next few years when North Melbourne and the Geelong Cats enter the league in 2019, followed by the West Coast Eagles, Gold Coast Suns, Richmond and St Kilda the year after.
The 2019 season will have nine rounds (two more than what there currently is), and the 2020 season will have 13 rounds, which means some rounds may overlap with the early part of the men’s season in the coming years.
With that in mind, it is likely that the format for a standard round in 2019 (five games) would be: one Friday night match, one Saturday twilight match, one Saturday night match and two Sunday afternoon games.
(Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)
In 2020 (seven matches in one round), the format is likely to be: one Friday night match, one Saturday afternoon match starting no earlier than 3:00pm AEST, one Saturday twilight match, one Saturday night match, two Sunday afternoon matches and one Sunday twilight match.
The expansion of the league is also likely to result in a finals series being implemented, rather than the top two automatically qualifying for the grand final, as was the case this and last season.
To finish off, congratulations to the Western Bulldogs, whose AFLW premiership win will beautifully compliment their 2016 VFL and AFL flags, thus making them one of the most successful clubs in recent years.
And most importantly, commiserations to the Brisbane Lions, who will be hoping to make it third time lucky in the expanded competition in 2019.
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