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AFLW 2019 preview: North Melbourne Kangaroos

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Roar Guru
27th November, 2018
4

In building their team for the 2019 season, North Melbourne decided to eschew the draft while focusing on established senior players instead. In the AFLW’s early years, this is almost always a mistake.

True, it’s probably not a mistake on the scale of Carlton’s mistake in 2018, where the Blues traded the farm for two star forwards, two star backs and no midfield.

But with women’s football right now, the players everyone’s heard of are not where the action is.

One can’t be too critical, however — for all the hype surrounding the Roos’ recruiting successes, people should probably remember that this is still just an expansion team, and expansion teams usually struggle in their first few seasons.

The question Roos fans will be asking if it doesn’t work out is how much future improvement can be squeezed from a group of players who are already physically mature, compared to the massive upside coming from this year’s drafted kids?

Let’s start with the midfield, and North’s looks a little thin.

This year is the AFLW’s year of the midfield, where clubs finally realised just how vital it is to stack up on athletic ballhandling talents in the middle. There were lots of them in the draft, and North got none.

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What they did get outside of the draft was still impressive — Emma Kearney is the best midfielder in the competition when Erin Phillips isn’t fit, and the league’s 2018 MVP.

After that there’s Jamie Stanton, who averaged 16 disposals a game last year for Brisbane, but did so very much under the radar, raising the question of whether she can do the same as a targeted star for the Roos.

Then comes Jenna Bruton, who was a solid B-grade support behind Kearney at the Bulldogs, and Kaitlyn Ashmore, who for all her undeniable speed only averaged 10 disposals a game for Brisbane.

Brittany Gibson will add some size and power, but again, her disposals average for Brisbane last year was 11.3.

That’s five midfielders, only one of them an established star – though if we’re generous, Stanton makes two.

In 2017 it would have been enough, but in 2019 most clubs have more stars than that, and more depth as well.

Then there’s North’s backline, which also lacks stars.

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Katherine Gillespie-Jones and Danielle Hardiman were both recruited from Carlton. Both are solid, but Carlton’s best defenders are Brianna Davey, Nicola Stevens and Allison Downey — all at a level above.

North then acquired Tahlia Randall from Brisbane, and Randall’s very good – but recall that Brisbane’s best defenders are Kate Lutkins and Leah Kaslar, both again at a level above.

North simply don’t have A-graders in their backline, and against some of the attacking teams in the 2019 competition, that’s going to be a problem.

Up forward, North looks great, but the 2017 and 2018 seasons were filled with teams that had great-looking forward lines but very little success (Collingwood and Carlton).

For one thing, if the midfield is struggling, great forwards will be starved of the ball.

If she actually sees something of the ball, Jasmine Garner can mark the hell out of it, being better at that in the forward fifty than nearly anyone else in the country, and has a great set shot for goal.

Mo Hope is much better than popular reputation suggests, and started to show it for Collingwood in the second half of last season.

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Moana Hope

(AAP Image/ Tracey Nearmy)

And North’s first draft pick, 17-year-old Daisy Bateman, is a ready-made weapon who should have an immediate impact.

Jess Duffin too is one of the best marks in the league — she’s been playing a lot through the midfield in the VFLW, but might struggle with that at AFLW level, and find the forward or back line preferable.

North’s recruiters have done a good job building the bare bones of what could become a great team.

My feeling is that it might take one or two more seasons of strong recruiting, preferably from kids with full careers still ahead of them, before they feature in the finals.

Prediction: Eighth.

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