The Roar
The Roar

AFL
Advertisement

2019 AFL Women's season: Round 1 preview

Roar Guru
30th January, 2019
Advertisement
Autoplay in... 6 (Cancel)
Up Next No more videos! Playlist is empty -
Replay
Cancel
Next
Roar Guru
30th January, 2019
14

With the Australian Open tennis over for another year, focus now turns to the build-up to the upcoming football seasons.

This weekend, the third season of AFL Women’s gets underway with a revamped fixture that sees two new clubs entering the league: the Geelong Cats and North Melbourne.

However, the league will retain a seven-round home-and-away season, which means each club will miss out on playing two teams. For instance, the GWS Giants will have to play neither Fremantle nor reigning premiers Western Bulldogs, while Melbourne will miss out on playing the Cats and Carlton.

The ten clubs have also been split into two conferences, with each club to play four others in their own conference as well as three ‘crossover’ matches against clubs in the other, forming the seven-match fixture.

The Cats and Roos will face Collingwood and Carlton in their respective first matches, while the Bulldogs will have a tough ask starting their premiership defence on the road in Adelaide.

Melbourne will have a challenge on its hands without expectant captain Daisy Pearce for the entire season, while the GWS Giants will be out for some sort of revenge after the Brisbane Lions stopped them in their tracks in the final round last year.

Here is your preview to each of the five matches in Round 1 of the 2019 AFL Women’s season.

Advertisement

Geelong Cats vs Collingwood

The season kicks off on Saturday night with one of the two new clubs, the Geelong Cats, hosting Collingwood in what promises to be a genuine blockbuster at Kardinia Park.

The Cats built their playing list by recruiting several of Melbourne’s best – Richelle Cranston, Erin Hoare, Anna Teague and Melissa Hickey, who has been named the club’s captain – while they also drafted most of their players locally as well.

Cranston will, however, be missing from their Round 1 line-up after being suspended for two matches for a careless tackle on Carlton’s Sarah Hosking during a recent practice match, which the Cats won by two points.

They’ll also be without Elise Coventry for the whole season after she suffered a season-ending knee injury before quarter-time in the same practice match. The former netballer played 55 games for the Cats in the VFL before being drafted with pick 55 in last year’s draft.

Meantime, the Pies will be keen to move forward after a disappointing first two seasons in which they finished fifth and sixth respectively.

They have lost Moana Hope and Christina Bernardi to North Melbourne and the GWS Giants respectively, while Chloe Molloy will work with the coaching staff after she suffered a serious foot injury last September which has ruled her out for the whole 2019 season.

Advertisement

Steph Chiocci will again lead the side as they attempt to climb up the ladder, and facing the Cats on their home turf is a challenge they will welcome.

Spurred on by the home-ground advantage and a potentially curious crowd, the Cats should begin life in AFL Women’s with a win.

Prediction: Geelong Cats by 14 points.

Melissa Hickey

(Scott Barbour/AFL Media/Getty Images)

Adelaide Crows vs Western Bulldogs

The second match on Saturday night will see the past two premiers go head-to-head, with inaugural premiers Adelaide Crows to welcome reigning champs Western Bulldogs to Norwood Oval.

After narrowly avoiding the wooden spoon in the first season, the Bulldogs swiftly rose up the ladder last season, finishing as minor premiers and ultimately going on to win the flag 18 months after their men’s side broke a 62-year AFL premiership drought.

Advertisement

However, Paul Groves’s side will face some challenges as they attempt to become the first club to successfully defend their flag.

Sadly, Brooke Lochland, who booted seven goals in their Round 4 win over Carlton, appears set to miss the whole season after suffering a leg injury in a recent practice match against Collingwood.

They’ll also be without last year’s AFLW best and fairest Emma Kearney after she defected to expansion club North Melbourne, where she will captain the side.

On the other hand, the Crows will be looking to put last season behind them. After taking out the inaugural flag, the South Australians struggled for most of last season and finished fifth just behind the GWS Giants on percentage.

Already the club has suffered a major blow with ruck Rhiannon Metcalfe set to miss the whole season after she suffered a serious knee injury in a practice match against Fremantle.

Still, there is a lot to like about the side, which boasts 2017 best and fairest Erin Phillips as well as tackling machine Eb Marinoff, Sarah ‘Tex’ Perkins and Abbey Holmes, among others.

Former Crows ruckman Matthew Clarke has also taken the reins as the club’s new coach after foundation coach Bec Goddard resigned to return home to Canberra.

Advertisement

Despite their struggles last season, you can never underestimate this club, and I can see them pulling off a win this Saturday night.

Prediction: Adelaide Crows by 18 points.

AFLW grand final

(AAP Image/Hamish Blair)

North Melbourne vs Carlton

The first of three matches on Sunday afternoon will see North Melbourne mark their debut in the AFL Women’s competition with a clash against Carlton, last year’s wooden spooners.

After winning a licence to enter a team into the 2019 season, the Roos recruited aggressively, landing the likes of Daria Bannister, Kaitlyn Ashmore, Tahlia Randall, Jamie Stanton, Moana Hope, Jasmine Garner and Emma King, among others, during the off-season.

However, it was their acquisition of reigning best and fairest Emma Kearney that created headlines, her switch to the Kangaroos coming after she’d featured in the Western Bulldogs premiership-winning team.

Advertisement

Like fellow expansion club Geelong, which enjoyed a win against Carlton in its practice match, the Scott Gowans-coached side were also victorious in their practice match, defeating Melbourne by 22 points, with Hope kicking two goals.

If that is anything to go by, the Roos may well make an impact in their first AFL Women’s season, in which they will play one home game each in Melbourne (against the Adelaide Crows), Launceston (against the Western Bulldogs) and Hobart (against Carlton).

It’s in Hobart where they will face a Blues side that last year lost its final five games to finish last on the ladder.

After they’d beaten Collingwood and the GWS Giants in their first two matches, at which point they sat on top of the ladder, their season took a turn for the worse when captain Brianna Davey suffered a season-ending knee injury in the match against the Giants in Sydney.

The poor finish to last season also saw foundation coach Damien Keeping sacked, with Daniel Harford taking the reins after being poached from rival club Collingwood.

Overall, 2018 was a year the club would rather forget, with the men’s side also winning only two matches and finishing last on the ladder.

But while the Blues can only put the past behind them and move forward, the Kangaroos, on the back of their impressive win over Melbourne in a practice match earlier this month, should mark their entry into the competition with a win.

Advertisement

Prediction: North Melbourne by 16 points.

Tayla Harris

(Michael Willson/AFL Media/Getty Images)

Melbourne vs Fremantle

After missing out on the grand final on percentage in each of the past two seasons, this year Melbourne faces its biggest challenge yet as they will be without inspirational captain Daisy Pearce, who is expecting twins within the next two months.

Not only that, but the Dees have also lost several key players to other clubs, including Richelle Cranston, Erin Hoare, Anna Teague and Melissa Hickey, who all moved down the highway to join the Geelong Cats, one of two clubs the Dees won’t play in 2019, the other being Carlton.

In Pearce’s absence Elise O’Dea has been named captain of the side. She will face a monumental task in leading a team which will be hungry to qualify for the finals for the first time.

Last year’s Round 7 match against the Western Bulldogs, which was a virtual preliminary final as both sides were playing for second place on the ladder, ended in heartbreak as the Dees went down by only two points after leading in the final two minutes of the match.

Advertisement

Their quest for redemption will begin against Fremantle, who will have a new coach in Trent Cooper after Michelle Cowan stepped down at the end of last season.

The Dockers have struggled in their first two seasons, finishing seventh on both occasions, but they improved slightly last year, winning three matches, including defeating Carlton in the final round to avoid the wooden spoon.

Again, Kara Donellan will captain the side, while they will be without Amy Lavell after she retired at the end of last season.

Facing the Dees in Melbourne will one tough ask for Cooper, who is tasked with trying to get the Dockers to realise their potential in 2019.

Prediction: Melbourne by 17 points.

Aliesha Newman

(Michael Willson/AFL Media/Getty Images)

Brisbane Lions vs GWS Giants

Advertisement

The final match of Round 1 sees the GWS Giants fly north to face the Brisbane Lions only weeks after defeating them in a practice match in the sunshine state.

After finishing last in their inaugural season, the Giants have gone from strength to strength, reaping the rewards of an aggressive recruiting strategy with improved results on the field, including defeating Collingwood and Fremantle away from home as well as defeating eventual premiers Western Bulldogs in Canberra to finish with three wins and a draw from seven matches.

Twelve months after securing the services of Alicia Eva from Collingwood, the Giants scored big by landing the signature of reigning All Australian full forward Christina Bernardi, also from the Pies, adding more firepower to their attack.

The Giants have been dubbed ‘dad’s army’ mainly due to the fact they are coached by veteran Alan McConnell, who coached Fitzroy on two separate occasions towards the back end of their existence and is an assistant with the men’s side.

While they did score a convincing win over the Lions in a recent practice match – as was also the case last year – it was the 40-point loss in Round 7 last year which stung the most and should spark them into action in 2019.

In what was a virtual preliminary final, the Giants started well, kicking the first goal of the match, but quickly fell behind as the equally hungry Lions got the better of them from that point onwards.

Sports opinion delivered daily 

   

Advertisement

Craig Starcevich’s side, which lost back-to-back grand finals by just six points, will resemble a significantly different-looking side in 2019 with several players having left the club, including Kaitlyn Ashmore, Tahlia Randall and Jamie Stanton, who all defected to expansion club North Melbourne.

In addition, forward Sophie Conway will also miss the entire season due to an ACL injury she suffered in July last year.

But if the Lions need any inspiration to go one better in 2019, they need not look past what the Brisbane Broncos and Brisbane Heat have achieved in recent months.

The Broncos won the inaugural NRL Women’s premiership last September, while last weekend the Heat won their first Women’s Big Bash League title and in doing so became the first club outside of Sydney to win the competition.

Despite their recent loss to the Giants in the practice match, the Lions will start favourites to win their opening match, but it will not come easy against a side which has vastly improved in the past 12 months.

Prediction: Brisbane Lions by ten points.

Advertisement
close