After going to the Collingwood versus Melbourne game on Saturday, I was thinking of dedicating this report to the question of why so many women’s football games are so ugly.
And then I went to the Carlton versus Adelaide match, and had my faith in the game and its future restored in full.
There’s a lot of noise made about the game’s loud and frequently obnoxious critics. I personally think the calls for them to shut up are misguided, and not just because I believe in free speech.
More to the point, loud and obnoxious behaviour rarely wins a majority of people to its side, and I have to believe such critics are alienating far more potential viewers from their point-of-view than they’re winning.
But similarly, the game’s supporters will alienate potential viewers if they act exclusively as cheerleaders, and refuse to see the game’s very obvious growing pains, which include the tendency to create shockingly ugly matches like that between the Pies and Dees.
The thing is, figuring out why some games are great, while others aren’t, is one of the things that makes this phase of the AFLW interesting… but only if you’re a women’s football nerd, and none of us should be particularly surprised or upset if the average footy viewer isn’t interested in suffering the bad matches in order to get to the good ones.
So in that spirit, let’s continue.
North Melbourne Kangaroos vs GWS Giants
The culprit for ugly footy on Friday was rain, and that’s not so bad — rain makes most sports ugly, and the Roos won primarily because their skills made it look less ugly than it might.
GWS can win the ball, but against North, their midfield struggled to move it. GWS rucks Erin McKinnon and Louise Stephens comfortably beat North’s Emma King and Kate Gillespie Jones for hit-outs, 37 to 20, but much of that was because coach Scott Gowans sent King to the goal square in the second half.
The reason he felt comfortable doing so was that despite the Giants’ ruck advantage and powerful inside midfield combination, North only lost clearances by 27 to 29, meaning that many of those hitouts were going straight to North’s mids, or the Giants’ mids were getting felled in tackles as soon as they took possession.
North won the tackle count 66 to 42, many of those coming from North’s mids against their direct opponents.
Emma Kearney, Jenna Bruton and Jamie Stanton between them had 26 tackles, while the Giants’ four best mids (Rebecca Beeson, Jess Dal Pos, Alicia Eva and Alyce Parker) could only muster 20. Every time a GWS mid got the ball, her direct opponent planted her in the turf.
It raises the question — GWS’s midfield looked the league’s best on paper, and the talent’s clearly there, but are they too slow?
Courtney Gum’s not lightning, and while Eva, Beeson and Dal Pos are very agile, they all looked a step slower than Emma Kearney, Jamie Stanton and Jenna Bruton in a straight line. Parker is explosive, but this was just her second game.
Speaking of Parker, she had 13 disposals, down from 18 her opening night, but she was equal-top tackler for her team with seven.
Despite her inexperience, she’s starting to look comfortably the most physically talented of the Giants’ midfield, but the Giants’ steady midfield rotations aren’t doing her any favours.
Toward the end of the third quarter, she had a flurry of possession and made some big plays on the ball, but starting the fourth quarter, she was off again, and was cold by the time she returned to the middle.
It might be a coincidence that the Roos put the Giants out of their misery in exactly this period, but then again, it might not.
Yes, the midfield is tiring, and yes, players need to be rotated. But the stark fact of sport is that some players are better than others, and need to spend as much time as possible where they can do the most damage.
I predict that whatever her youth, if Parker spends as much time on the ball as possible, the Giants will do better.
The other most notable thing was how well North used the ball, and how confident Scott Gowans was in telling his players to play accordingly, wet weather or not.
Both teams’ effective disposal was similar at 55 and 56 per cent, but despite having only a few more disposals (212 to 188) the Roos only handballed 69 times to the Giants’ 93. This is becoming a trend in the AFLW’s early rounds — the team that handballs more loses.
That the Roos were hitting their targets can be shown in that they had more than twice as many marks, 56 to 28, eight of them in their attacking 50 to only three for GWS.
It was his midfield’s superior control of the ball that allowed Gowans to swing Emma King up forward, confident that the mids would win clearances even without their best ruck, and even more confident that they could hit King’s towering target in front of goals, which they did for two majors.
GWS, on the other hand, scored 2.11, and while it’s tempting to blame conditions or the forward setup, most of this happened in the midfield.
Teams struggling to control the ball have no choice but to bomb it in and hope, resulting in poor field position in their forward fifty, and lots of rushed, inaccurate shots.
By contrast, the Roos hit their forward targets directly in front for a return of 7.6, impressive in those conditions.
The emerging picture of this Kangaroos team is that they control the ball remarkably well, even in wet weather.
Their midfielders are fast and tackle hard, and their forward line is stacked with targets which, best of all, their midfielders can actually hit.
The only slight question mark now rests over the backline, which has done fine in two games so far, but hasn’t truly been tested.
When North eventually play a game where their midfield isn’t dominating, and the backs truly have their work cut out defending bullet passes to leading forwards, then we’ll see that question answered too.
Maybe next week against the Bulldogs will do it. In the meantime, the Kangaroos are firming as early favourites to at least make the grand final.
Alison Drennan (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Melbourne Demons vs Collingwood Magpies
This match was hideous. You can have sympathy for the Collingwood coaching staff, because their team’s all new and very young, but they’re not particularly newer or younger than Geelong, and Geelong’s doing fine.
Firstly, there was a very strong wind, and we all know that nothing quite ruins a game of footy like the wind.
The obvious thing with wind is that it lengthens kicks in one direction, and shortens them in the other, so teams will set up longer and deeper with the wind, and shorter against it.
In a women’s game, where the maximum kicking distance of many players is typically between 35 and 40 meters, a strong wind can make advancing up the ground by kick very difficult.
If you can’t gain ground by kicking, the obvious option is to advance by handball instead. Unfortunately for Collingwood, moving by handball is precisely Melbourne’s strength, and the Pies were out-handballed by a staggering 91 to 33, for a loss in total possessions 133 to 209.
After a while, Collingwood seemed to simply give up on trying to spread and move the ball, and their players contracted into a smaller and smaller area on the field, focusing purely on the defensive.
Collingwood did get more tackles, 75-68, but considering how much more of the ball Melbourne had, that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Both teams committed large numbers of players to the endless repeating stoppages, which then became even more endless and repeating, and the game became a nearly unwatchable mess.
Some of the blame here has to lie with the Collingwood coaching staff.
Obviously they have less midfield talent to work with than Melbourne, so throwing more numbers at the contests to clog them up and slow the Demons’ progress is a logical strategy.
But the one thing less experienced players struggle with is congestion, so the more congested those stoppages became, the more Melbourne’s skill advantage grew.
Ultimately there has to be some imperative for the team that’s struggling to score to spread wide, take a few chances and risk playing a more open structure.
Such a style could certainly come back to bite Collingwood against a superior team, but at least the young players are more likely to learn something, and given how they ended up getting crushed on the scoreboard anyway, there’s not much to lose.
Just spending the entire summer hoping it won’t be windy isn’t much of a plan.
The biggest plus for the Pies is the continuing form of Ash Brazil, who is showing she’s one of the best backs in the competition with 23 possessions and five marks, while Jordyn Allen was again the best of the draft picks with nine.
By contrast, I doubt Melbourne learned much they didn’t already know — including that their new girl Tyla Hanks is very good, playing around the forward line and scoring 1.1.
Ash Brazill (Photo by Michael WIllson/AFL Media/Getty Images)
Western Bulldogs vs Geelong Cats
The Cats deserved to lose this game on principle. In honour of what was nearly this weekend’s theme question (why is women’s football so ugly?), I hereby present as evidence the Cats’ third quarter.
There as a howling gale blowing from one end of the Whitten Oval, as usual. In the third quarter, the Cats were down by two goals in a low scoring game, and weren’t getting anywhere plugging the ball up the congested wing time and time again.
They needed to get the ball into open space, where the Bulldogs’ defence were not set up and waiting, and two-thirds of the entire ground lay empty and beckoning.
Yes, we’ve established that centring the ball in women’s football is dangerous, and often leads to turnovers. If you turn the ball over in the center, you’ve just opened up an easy avenue to goal for your opponent.
But with the howling gale in their faces, the Dogs would have found it very hard to go forward, so the Cats had a measure of protection, particularly with the Dogs all hanging back and protecting their lead.
If ever a women’s team was going to take a chance and switch the ball into the center of the ground, to try and get an easy, wide-open run into goals, it was then – and yet still, despite desperately needing to score, they refused.
This is the kind of thing that makes women’s football ugly — teams refusing to take risks in their ball movement even when doing so probably increases their chances of losing.
When the Bulldogs clog up a wing and refuse to let their opponent through, that’s pretty much it, forget about it.
The Cats had the perfect opportunity to go around and maybe win, but deliberately chose instead to pursue a strategy that clearly wasn’t working, and very predictably continued not to work.
Women’s football will never become more attractive until teams decide they’d rather take a chance at winning, instead of settling for the near-certainty of losing by doing the same failed thing over and over again.
When the women get the ball into open space, and get one-on-one matchups, their football can be very attractive.
But though their numbers are declining, there are still too many teams terrified of attractive football, even when the ugly stuff is killing them.
Elsewhere, the Bulldogs coaching staff finally bowed to my unrelenting year-long pressure and put Monique Conti on the ball (this is sarcasm, for those who can’t tell – I doubt the Dogs’ coaching staff know I exist).
Conti rewarded them with 19 disposals, the most on her team, and five tackles — more impressive still considering she’s been playing WNBL, and hasn’t had a pre-season.
Conti’s agility in traffic was exactly what the Dogs needed after last week’s sluggish outing against the Crows, and when added to Ellie Blackburn and Kirsty Lamb’s 18 possessions each, suddenly the Bulldogs had a critical mass of creative, possession-winning midfielders similar to what they had with Kearney in the team.
That in turn allowed the Dogs play more like their old selves, winning clearances 30 to 19, an area where they were flogged against Adelaide, and winning center-clearances 6 to nil. This happened in spite of them losing the hit-outs 26 to 40.
Youngster Eleanor Brown was again quiet with just four possessions, but she had a few moments and is being used as an outsider runner in search of space that, in each of her two games so far, has never emerged.
If the Bulldogs can find a way to get her into the game more, their midfield showing will only improve in the run toward the finals.
As for the Cats — ACL injuries are awful no matter who they hit, but Nina Morrison was literally the last person they could afford to lose.
It sucks, and this entire match would have been much closer and more interesting had she been there, but it is what it is and now the Cats have to deal with it for the rest of the season.
Olivia Purcell was terrific again with 17 possessions, but VFLW star Renee Garing came back to the pack a little with nine, and after that, without Morrison, the Cats just lacked the midfield grunt to capitalise on Erin Hoare’s dominant rucking.
Next week they get Richelle Cranston back from suspension, and not a moment too soon.
One area where the Cats look genuinely exciting is the backline. Meg McDonald was again their best with 21 disposals, and youngsters Bec Webster and first-gamer Georgia Clarke were both strong, as was Denby Taylor, who can play back or forward.
Next season the Cats will almost certainly take Lucy McEvoy with their first pick, and then their backline will be a wall, if a very young one.
Carlton Blues vs Adelaide Crows
This was a vastly superior effort from the Blues after last week, and despite the nil-and-2 start to the season, all is not yet lost.
Carlton actually exhibited some of the best ball movement so far in the AFLW, and as Coach Dan Harford said after the game, one needs to consider that the two teams the Blues have lost to (North Melbourne and Adelaide) both look like form teams in the competition.
The Blues were ahead and looked like favourites until the last six minutes of the third quarter, where Adelaide got on a roll that Carlton couldn’t answer.
But until then, what really stood out was Carlton’s run from their backline, with Kerryn Harrington outstanding with 20 disposals and six marks, and combining well with Jayde Van Dyk, Gabriella Pound, Lauren Brazzale, Kirby Bently and Nicola Stevens to move the ball swiftly into the midfield and beyond.
Briana Davey was sometimes back as well, and sometimes forward, and occasionally in the middle… the total effect was a little confusing, and she didn’t have enormous impact on the game with only 11 possessions and three tackles, but it was certainly more useful than having her deep in the forward line like last week.
But mostly the story for Carlton was Maddy Prespakis, starring in her second AFLW game with 20 disposals, 10 contested possessions, and a match-leading 8 clearances.
It’s thanks almost entirely to Prespakis that Carlton were competitive against one of the best midfields in the AFLW, actually winning total clearances 22 to 21.
But it’s also instructive that Adelaide’s third-quarter run happened when Prespakis was not in the middle, and that she only had two possessions in the last quarter when the Crows were running rampant.
Very quickly, Carlton are at risk of becoming Prespakis-dependent. Millie Mullane was good with 13 disposals, 6 tackles and 5 clearances, but after that the midfield contributions fell away.
It’s an improvement on last season, because at least Carlton have one star midfielder, but Prespakis desperately needs some help.
Mostly what looks to have won Adelaide the game is superior midfield depth, the fact that the Crows had lots of players who were still running and tackling strong at the end of the game, while the Blues just ran out of gas.
This is further reflected in the tackling stats, which Adelaide won 72 to 54, and it’s interesting to note that aside from Mullane, the other best-tackling player for Carlton was little Georgie Gee, who also had six.
Having said that, Gee looked very creative with the ball, and the move of Allison Downey to alternate with Bree Moody between ruck and forward line seemed to work, with Downey having perhaps more mobility than any ruck in the league, at times playing the clearances like a midfielder.
But we’re only two games in, and second draft pick Abbey McKay hasn’t had a run yet, and Carlton are in the weaker of the two conferences, so Blues fans shouldn’t give up just yet.
Adelaide, on the other hand, appear to have well and truly demolished their biggest problem from the first two seasons — that they had a small group of elite players, and then a large gap to everyone else.
Now the Crows are one of the deepest lineups in the competition, as evidenced by the fact that their leading possession getter was midfielder Anne Hatchard with 22 disposals and seven tackles, after getting 20 disposals the week before.
Last season she averaged 7.5 disposals and 2.3 tackles, and if there were a season’s award for ‘most improved’, she’d have one hand on the trophy.
Also contributing strongly this year are Hannah Martin and Justine Mules, to name just two who are new to the conversation, while young forward Chloe Scheer has surprised no one by looking menacing, and Eloise Jones is now roaming dangerously all around the forward line and even into the middle, while last year she was very much stuck in one pocket.
Adelaide were missing Chelsea Randall in this game but it barely seemed to matter. Erin Phillips plays in the middle or up forward as she’s needed, Ebony Marinoff has her eyes set on the season MVP trophy, while Jess Allen, Courtney Cramey and Ange Foley combine with Randall (when she’s there) to make one of the tougher defensive combinations.
The tale for the Crows this year is depth, and any team they play better be prepared to go hard for the full four quarters. Carlton did well for nearly three quarters, but it wasn’t enough.
(Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)
Brisbane Lions vs Fremantle Dockers
I don’t want to keep beating up on Brisbane, because they’re a quality outfit, but I will stick up for aggressive football. The Dockers play it, the Lions don’t.
Consider this — Brisbane had more disposals at 196 to 167, more hitouts at 35 to 20, and more marks at 38 to 25.
But despite all that time with the ball, they only converted it into 23 inside 50s, while the Dockers had 33, leading to a final score of 10.7 to 6.5.
But hey, I hear some say, Brisbane scored 6.5, which in the context of the AFLW is pretty good. But no — the Lions scored 6.5 because the Dockers were playing their usual open structure, keeping players ahead of the ball, limiting flooding and giving Brisbane far more opportunities to go forward.
This is why so many coaches are scared to play open football — it does increase the number of goals scored against you. But it does so while also, logically, increasing the number of goals you can score yourself.
Coach Trent Cooper has evidently decided to back his offensive firepower against pretty much every other team in the league, and so far it’s working. Better yet, it’s producing some fun, flowing football, and is exactly the kind of thing the AFLW needs to become more popular.
The Lions midfield seem to be standing up pretty well despite the players they’ve lost — Ally Anderson is now in the contest for the AFLW’s best midfielder with another 26 disposals and five tackles, while Nat Exon, Emily Bates and Lauren Arnell had 17, 14 and 13 respectively.
But Dana Hooker’s right on Anderson’s heels, with 24 disposals, 5 tackles and 8 clearances, while Kiara Bowers, Kara Donnellan and Hayley Miller had 15, 14 and 12.
Lauren Bella dominated the ruck with 23 to Parris Laurie’s 14, but still Fremantle won the clearances 22 to 20.
Brisbane also lead in tackles 67 to 44, but a lot of that comes down to Brisbane being the ones who were chasing frantically in their defensive 50 for longer.
Brisbane’s superior possession count is undermined by Fremantle beating them in contested possessions, 105 to 90.
In other words, while Brisbane kicked short, handballed short and maintained a safer approach, Fremantle kicked long to contests and got to the ball first — thus getting tackled rather than doing the tackling.
And lastly, the return of Ashley Atkins made a huge difference to Freo’s forward line, taking two marks inside 50 for 1.1 and setting up several others.
If Fremantle’s ball movement remains this good, they’ll be in contention for the AFLW’s best forward line, with Ebony Antonio playing both forward and back as needed for another 1.1, Gemma Houghton continuing to look dangerous for another 1.1, and Ashley Sharp with 2.1. And the Dockers aren’t even getting much out of Kellie Gibson yet.
Next week, the Dockers get Collingwood in Fremantle, which on paper looks as comfortable a win as the AFLW could throw up.
If they get it, Fremantle will be only one of two undefeated teams left in the conference of death, as North and the Bulldogs play each other in the same round.
Could 2019 see a team sweep from cellar dwellers to the championship in a single year? Fremantle are making it look possible.
Joel Shepherd
Roar Guru
Interesting. I guess it would give midfielders someone to kick it to, encouraging them to go forward, and would thus create more reward for teams using the corridor. And you don't need to make a similar rule for backs, because of course if the forwards are in the 50, they won't be left undefended. I have no fixed opinions on any of this, it might be worth a look.
Aligee
Roar Rookie
WAFL colts footy stipulates that two players from each team must be in the forward fifty at all times, this rule was bought in to allow talent scouts to identify players and of course open the game up. No complaints from anyone and i watch a bit of colts footy ( last year)
Joel Shepherd
Roar Guru
I'm very reluctant to start enforcing those kinds of rules, and I suspect they could be counter productive. I like some of the anti-congestion rules at the moment, particularly last-touch out of bounds and moving the throw-in ten meters off the boundary line (which might not seem like anti-congestion rules, but that's their effect). But I'm also starting to doubt if even playing 16 a side has actually helped combat congestion or made it worse. When the ball gets locked into a contest, players are often reluctant to clear it forward because they've no team mates forward of the ball. The same with lateral movement, which I think is the real key to opening up the game -- often it's hard for players to move sideways because there's simply not enough players on the ground to position defensively, on the ball, and laterally at the same time. Teams have fewer options, and so just kick it up the wing to the same old conservative contest again, for yet another pile-up. Like you say, a lot comes down to the coaches. I reckon if Craig Starcevich had a full 18 players, he'd position them all defensively to try and lock the game down. If Trent Cooper or Scott Gowans had 18, they'd have more players wide and long to try and spread the ball and run through the corridor -- those guys coach fine football right now without needing any more rules. Ultimately the only solution is that the offensively minded coaches start consistently beating the defensively minded coaches, and convince everyone that that's how the game needs to be played to win championships. In which case, every neutral AFLW fan should be cheering for Freo and North this season, and probably Carlton too, since Harford seems that way inclined as well.
Penster
Roar Guru
Partaking in the sport 150 years after the blokes is the opposite of "head start". Seriously.
Aligee
Roar Rookie
Just a couple of other points, there is no real logical reason why the women's game has to exactly mirror the men's game, you and i both agree that tackling in the game is at all time highs, going from 30/40 tackles per game to literally hundreds in a relatively short time frame and one of the reasons why the game gets bogged down, there was a big chance here to change the rules around tackles and I/C to open up the game, a game that probably more girls would like to play.
Penster
Roar Guru
150 years of knowledge wont translate into skill, only practice and experience will. This is first generation AFLW, second gen natives will improve ..... and so forth. Things take time, I wonder about the sound byte attention span of some commentators looking for a "just add water" game. By contrast, that's what AFLX is all about, and it sux.
anon
Roar Pro
Amateur men play a style of football that doesn't degenerate into rolling mauls. I don't know why semi-professional women require a 150 year head start over amateur men.
Aligee
Roar Rookie
I wouldn’t deny them, I just think that a smaller sided game on a smaller ground would suit them better, horses for courses IMO. That is not going to happen as the die has been cast and the ‘revolution’ has already taken place and women’s footy will be played on old suburban grounds and in that regard it makes good sense, but IMO from a skills, fitness and physicality POV the women’s game is not ATM and may never be ideally suited to big grounds. I have noticed plenty of injuries and have heard they have a higher rate and part of the problem IMO is the extra pressure because of bad skills and easy fundamental errors which leads to more packs etc, also it’s not a huge jump to say that the female body is not really made for hard physical footy, that’s why I suggested a type of game that would be both better to watch and also less physical. Interestingly in Gaelic football the rules around tackling in women’s football are different from the men’s game, the Gaelic women playing out here state that Gaelic footy is much more skill full than AFLW. Personally I would like to see a women’s game that is open and skillfull with less physicality and tackling, I can watch women’s Rugby to see women beat each other.
tigerboy
Guest
I wouldn't call the AFLW players professionals. Of course it will take time, that's why I advocated coaching the game in a less defensive manner. Why is it a stupid argument? It sure looks like they are all ball chasing, which is exactly how early footy was played. The cricketer fitness thing was true for the first few years, then do you think they didn't get more serious about the winter game?
The Joy Of X
Roar Rookie
@ Aligee We know that male adult Australian Footballers have 0.7 ACL's per 1,000 playing hours- and female Australian Footballers have 6.7 ACL's per 1,000 playing hours. Women are being encouraged to do 90 minutes of knee-strengthening exercises pw, to greatly strengthen their ligaments. It is expected this will reduce their ACL injury rates. Do you know what the female ACL injury rates, per 1,000 playing hours, are in netball, basketball and soccer? I have read they are also very high in these sports. If women want to play these sports, and Australian Football, under the same Rules that men play the sports, and knowing the higher knee risks, is it ethical to deny them their wishes?
The Joy Of X
Roar Rookie
@ Joel Excellent detailed analysis, as usual. Most AFLW games are entertaining, hard fought, with adequate scoring (shorter quarters; played in skill-sapping heat; women can, generally, only kick about 38-40 metres; and can't handball as far). We should simply ignore the fools who want to compare men and women playing the same sport- the physical differences are too great. If both are full time professionals with the same training etc, skills can be compared- but not when strength is a factor in the skill execution. Horror games, such as Collingwood v. Melbourne, even though few in number, do much damage to the 'AFLW' brand. I am surprised you were not more critical of the coaches; and their deliberate policy of constant congestion that was apparent in the Collingwood game; AND the AFLW generally. Congestion is the source of the ugliness and constant stoppages. If we wish to see more attractive football, we must slash the interchange, and reduce the bench- perhaps two on the bench only, only 6 interchanges per team. These changes would prevent the constant flooding. The reduction in game day numbers from 21-18 would, also, have the beneficial effect of keeping the 3 most unskilled players out of a match- thus improving general AFLW skill levels. Your views? Perhaps, even, a Rule in the AFLW that 3 forwards and 3 backs must stay in their 50 metre arc at all times- with a free kick against teams who breach the Rule? The only concession is a player can take a maximum of 3 strides outside it, if chasing a ball that is just outside the 50, before immediately returning? Your views?
anon
Roar Pro
Those were rank amateurs playing for fitness in the cricket off season. They didn't have access to 150 years of knowledge. It's a silly argument. They're not teaching these people to play an 1860's style of football, or teaching them how to kick stab passes.
tigerboy
Guest
Take a look back to the eighteenth century mens' game, huge scrums following the ball around, by the 1890s this had begun to change. Scoring improved etc. I think it will turn around, but may take 20 years. I think there should be a directive to coach open attacking footy. By the 1920s games were high scoring and, I assume, a lot more open. This probably reflects an improvement in training regimes, tactics and innate skills. The later being brought about by the fact the game had been going for close to 50 years. I agree it needs to change, as the early mens' game had no comparision, unlike the womens'.
Rob
Guest
What will "fix" the issue is time. At the moment the talent pool is so thin that a lot of these girls, despite being professional sportsmen, wernt realistically able to choose AFL as their chosen sport and have come fron other sports. Assuming the reports about female participation rates at Auskick level rising dramatically as a direct result of AFLW are correct, this will over time change as more and more girls are coached in the skills from a young age, and more will be playing competitive footy during their childhood and teens with the realistic aim of becoming professional. It might take another 10 years or more but eventually every team will be filled with players who have been playing the sport their whole lives, and those not good enough will not be drafted. Cricket is a great example of this - they have many many years on AFL in relation to developing womens cricket and now despite not bowling as fast or hitting the ball as far, the entire skill set is there and its enjoyable to watch.
Aligee
Roar Rookie
I’ll check the article out sometime… See how it matches up with your other comments on here ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz..... i really cant wait!.
anon
Roar Pro
I'm not a fan of AFLW even with the increase in scoring. It's very scrappy, you don't get the athletic explosiveness of the men's game, it's short on highlights. There's no malice in my criticisms. I've been vocal this summer about the poor quality of BBL matches this summer. Does this mean I hate men and men's sport? Of course not. Only someone with an agenda and axe to grind would accuse me of something so ridiculous. I'd like to see AFLW do well and for that to happen the standard must improve. Also, the training wheels need to be taken off and a nominal entrance fee be charged so that we can accurately gauge its popularity and then make necessary adjustments if required.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
It'll be interesting to see how much pillaging they will do. Dowrick I've heard is a WC fan and the Lions may have a fight on their hands to keep her.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
Yeah, nice sledge XD..."jealous overarching"? What, did you use a random possibly-nasty-name-calling-generator? You really don't handle the slightest whiff of a confrontation well, do you? - I am sorry I missed your article. No need for fevered imaginations to invent nonexistent conspiracies. There may have been a few things drawing my attention away from here between Christmas and New Year. Pesky things, like non-internet-life. I'll check the article out sometime... See how it matches up with your other comments on here
Aligee
Roar Rookie
Maybe i made the first comment, maybe i didn't, maybe you have quoted it out of context (which would not surprise), but go ahead and dig it up if it really bugs you. The second comment i definitely did make and stand by it, i think women would be better served by a game on a smaller ground with less physicality and players and they could have made it their own and developed it accordingly Lastly i have actually written a article about the growth of women's football that applauds their growth in the game and the benefits they contribute. Here it is....https://www.theroar.com.au/2018/12/27/the-rise-and-rise-of-womens-football-2/ published 27 December 2018, so not long ago, How many positive articles have you written about women's football ?, in fact feel free to comment on mine, i noticed you didn't, but you seem the jealous over arching type so perhaps you deliberately didn't (again that wouldn't surprise)
Joel Shepherd
Roar Guru
I'd guess it's probably common knowledge which Freo players would rather be Eagles, in WA at least. But yeah, I'm sure that's part of Cowan's job at West Coast, to identify those players for next year. Interesting to see how many the AFL will let leave. The Eagles will also be chasing every player with WA ties elsewhere in the country, no matter how well cemented with their present teams, so Frederick-Traub, Chelsea Randall, MacKenzie Dowrick, Emma Swanson, Renee Forth, etc. I reckon Randall would be their dream recruit, similar to what Kearney was to North. But if they can get Dowrick back, she's got a sister coming through in 2021 who might be better than she is, and you'd think they'd want to be in the same team...