Roar Guru
Joined October 2017
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Professional SF writer. Amateur sport watcher.
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The Roos are cooked. Things move fast in the AFLW. For a while I've been questioning whether a strategy of recruiting primarily mature-aged players…
Melbourne vs North Melbourne I've watched most AFLW matches since the competition started, and the Melbourne versus North Melbourne clash was almost certainly the…
There's been a lot of talk about how the standard of play in Rounds 1 and 2 are the best opening two rounds in…
When the AFLW's first season commenced in 2016, many observers were unable to get past the standard of play that was, unavoidably, a lot…
It feels a little dumb writing about sport when everything else is going on, but maybe this is exactly the time when we need…
The AFLW has done a better job than last year in distributing the teams between conferences, but still it seemed obvious this year that…
The average score in AFLW Season 2019 was 35.27 points. So far in Season 2020, the average scores have been as follows: Round 1;…
I guess this means Fremantle are the best team in the competition, right? I mean, they're the only ones that are undefeated, having beaten…
Round 1 of the AFLW was scrappy and low scoring, with the median team score 21.5 points per game. This was therefore accompanied by…
The AFLW's back, which means a first week of scratchy skills, awful weather, lopsided results and silly controversies around silly people saying silly things…
If Adelaide were fully healthy, you’d be an idiot to bet against them winning their third out of four AFLW titles. As things stand,…
After a superb season 2019, there were fears Fremantle would get smashed by the expansion draft, with many of their best players leaving for…
The Blues suffered a big loss in the offseason when their captain Bri Davey committed the ultimate treason and moved to Collingwood. But happily…
You can see what Collingwood were thinking. They’ve already got some really great kids from last season’s draft in compensation for losing a bunch…
The Kangaroos made an excellent debut to the AFLW in 2019 thanks to some strong recruiting of senior players. Well balanced across all parts…
I was all set to pick Geelong for a shock transformation season, from the lowest-scoring team in the 2019 season to deserving grand finalists…
The Demons are the league’s most consistently underperforming team. It’s hard to figure out what the problem is. Their midfield has always been elite,…
Disclaimer: I’m a West Coast Eagles fan, so figure that into your assessments when considering my objectivity. However, for the purposes of this prediction,…
There was a lot of angst at the kennel among supporters following the last few years of player losses after the team’s grand final…
After being heavily raided in the off-season two years in a row, you might expect the Lions to be a shambles with very few…
The problem with writing these in advance is that with the season approaching, facts change and I’ve been too busy to change the article. Since I wrote it, Ruth Wallace has dropped out, and it’s now emerged that Phillips will miss at least round one, and Scheer probably more, and now Deni Varnhagan will miss a few games as well. But I stand by the prediction, I think there’s a lot more good players in this side than just Philips and Randall.
AFLW 2020 season preview: Adelaide Crows
As an Eagles fan, I must remind you that AFLW contracts are only two seasons long. Plus there’s a Mandurah kid named Courtney Rowley who just won Peel Thunder B&F at 16, which is crazy — she’s naturally in the ‘Freo zone’ but the Eagles will almost certainly get her because we’ll still be picking 1st in 2022 (Freo’s going to flog us for a couple of years). Freo would love to get Rowley, Eagles would love to get Roxy, plus our midfield probably won’t need Rowley if we get Abbie Dowrick next year. Could be a swap in 2022?
AFLW 2020 season preview: Fremantle Dockers
Roxy runs very hot and cold, in her first season I’d expect her to have games where she does very little, followed by a game where she produces some of the biggest highlight plays in AFLW so far. Consistency will take a while, but she’s only 18 and it’ll be a fun journey to watch.
AFLW 2020 season preview: Fremantle Dockers
This was written before Aine Tighe did her ACL, obviously. But Freo’s ruck situation could still be okay, because Mim Strom is excellent… will still be a heck of a big burden for an 18-year-old to carry.
AFLW 2020 season preview: Fremantle Dockers
Re: the last bit, I wrote an article on that here; https://www.theroar.com.au/2019/11/19/six-things-i-want-to-see-in-aflw-season-2020/
Freo were cooked in that semi, lots of their stars were injured going into the game, and they had another three or four major injuries just in the first half. I think they might be the best coached team in the comp, could be huge this year.
Complete AFLW 2020 season preview
In a season where everyone else’s offence looks to be improving, I haven’t yet seen proof that Brisbane can score rapidly — something they struggled with even in Season One. They didn’t kick a goal in their entire first practise game. Until I see that change, I won’t rate them highly no matter who’s on their list.
Complete AFLW 2020 season preview
I think you should get Richmond pretty comfortably… but then, early season form in the AFLW is always unpredictable. Collingwood could be very close — it’d be great to have a genuine Carlton vs Collingwood blockbuster, so far in AFLW they’ve all been duds. The other player I could have mentioned is Brazzale — Harford was saying she’s apparently had a huge offseason, which reminded me that she had 26 possessions in last year’s semi-final. So many players with big upsides in Carlton.
AFLW 2020 season preview: Carlton Blues
It could just be that North reckon this is their window. If they have a breakout year and win the title in the next couple of years, which is not impossible, it could be genius. But you look at where Adelaide’s improvement’s come from — it’s the transformation of young players like Hatchard, Marinoff, Jones, Scheer, Allen, etc, on top of all their great seniors. North will be very strong for a few more years at least following this method, but I’m not sure you can win a flag like that. And in a couple of years, teams like the Bulldogs, Carlton, even Collingwood, having built up all their young talent, could have reached a level far above North.
AFLW 2020 season preview: Kangaroos
I think they’re one of the cleverest/smartest teams, very well coached, lots of wise heads and cool decision-makers. They’re also very physically strong, lots of big bodies around the ball. But I think there are young players coming through, and new styles of play, that are a bit more electric and fast-paced. Will be interesting to see how North measures up.
AFLW 2020 season preview: Kangaroos
Practise match scores were very high, the Geelong-Bulldogs match was 47-59, between two teams that last year averaged 20 and twenty-something (can’t remember, but it was low). Will be interesting to see if North has the speed — great lineup but not as quick as Adelaide, Freo, Carlton or Bulldogs, I think.
AFLW 2020 season preview: Kangaroos
The short season makes it harder, certainly. It’s one of the things that makes predictions harder — the teams are always playing much better in the second half of the season than the first, and it’s hard to tell what a team’s actual form will be.
AFLW 2020 season preview: Geelong Cats
They’re as good a chance as anyone not-Adelaide — my predictions inside the top five are with very little confidence, they’re all good. Should really have mentioned Ash Riddell’s good form too, making that midfield even tougher.
AFLW 2020 season preview: Kangaroos
Yep, the AFLW’s going to have to keep an eye on the struggling Victorian teams tanking in the last rounds of 2021, just because they’ll know the first pick before 2022 will be Georgie Prespakis.
The AFLW's breakout stars of 2020
I watched the GWS-Brisbane practise game feed. Alyce Parker was best on ground by such a huge margin it wasn’t funny, and that includes over great players like Alicia Eva and Emily Bates. Good chance for league MVP, she’s a beast.
The AFLW's breakout stars of 2020
There’s no expansion for the next two years, so teams will keep all the talent they’ve currently got. Just looking at the top Victorian U18 girls, I reckon every Vic team will get at least 2 genuine guns next draft, irrespective of where they pick. Add the rookies, the code-hoppers and the mature-age girls emerging through the VFLW, the lineups are going to get very deep very fast. WA and QLD should be about the same — if the Eagles get Abbie Dowrick and Shanae Davison next draft, that’d be a good start.
AFLW 2020 season preview: West Coast Eagles
How long do you think it’ll be until the best of them start hitting the top level?
AFLW 2020 season preview: West Coast Eagles
The difference between state leagues and AFLW is enormous. Mo Hope was a VFLW superstar. Sarah Perkins still is. Neither can make an AFLW list.
AFLW 2020 season preview: West Coast Eagles
If you’re patient, and you enjoy watching things being built and improving year on year to an entirely new level, AFLW is your competition. Watching those three kids in the backline develop over the next few years — Dowrick, McGuire, McDonald — will be fun enough. And the Eagles will be getting top pick in the WA draft for the next few years at least, so there’ll be at least a couple of new gun kids every year.
AFLW 2020 season preview: West Coast Eagles
Will probably be a long, hard season — saw them in the practise match against Richmond and I may have overestimated here. On the other hand, Richmond’s team has played a lot together in the VFLW, the Eagles will take a while to gel and will likely only start to show what they’ve got toward the end of the season. They had a lot of good moments against Richmond, just looked very disorganised.
AFLW 2020 season preview: West Coast Eagles
I reckon the standard will have improved a lot, but I think it’ll be very uneven — expecting some beltings for the expansion teams. Fans will have to be patient — huge drafts coming the next couple of years, and no expansion, so even thin rosters should improve fast.
And you might be pleased where I’ve put the Pies.
AFLW 2020 season preview: Richmond Tigers
I fully expect to be wrong in many things I write, particularly in pre-season previews. Just so long as I’m not boring.
AFLW 2020 season preview: Richmond Tigers
Thanks for the heads up about the QAFLW GF, Fred, I’ll try and catch it on Youtube. I’ve seen some WAFLW this season and the standard’s gone way up.
Six things I want to see in AFLW season 2020
I’d guess about a half — it’s always pouring in Sydney and Brisbane this time of year, Melbourne and Perth are usually windy, etc. Will be interesting to add up the scores in sheltered grounds this season and compare them to the average — Carlton and Richmond could be getting a big home game advantage at Ikon.
Carlton and Dogs impress in wet and windy AFLW opening round