AFLW is GO...so...are we going to SPEED IT UP???

I'm looking forward to the AFLW season - I think our group is a bit better than the predictions of doom I keep reading. BUT.

Last season our ball movement was so SLOW...so chippy chippy sideways, chippy chippy backwards, chippy chippy turnover that without a significant revision of the method the girls will find the competition a little bit hot this season.

Watch WC train pre-season (what can I say, I kind of have access to do so) they just seem to be going FLAT OUT at all times. New coach, new plan - and so far the results look promising as it takes the emphasis away from having 10-12 players on the field who can hit 25m targets at all times. What about us? Has there been a change? Are we looking to taking some territory in 2021 rather than continuing to play a possession based style? Same coach, new plan??????

Hopefully we will be looking to pick up where we left off in our final game of last season. The comments by Kristy Lamb suggest we want to play faster as you are suggesting:

'THE BEST EVER GAME OF AFLW'

Coming into round six of the 2020 AFLW season – what would prove to be the Bulldogs' last due to COVID-19 – there was a David v Goliath battle brewing.

The Dogs had been overrun by Collingwood in the previous round, conceding eight goals, and had lost to lowly West Coast the week prior.

Meanwhile, opponents Fremantle were flying, fresh from knocking off Brisbane, who were the only other undefeated side at the time.

What followed at Whitten Oval wasn't witnessed by locked-out fans, but with a record aggregate score of 117 points (8.3.51 to 10.6.66), both sides put on a freewheeling show, with the Dockers only pulling away late to defeat the plucky Bulldogs.

"We didn't have anyone in the crowd, so that was a bit foreign for us, but it was quick, probably one of the quickest games of AFLW I've played," Lamb recalled.

"I just remember constantly 'handball-receive kick, handball-receive kick'. Women's footy is a little slower-paced than men's, and there are more stoppages, but it just didn't feel like there were any throughout the game.

"It was quick, and we were spent by half-time, but geez it was fun playing that brand of footy, so I hope we can continue that moving forward.

"We put up a good fight and it was probably the first game that really clicked for us and we started to play the game-plan we wanted to.

"It probably took us a little longer than we would have liked, but I guess, heading into this year, knowing we played that last game as well as we did, gives us great confidence moving forward.

Link

I am still unsure whether Burke is a good coach or not. He says the right things when you listen to him, but as the OP says, last year we saw a lot of chip chip chip, hold possession then long bomb into the forward line. You need alot of skill to play the possession game and maybe he realised we didn't have too many contested ball players. we are a little light on with inside mids and often it ios left to Lamb and Blackburn to do all the grunt work.

We have a lot of young players including the number one draft pick, so we will see what happens with the game style this year.

AFLW is into it's 5th season now, and alot of the new draftees were only 12 year olds when the league started, so they are now coming through a football programme and should have better skills than the players back in year one.