AFLW 2018 - Round 1 v Freo

[Hotdog60]

I watched all the AFLW games and I thought our skill level was the best on the weekend.
Kicking skills looked far better than the other sides. We look to have a very balanced team do we keep this team now or will there be another turn over of players at the end of the year?

[Bulldog4life]

I enjoyed watching our girls play this weekend. Their kicking has improved too which is a big plus. If we can keep Kearney, Blackburn and KB on the field it should be a good season for us. Potential stars in Stephenson and Conti both showed a heap of promise and will improve too as the season goes on. Maybe we should have KB as the men's goal kicking coach. She has a beautiful action when kicking for goal.

[jazzadogs]

I watched all the AFLW games and I thought our skill level was the best on the weekend.
Kicking skills looked far better than the other sides. We look to have a very balanced team do we keep this team now or will there be another turn over of players at the end of the year?

There will be a raid of sorts as new teams get added. I can't see Ellie Blackburn staying, I'm sure that I've read she's a Bombers supporter so I'd imagine she'll head there once their team is up and running.

Other than that you're allowed to retain most of your list, only losing players by trade or delisting. I don't know how they will compensate us if someone like Blackburn is poached.

[Twodogs]

There will be a raid of sorts as new teams get added. I can't see Ellie Blackburn staying, I'm sure that I've read she's a Bombers supporter so I'd imagine she'll head there once their team is up and running.

Other than that you're allowed to retain most of your list, only losing players by trade or delisting. I don't know how they will compensate us if someone like Blackburn is poached.

You really think? There's a big difference between barracking for a club and the sort of buy in a club will demand of a player. Lots of footballers seperate their playing and supporting carers and play for one club but barrack for another (Jm Buckley played in 4 Carlton premiership teams but hates Carlton, he's a Richmond supporter. He delineates between his profession as a footballer and his own personal preference as a supporter)

Anyway I've convinced myself she's staying.

[Hotdog60]

Ellie Blackburn would be a huge loss. It's GWS all over again.
They need to increase the AFLW season to be curtain raisers to the men's games even if at first it was for half a season.
The girls also need to stay more as a team to improve the over synergy of the group.
Settle the lists and increase their pay and bring it to a more professional elite standard where the girls don't need to do other careers and increase junior pathways.
Better training more fitness increased skill levels and entertain for the consumer.
The AFL cannot go in half arsed for too long otherwise the novity will wear off. They need to support it in a big way.

[jazzadogs]

Considering that the AFL will want the comp equal I imagine it will be something like when GWS and GC joined.

There's something different about being the first ever captain for a team you love, and if I was the bombers I'd be throwing that at Ellie (unfortunately).

[Cyberdoggie]

Ellie Blackburn would be a huge loss. It's GWS all over again.
They need to increase the AFLW season to be curtain raisers to the men's games even if at first it was for half a season.
The girls also need to stay more as a team to improve the over synergy of the group.
Settle the lists and increase their pay and bring it to a more professional elite standard where the girls don't need to do other careers and increase junior pathways.
Better training more fitness increased skill levels and entertain for the consumer.
The AFL cannot go in half arsed for too long otherwise the novity will wear off. They need to support it in a big way.

Can't go in too fast either.

I think it works this time of the year because there is no other footy on, and the weather is great for sitting at Whitten Oval or elsewhere, and it get's plenty of build up because the cricket and A league are dead boring.

I think it will run longer and into April perhaps but I think will be a challenge to hold interest once the AFL starts up and the weather changes.

As the game improves that may change of course but for now it works where it is.

[Raw Toast]

A fantastic game, the way footy is supposed to be played (especially by us of course).

The thing that pleased me the most was our (relatively) consistent structure - last year we often seemed rudderless, but in this games we generally had our numbers in the right places, both in terms of attacking through spreading, overlapping and having someone out on the fat side of the ground (Utri had half the ground to herself at times, and did pretty well with it), and even more importantly defensively where we had numbers at the back of packs, and looked pretty composed after being often shambolic (at best) last season.

Hopefully we'll keep this up, and start using the Doug Hawkins wing more when coming out of defense against the wind.

As others have mentioned, we were generally very clean with our ball use, and have recruited really well in that sense. I was a bit shattered when we didn't recruit Molloy (and she had an impressive debut on Friday), but Huntington showed a lot, with her movement, hands, and strength in the contest. And her kicking looked like it will become a weapon as well.

Conti was superb, and along with the usual suspects - Brennan, Blackburn, and Kearney - I thought Lamb was impressive, Scott was great, Utri had some fine moments, Brunton was quite good and should get better, and Toogood had a purple patch. O'Connor, who I've been a bit critical of, had an excellent game, impacting lots of contests, and kicking a glorious goal. Hopefully she'll continue to work on tapping to advantage (I guess that's synchronisation between ruck and mids just takes time), and perhaps she was injured last year, because she was so much more composed and capable yesterday.

Spark and Birch read the play well down back, Ernst did her bit (although needs to get rid of it quicker at times), Utri made space well, Lochland was everywhere, as was Callinan until she was crunched. Gogos is great inside, and Ferres had some good touches and put her body on the line. Berry is another who contributed nicely, Mackie also had a nice debut, and hopefully Bannister is ok.

Overall, we've clearly strengthened and deepened our midfield stocks, which let us down a bit last year, and also have a few more forward targets to help spread the load. At the moment it looks like our recruiting after last season has been more than astute.

A couple of huge games coming up, if we at least split them we'll be well placed.

[josie]

Good analysis woofers. I also noted the marked skill increase in... marking (bad pun I know).

[bornadog]

Good analysis woofers. I also noted the marked skill increase in... marking (bad pun I know).

I noticed that too, we seem to take a lot of marks around the ground.

[Testekill]

Sad to hear that Bannister is going to miss a year with an ACL, I thought she showed a bit on debut before her injury.

[ledge]

Be interesting to see how we go against Brisbane , I would say KB will be very much on their radar as will Blackburn, let's see if Huntington and others can take over.

[Bulldog4life]

Susan Alberti AC Retweeted
@Adrian9Johnson6
Feb 5
More
What a surprise!

#AFLW Bulldogs captain @Katie_Brennan16 was absolutely stoked to see her brother Paul and dad Terry visit her today.

when Katie filled in for Paul’s AusKick team when she was 5yo and kicked 7 goals ��

#7Sport #7AFL #DareToCreate


Wow!

[Twodogs]

Susan Alberti AC Retweeted
@Adrian9Johnson6
Feb 5
More
What a surprise!

#AFLW Bulldogs captain @Katie_Brennan16 was absolutely stoked to see her brother Paul and dad Terry visit her today.

when Katie filled in for Paul’s AusKick team when she was 5yo and kicked 7 goals ��

#7Sport #7AFL #DareToCreate


Wow!

In yr 12 we (the senior boys' cricket team) lost to the intermediate (ie younger than us) girls indoor cricket team in a challenge. It took us a while to live that one down.

Mind you they were state champions at indoor cricket at their year level. And we weren't. We definitely weren't.