Training AFLW 2022 Preseason Thread - Inaugural leadership group announced!

[Albertross]

Full team:

1 CAITLIN SARGENT
2 GEORGIA GEE
3 DARIA BANNISTER
4 MADISON PRESPAKIS
6 DANIELLE MARSHALL
8 BONNIE TOOGOOD
9 JORJA BORG
10 JACQUI VOGT
11 ALANA BARBA
12 JOANNE DOONAN
15 OLIVIA BARTON
17 FEDERICA FREW
19 MIA VAN DYKE
20 STEPHANIE CAIN
21 JESS WUETSCHNER
22 AMELIA RADFORD
23 RENEE TIERNEY
24 SOPHIE ALEXANDER
25 ALEX MORCOM
28 MIA BUSCH
30 STEPHANIE WALES
32 PAIGE SCOTT
33 AMBER CLARKE
35 CAT PHILLIPS

 

[Lore]

Is there many of our VFLW players that are playing in our AFLW team?

9 I think, plus one VFLW player from Carlton (Jorja Borg), and Caitlin Sargent is an open age signing. The rest are poached from other AFLW clubs

 

[Lore]

yodellinhank Albertross CrowdedHouse I think you guys were talking about the success of the VFLW hindering preseason training for AFLW?

Article quotes Woody, Mahoney and Nanscawen about it;

CONNECTION is key for Essendon as it stares down the barrel of its very first AFLW season. With limited time to put together a program from scratch – no different to any of the other three expansion sides – the Bombers have an extra layer to navigate: the success of their VFLW program.

In making that decision, and by recruiting ten players directly from their state league affiliate, head coach Natalie Wood has had limited player availability during preseason training sessions to date.

"It's like, 'Okay, well we've got 10 players for two sessions a week… So, two sessions with 20 people, and then two sessions with 10. So, on Saturday morning, I trained with seven players," Wood told womens.afl.

But the internal perspective is that there is no value in becoming bogged down in the time pressure and instead, find the positives.

"There's no point getting stuck in the energy and the emotion of it not being ideal," Wood said.

"I'm learning to allow certain things to wash over me, but then to go, 'Okay, what are the facts?' Well, the facts are, I've got 20 players on Monday and Tuesday, and I've got 10 at best on Thursday and Saturday. So, what can I do with the 20 when I've got them? And what do I do with the 10 when I've got them? And then what do the first three weeks look like? And then what do the seven weeks look like?"

Essendon general manager of football Josh Mahoney

Josh Mahoney

Age

46

Ht

180cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.3

3star

K

6.8

3star

HB

4.5

3star

M

3.5

4star

T

1.6

4star

G

0.9

4star

No current season stats available

D

9.2

3star

K

5.4

2star

HB

3.8

3star

M

2.2

3star

T

1.6

4star

G

0.4

3star

also points out the way the club has turned some of its challenges into assets.

"We still haven't had a training session with 30 players yet, and it's nearly week four, so there's a few challenges there by bringing the season forward, but again, it's just being able to adapt to that situation," Mahoney said.

"It's a bit of a luxury having our VFLW players been able to play in a final series, they're playing really high standard footy, they're going to play in the Grand Final. So again, that's just a terrific development for them and we think that it's really important for them to find that highest standard. The cost of that is that they don't miss a couple of training sessions."

To make the most of this, developing a genuine chemistry between the players is a high priority. Among the VFLW contingent who have been playing together for some time, that connection is already evident.

"I think that that's obviously the difficulty with expansion, when you're drawing people from all these different teams, to be able to have that a little bit of consistency, I think, can only be a good thing,"

Essendon recruit and VFLW co-captain Georgia Nanscawen said.

From here:



Also some more training pics while I’m here:

 

[Lore]

There’s an article about Amelia Radford’s journey to footy and AFL on the club website (in her player thread) but specifically in terms of the training program I thought I’d put it here.

For Radford in the space of 18 months she started in EDFL early 2021, then into our normal VFLW program, then our high intensity AFLW-style program at the end of last year after we got our AFLW license, and now in the actual AFLW program, so she’s in a good position to compare the different levels.

Apparently the VFLW program we were running this year wasn’t just an extra training session each week, they also recorded training sessions and had GPS trackers and such so they could really see vision and data of what they were doing so they could improve.

She described it as:

“The step up from local footy to the VFL program at Essendon mirrored the step up to the AFL program, because they were going into the AFL next year,” she said.

“It was all a bit of a shock having a GPS in the jumper and training being recorded and big gym programs, long nights, three nights a week training. It was a massive step up.

“From a football and a physical side of things, I managed to keep up pretty well. It was the mental side and having the mindset and belief that was the main thing.”

From Moonee Valley to the big time

Amelia Radford’s not just ‘playing for fun’ anymore.

www.essendonfc.com.au

The article also mentions that the VFLW girls had that heavy AFLW-style preseason then the entire VFLW season and finals all back to back. They got one week off after the grand final and now they’re straight into AFLW preseason - so should have all 30 players together from (last?) Monday.

 

[Lore]

Cotton On training gear

 

[Lore]

Daria Bannister with the dribble kick goal at training;


Bonnie Toogood:


And I think I put this in her player thread too but Georgia Nanscawen straight back on the track while recovering from the ACL injury:



Plus first sighting of Georgia Gee (+ Maddy Prespakis = Velcro)... she's a mid/fwd:



Amber Clarke, our first ever draftee:


Bonnie Toogood again:



Jacara Egan (development coach) working with the draftees:

 

[RedmanWasHere]

Any photos of Woosh at training?

Further, Velcro, &%$* yeah!

 

[Lore]

Any photos of Woosh at training?

Further, Velcro, &%$* yeah!

Jess Weutschner is in the Thursday set

 

[Lore]

Maddy Prespakis



Bonnie Toogood



Alana Barba



Georgia Gee



Sophie Van De Heuvel

 

[Lore]

 

[ghostdog]

Should be Maddy to Bonnie, since Maddy is the mid and Bonnie is the forward

This club!

 

[ghostdog]

Woody shouting out to the players for being brave enough to go to a club where they don't necessarily know everyone or anyone, the staff that have come across from other parts of the club or elsewhere, the board that has invested in women's footy and the VFLW program before we even had a guarantee of an AFLW license, to the men's program for supporting this even while having their own programs to deal with. All 'being brave' enough to put skin in the game when you basically don't know what you're going to get back.

Mahoney, Rutten, Madden and a few others all present in the room as the camera pans around as well.

She also called back to the 150th anniversary events over the weekend that some of the players were able to attend, as well as the Essendon DNA on the wall (which is blurred out again haha) – so I guess building the AFLW program is going to tie in very much with some of those traits that are being built into the men's as well.

I love that. When the organisation is using the same values language across the board and it starts to pop up more casually in conversations around the club, and the types of conversations start to turn towards craft in the context of those values, the culture starts winning.

I wonder sometimes, how often the players talk about their craft and what good quality football looks like, without the prompting of coaches.

 

[yodellinhank]

There's an article behind a pay wall about top draft pick Amber Clarke potentially playing in a Sun Shield final, with coach Darren Bewick (some may have heard of him) hoping to be given permission by the Bombers to play her.

 

[Lore]

Practice Match confirmed for 11am on Saturday 13th of August at the Hangar - playing the same opponent as the men's team, so Port Adelaide! (Another expansion side, so a soft landing.)

 

[Lore]

Club write up:



And some more training photos content

 

[rumply]

Practice game already

 

[yodellinhank]

Practice game already

Bring it on. I just hope we haven't Essingtoned the program, bringing in Searle losing Major etc

 

[Lore]

 

[Lore]

Bring it on. I just hope we haven't Essingtoned the program, bringing in Searle losing Major etc

Searle is well respected but I’m pretty pissed Maj is leaving

 

[Lore]

Also this one from the other day of Steph Wales doing a bit of ruck practice with Flipper;

 

[Lore]

Smells like team spirit— the AFLW team was at the game tonight

 

[Lore]

Olivia Barton (Barto) mic'd up:

 

[Lore]

 

[Lore]

Unofficial practice match before the official practice match, against one of the better teams in the comp

 

[Lore]

Tell you what else they haven’t finished announcing numbers yet but that isn’t Nanscawen in 5

 

[CrowdedHouse]

Essendon lost to Melbourne in today's match simulation at The Hangar.

Ess 6.4.40
Mel 12.12.84

Little info from the Essendon Twitter account, so most info I have is from Melbourne's Twitter account (and a player interview) and Gemma Bastiani.

Dees got out to a fast start to lead by 22 points at quarter time, then extend it to 33 points at half-time, Dons pulled it back to 23 points at three-quarter time, before thr Dees eventually won by 44 points.

For the multiple goal scorers (with the limited info published), Harris and Purcell kicked 2 each for the Dees, while Paige Scott kicked 2 for the Dons.

Tayla Hanks post-match mentioned how the momentum swung back and forth (GB also mentioned Dons did have periods of control), and she was thrown around different roles during the game.