🔫🚅🗽 AFLW's Most Valuable Players, 5th Edition

[Teen Wolf]

THE CONCEPT
Scenario: The whole competition is starting over with a national draft for all players and all 18 clubs. If every list manager makes the right move (correctly weighing up potential with the need for experience, and forming judgments based on what players have shown at AFLW level) I believe this is what the draft order will be for the first six rounds. Consequently, this is not merely a player rating system, but a means of evaluating every club’s actual list heading into the second 18-team season.


THE CATEGORIES
In the above image, players are each assigned a Prime Value (PV) which is a number up to 999 that rates how good a player's best is. They are also each given a Conditioning/Consistency (CC) rating which is a number up to 5 based on things like fitness, injuries, age and general reliability. Multiply PV by CC and you get each player's Total (T) score.

Further, each player is colour coded to reflect their Prime Value category:
White bread (sub-850)
Black label (850 to 899)
Bronze statue (900 to 949)
Silver bullet (950 to 969)
Golden gun (970 to 999)


THE RELEASE
The list will be released in three parts, and the above image will be updated as we go.


THE NUMBERS
In the lists below, players may have a string of numbers next to their names, for instance:

105 Ashleigh Brazill (50, --, UD, 54)

“105” corresponds to Brazill’s new ranking heading into the 2023 season. The numbers in brackets correspond to her previous rankings in chronological order, so she was ranked 50th ahead of the 1st edition (2020 season), didn't receive a ranking for the 2nd edition, was given a UD (means 'UnDecided' or 'under deliberation' or something) for the 3rd edition, and was 54th coming into last season.


THE WORDS
I will try to keep the explanations for my rankings as concise and relevant as possible, noting that a) there is plenty of writing in previous editions that will help inform these latest rankings, and b) sometimes the ranking itself says enough (but I’m happy to elaborate when requested).


HAVE YOUR SAY
As with all previous editions, I’m extending the invitation for everybody to contribute their own Most Valuable Players list. It would be great to see others have a crack in good faith at, say, a first round of a phantom draft for all current AFLW stars, remembering nobody has seriously taken up the offer in past years.


PREVIOUS EDITIONS

• 1st Edition
• 2nd Edition
• 3rd Edition
• 4th Edition

 

[Teen Wolf]

ADELAIDE
13 Anne Hatchard (26, 26, 26, 2)
16 Ebony Marinoff (24, 47, 47, 15)
33 Chelsea Randall (17, 25, 24, 33)
38 Danielle Ponter (31, 36, 36, 38)
43 Sarah Allan (53, 55, 55, 25)
60 Eloise Jones (--, --, --, 23)
81 Teah Charlton (--, --, 68, 69)
87 Chelsea Biddell
103 Stevie-Lee Thompson (45, 89, 90, 100)

Much as I’m tempted to ease the load by limiting this exercise to 50 players (or 30, if I was feeling like a really lazy slob), an extended list presents the irresistible opportunity to shine a light on the underappreciated stateswomen of the league. For example: 103rd-ranked Stevie-Lee Thompson whose toughness and work rate distinguish her from teammates Eloise Jones and Chelsea Biddell; 103rd-ranked Stevie-Lee Thompson whose football IQ distinguishes her from rivals Cathy Svarc and Kerryn Peterson; 103rd-ranked Stevie-Lee Thompson whose toughness and work rate and football IQ distinguish her from teammate Madison Newman and rival Kaitlyn Ashmore. All six of these inferior players are indeed plenty useful on a footy field, which is the point. Not enough talent in this league? There’s too much for the internet’s puny-brained haters to process!


BRISBANE
21 Isabel Dawes (--, --, 66, 37)
39 Sophie Conway (60, 66, 82, 22)
42 Natalie Grider (--, --, --, 24)
47 Alexandra Anderson (25, 48, 46, 47)
62 Courtney Hodder (--, --, 34, 59)
80 Tahlia Hickie (--, --, --, 64)
84 Dakota Davidson (--, --, 43, 56)
89 Orla O’Dwyer (--, UD, 73, 20)
96 Breanna Koenen (69, 75, 77, 93)

The team that would usually win games without playing pretty was long mistaken for a team that didn’t have any stars. Now they can’t win ugly, and all their great players have left—to join Victorian clubs, or to be 35 years old and pregnant. That’s not to say they haven’t got any greats in the making, regardless of how Kate Lutkins’ kid ends up handling a Sherrin. Of the nine high value picks listed here, I’d be nervous about betting against seven of them (neither the tidy Skipper nor the solid Vote-Getter would begrudge my choice) and would probably need luck on my side to go over five hundred. After all, the only good luck in sport is somebody else’s misfortune (see the swayed-by-injury 2021 grand final). So let’s not say Orla O’Dwyer’s goal/behind tally of 6.4 in S6 was a fluke, likewise the 6.19 she’s managed in her other three seasons combined. The discrepancy is rather an indicator of confidence, and she’s the type to try to win it back by trying too hard. No such risk looms for Tahlia Hickie and Dakota Davidson, both of whom give me ‘great or washed up by age 26’ vibes.


CARLTON
18 Breann Moody (--, 82, 74, 18)
49 Darcy Vescio (29, 31, 31, 44)
66 Abbie McKay (--, --, UD, 68)
74 Mimi Hill (--, --, --, 78)
UD Keeley Skepper

Having stuck with Darcy Vescio as the no.1 marquee well after it made sense, Carlton find themselves stuck with nowhere to go. Just because the Blues have the ongoing allegiance of my league-wide favourite, Brea ‘Concrete Blonde’ Moody, for whom an extra fiddy grand ain’t shit, doesn’t mean they’ve done anything to deserve it. Needless to say, the same idea applies to navy-blue-blooded child-o-champion Abbie McKay. Not so for Mimi Hill, however, whose recommitment reflects some semblance of competent management at Boys First HQ (aren’t the women supposed to get preferential treatment on a sinking ship?), which has gotta count for something even though her disposals too often count for nothing.


COLLINGWOOD
25 Ruby Schleicher (--, --, 54, 3)
48 Brianna Davey (21, 22, 15, 48)
56 Tarni White (--, --, --, 74)
57 Lauren Butler
65 Jordyn Allen
66 Mikala Cann (--, --, --, 66)
101 Brittany Bonnici (--, 71, 52, 80)
105 Ashleigh Brazill (50, --, UD, 54)
UD Sarah Rowe (33, 37, 37, 26)

Two minutes after bizarrely campaigning for the ruthless delisting of Magpie devotee Sarah Rowe, the backtrackers—sorry, barrackers—were shouting for Molloy and Lambert to side-by-side stick together. A further two minutes later, they were revoking their support of the team, as all barrackers should eh. Meanwhile, even the true good-old-Collingwood-forever supporters seemed to have forgotten their outlandish claims about the potency of Bonnici, let alone Allen/Butler/Cann. It won’t be as easy as 1-2-3 for any member of the ABC trio to transform from schlepper to Schleicher, but even if they fall short, they’ve just installed a 22yo black-and-“White” safety net.


ESSENDON
4 Madison Prespakis (5, 4, 5, 6)
64 Georgia Gee (--, 65, 81, 39)
86 Brooke Brown
91 Bonnie Toogood (76, 62, 62, 83)
UD Amber Clarke
UD Paige Scott

No second player in the top sixty-three; no good reason to make me.
Georgia Gee would be Mon Conti-like, but we all know she’s just too flaky.
Bannister’s knees might be getting better, but fitness still a bit shaky.
And then there’s sleepy ol’ Stephanie Cain… c’mon dawg, wakey wakey.


FREMANTLE
27 Hayley Miller (--, 72, 72, 17)
32 Ebony Antonio (1, 9, 14, 32)
34 Kiara Bowers (20, 21, 22, 34)
82 Sarah Verrier (--, --, --, 70)
108 Aine Tighe (--, --, --, 108)
UD Gabby O’Sullivan (--, 90, 91, 85)

Having vowed to stop cherry picking my good calls from the past, I’ll make an exception in the case of my other league-wide favourite, with this written in the last MVP list: “…the biggest difference is [Miller’s] inferior cometh-the-moment credentials, which Coops can live with as long as Ebony Antonio’s there to save the day”. She wasn’t there to save the day for most of S7, and Coops was deadmanwalking by the time she returned.

 

[Cdog71]

Georgia Gee would be Mon Conti-like, but we all know she’s just too flaky.
Bannister’s knees might be getting better, but fitness still a bit shaky.
And then there’s sleepy ol’ Stephanie Cain… c’mon dawg, wakey wakey.

transform from schlepper to Schleicher,

the only good luck in sport is somebody else’s misfortune

Worth the wait, very good.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Prizes for correctly guessing the remaining seven Top 20 players in order.




GEELONG
9 Georgie Prespakis (--, --, --, 21)
40 Chloe Scheer (80, 81, 40, 40)
45 Amy McDonald (--, --, 70, 63)
59 Mikayla Bowen (--, --, 38, 42)
66 Rebecca Webster (--, --, --, UD)
73 Nina Morrison (40, 80, 92, 76)

Defective Steely Dan be movin’ natural goal-kickers into the back-pocket, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. The Cats went from Paul Hood to Robin Hood. Shelley Scott needs to go forward, not backward. Chloe Scheer needs to go upward, not forward. And Amy McDonald is always twirling, twirling, twirling. There’s still a lack of direction within this team while NiMo finds her mojo, because the anointed one can’t put the GP in GPS all by herself like they might’ve hoped, to which St Kilda can relate.


GOLD COAST
2 Charlie Rowbottom (--, --, --, 9)
41 Kalinda Howarth (--, 11, 11, 55)
66 Claudia Whitfort (--, --, --, 67)
92 Tara Bohanna (--, --, --, 84)
UD Jamie Stanton (47, 45, 49, 86)

GWS GIANTS
6 Alyce Parker (44, 27, 27, 7)
53 Alicia Eva (22, 49, 48, 50)
102 Isabel Huntington (82, 59, 44, 79)
107 Chloe Dalton (78, --, UD, UD)
UD Rebecca Beeson (34, 35, 35, 14)
UD Georgia Garnett

At least Alan McConnell’s too-old-for-this demeanour gave the Giants an identity. Cameron Bernasconi evokes all the intimidation/inspiration/you-name-it of a balloon with a face drawn on it in felt pen by a toddler, and that aura of hollowness is filtering throughout the team. The other 17 teams are starting to talk: “bash and bully Parker, and the rest will lay down like a doormat”. The way things are tracking, pretty soon the doormat will read: “The Neighbours Have Better Stuff.”

The difference with the Suns is Charlie Rowbottom can’t be bashed or bullied. Kalinda Howarth is mad as hell, and not gonna take it anymore. And nobody’s thought of Claudia Whitfort as worthy of the attention yet. But this is a team which also benefitted from the extra physicality brought to the contest last season by the electric Courtney Jones and steamin’ Ellie Hampson (both now at other clubs) before getting their clock cleaned by none other than GWS in the closer. Hardly surprising, too, while Cameron Joyce bumbles around figuring out how to use Tara Bohanna and Jac Dupuy against mid-ladder (or better) opponents.


HAWTHORN
14 Emily Bates (7, 8, 8, 12)
19 Jasmine Fleming
44 Greta Bodey (--, --, UD, 43)
93 Matilda Lucas-Rodd (--, --, --, 87)
97 Aileen Gilroy (--, 76, 78, 94)
UD Charlotte Baskaran

Let me tell you about a friend of mine. Her name is Greta Bodey. She’s a 27-year-old physiotherapist who took up Aussie rules while on placement in the Gold Coast Suns’ academy zone. As you can imagine, her student loan debt is staggering. Under Bec Goddard’s plan, Greta is able to move interstate to a weaker team willing to pay extra marquee bucks out of their own pocket. Under Craig Starcevich’s plan, she would be forced to play in Brisbane for three cents a day while her house would be burned to the ground… and that is wrong! That. Is just. Wrong. Greta’s move interstate is also a good decision for football as a whole, because it ensures a bright up-and-comer like Tahlia Fellows—who will be without the help of Jess Duffin’s senior on-field presence from now on—isn’t left to thrash about in the deep waters of an AFLW forward-line alone. That doubly applies in the case of Jasmine ‘Red Velvet’ Fleming, whose special brand of smoothness will quickly have Melbourne coming ‘round with promises of unleashing her full potential, which she’ll find hard to pass up unless Hawthorn supports the young star with a mentor of Emily Bates’ stature.


MELBOURNE
5 Tyla Hanks (32, 33, 4, 5)
17 Tayla Harris (42, 41, 41, 16)
23 Olivia Purcell (--, 40, --, 81)
26 Kate Hore (38, 39, 39, 46)
29 Lily Mithen (30, 29, 29, 28)
36 Karen Paxman (16, 20, 21, 36)
37 Eden Zanker (83, 60, 45, 19)
79 Alyssa Bannan (--, --, --, 62)
88 Sarah Lampard
95 Libby Birch (56, 56, 56, 91)
UD Blaithin Mackin
UD Eliza West

On the second leg of her “Too Legit to Quit” world tour, Ms. Harris resurrected the 15-year-old ruckgirl who TKO’d adversaries left and right while winning the QAFLW B&F. In doing so, she forged a Tayla-Tyla 1-2 punch that proved more powerful than the Hanks-Zanker combo I prophesised a year earlier. Upon completion of an overdue victory lap, this premiership team didn’t look to desperately lure Chloe Molloy for a shot at back-to-back. Instead, the Dees sent Daisy her flowers, Paxman their blessing, and GF BOG runner-up Eliza West to the VFL to work on the foot-meets-ball part of her game—time will show that none of them ever really left Melbourne’s AFLW program.


NORTH MELB.
11 Jasmine Garner (2, 2, 2, 10)
15 Ashleigh Riddell (79, 12, 7, 13)
28 Jenna Bruton (27, 28, 28, 27)
35 Emma Kearney (15, 19, 20, 35)
72 Mia King (--, --, --, 65)
94 Tahlia Randall (--, --, --, UD)
100 Emma King (43, 43, 75, 90)
UD Erika O’Shea
UD Victoria Wall

Bookending a rough Round 10/Elimination Final fortnight (wherein they just had to let their opponents burn themselves out like an oil fire), North beat the 7-1 Collingwood and the 7-2-1 Richmond like bongos. But it didn’t matter because a fortnight before all of that, at Arden Street against Brisbane, their season ended with the sound of three first-half sitters being haphazardly booted into the void by their force-fed key forward. Curt captain Kearney plays to win; nice guy Garner plays to win respect. Ball-winner Riddell’s goals need to be set higher; shot-sprayer Randall’s need to be ten metres wider.

 

[Teen Wolf]

It is compleeete. Really didn't take me very long, either...



PORT ADELAIDE
20 Hannah Ewings
24 Abbey Dowrick
51 Gemma Houghton (41, 13, 16, 45)
54 Erin Phillips (12, 16, 18, 52)
77 Ashleigh Saint (--, --, UD, 57)

You can only muster so much enthusiasm for a player who has never managed a Top 5 club B&F placing, regardless of any other awards won. At a glance, the only such players in my 50 most valuable are 38th-ranked Danielle Ponter (best B&F finish of 8th) and 37th-ranked Eden Zanker (6th). Both of those gifted goal-kickers, aged 22 and 23 respectively, have already shown they are capable of awesome forays into the midfield. We don’t know yet if 24yo Ash Saint née Woodland (best B&F finish of 8th) is building a similar extension to her game, but with a move to a not-so-stacked Port Adelaide just as an interchange cap of 55 looms large, she better be.


RICHMOND
1 Ellie McKenzie (--, --, 9, 8)
3 Monique Conti (3, 3, 3, 4)
22 Grace Egan (--, 69, 69, 60)
50 Eilish Sheerin
52 Katie Brennan (9, 15, 17, 49)
75 Courtney Jones (--, --, --, UD)
99 Gabrielle Seymour (--, --, 95, 99)

With a win against the Lions in their highlight reel, you can’t say the top 4 finish—followed by a straight-set bomb out—was purely down to an easy fixture. Per two paragraphs ago, there was certainly an element of the team with young stars burning bright and burning out quickly. In a few years from now, the stars will be so hot that they’ll need fire to cool ‘em off. I’d say they’re also going to need a bigger bandwagon, but that’s already true, having been set up by their president to look pretty soft and silly with the home ground/finals fiasco. Mr. Gale, tear down that stand!


ST KILDA
31 Jaimee Lambert (6, 7, 13, 31)
58 Georgia Patrikios (--, 30, 30, UD)
78 Jesse Tawhiao-Wardlaw (--, 61, 64, 61)
85 Tyanna Smith (--, --, 12, 77)
90 Nicola Stevens (55, 78, 57, 82)
106 Bianca Jakobsson (52, --, --, 104)
UD Olivia Vesely (--, 70, --, UD)

Nick Dal Santo

Nick Dal Santo

Age

40

Ht

185cm

Wt

85kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

22.9

5star

K

13.0

5star

HB

9.9

5star

M

3.7

4star

T

3.6

5star

CL

4.0

5star

No current season stats available

D

13.2

4star

K

6.8

3star

HB

6.4

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.2

4star

is the only coach in the league who cops pre-emptive flak. He might use women’s football as a steppingstone—hasn’t yet, might though. He might also turn out to be a dud coach. But everybody knows a coach is rarely sacked for the number of their losses, rather for the severity of their losses. Under Peta Searle, St Kilda’s list improved, yet they went from 4 losses at an average margin of 15 points in 2020, to 6 losses at an average margin of 36 points in 2021. While dealing with absurd player availability issues across both seasons, Dal Santo had 8 losses at 25 in S6, and then 7 losses at 21 in S7. Now he’s got a true leader in the midfield, and net upgrades all over the park pending an avoidance of fitness misfortune. If the team doesn’t dramatically improve under those circumstances, then yeah, it’d be the equivalent of flubbing a goal from two metres out. A Saint named Nic/k would never.


SYDNEY
8 Montana Ham
10 Chloe Molloy (8, 1, 1, 1)
63 Cynthia Hamilton
76 Lucy McEvoy (--, 10, 10, 58)
UD Sofia Hurley

Theoretically leaving the back troubles behind her, post-surgery. So too the chip on her shoulder, post-loyalty. Humbled Pie has never looked this appetising. Number one for the last three years in my book, not heart, and she’d still be there if the DOBs lined up right.


WEST COAST
7 Ella Roberts
46 Emma Swanson (48, 46, 50, 30)
66 Isabella Lewis
98 Aisling McCarthy (--, UD, 71, 97)
104 Dana Hooker (14, 18, 19, 51)

In what will be by far the most undersized, timid, and bland chapter of her career, the schoolgirl had no real trouble winning the ball while playing on a bottom four team in the hardest position on the ground. Even if you just want to go by stats to place Roberts’ debut season (13.4 disposals on a 2-8 team) in the most obvious context—that is, by making a comparison with Gabby Newton’s first year (13.2 disposals on a 1-5 team)—anybody would prefer averages of 3.5 marks (1 contested) and 3 tackles over 1.7 marks (0.5 contested) and 7 tackles from a Katie Brennan-type prospect.


W. BULLDOGS
12 Ellie Blackburn (4, 6, 6, 11)
30 Kirsty Lamb (46, 52, 51, 29)
55 Jessica Fitzgerald (--, --, 33, 41)
61 Rylie Wilcox
66 Isabelle Pritchard
83 Gabrielle Newton

Let it not go unsaid, however, that after a sophomore slump and then a whole season out with a sore shoulder, Newton returned in S7 with an improved contested marking game and a radar for the goals which proved pivotal in a couple of matches. Like a few of the other top talents at the Bulldogs, she’s still got a bit of catching up to do in the S&C department. In Jess Fitzgerald’s case, she’s got more catching up to do than when she first walked through the door. I wouldn’t always take these erratic talents over the reliable foot soldier, but since Alice Edmonds is supposed to belong to the latter category, let it also not go unsaid that the only reliable thing about Private Edmonds’ foot is how rarely it gets used.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Now allow me to break it down for you, mutha****aaaaaaas!

Origin	1 to 18	19 to 36	37 to 54	55 to 72	73 to 90	91 to 108	Under delib.	123 players listed
VIC	12	10	5	11	9	8	7	62
QLD	2	1	6	1	3	2	1	16
WA	1	6	2	3	1	2	1	16
SA	2	1	3	1	3			10
IRE					1	3	4	8
NSW	1		1			2	2	6
NT			1			1		2
TAS				1	1			2
ACT				1				1

 

[cmndstab]

Now allow me to break it down for you, mutha*aaaaaaas!

Origin	1 to 18	19 to 36	37 to 54	55 to 72	73 to 90	91 to 108	Under delib.	123 players listed
VIC	12	10	5	11	9	8	7	62
QLD	2	1	6	1	3	2	1	16
WA	1	6	2	3	1	2	1	16
SA	2	1	3	1	3			10
IRE					1	3	4	8
NSW	1		1			2	2	6
NT			1			1		2
TAS				1	1			2
ACT				1				1

Out of interest, where did you list Stevie-Lee Thompson's state of origin? I'm assuming NT, but there are several options considering she was born in ACT, moved to New Zealand, then lived in Queensland, South Australia, and finally moved to Northern Territory only a couple of years before she was drafted.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Out of interest, where did you list Stevie-Lee Thompson's state of origin? I'm assuming NT, but there are several options considering she was born in ACT, moved to New Zealand, then lived in Queensland, South Australia, and finally moved to Northern Territory only a couple of years before she was drafted.

Yeah NT, having taken the game up upon moving there.

Wherever they played most of their football before being drafted. Or wherever they played their previous sport, in the case of Irish players and other converts (Houghton, Dalton) who were scouted by AFLW teams before taking up footy.

 

[Cdog71]

52 Katie Brennan (9, 15, 17, 49)

19 Jasmine Fleming

Maybe a little generous those two.
Be interesting to see how Fleming goes this year now they have more talent/ball winning and what they add to her game.

Dunno we saw Katie Brennan really get into top gear, like the other inaugural big names like Daisy, Kearney or Paxman.
A ton of class and a very good Captain but ankles and suspensions and then a stress fracture from over training last year.
Not a great advertisement for her strength and conditioning gym.
I think she can still kick 20 goals if she stays healthy and gets some good delivery.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Maybe a little generous those two.
Be interesting to see how Fleming goes this year now they have more talent/ball winning and what they add to her game.

You must have thought Georgie Prespakis ranked at 21 after her first season was really generous then--a year older, got the ball less (13.3 disposals per game compared to Fleming's 14.4), slower, and nowhere near as good a kick.

Dunno we saw Katie Brennan really get into top gear, like the other inaugural big names like Daisy, Kearney or Paxman.
A ton of class and a very good Captain but ankles and suspensions and then a stress fracture from over training last year.
Not a great advertisement for her strength and conditioning gym.
I think she can still kick 20 goals if she stays healthy and gets some good delivery.

Which names (inaugural, big or otherwise) have proven themselves as better CHFs? There's only one, and I've got her 35 spots higher.

 

[Cdog71]

You must have thought Georgie Prespakis ranked at 21 after her first season was really generous then--a year older, got the ball less (13.3 disposals per game compared to Fleming's 14.4), slower, and nowhere near as good a kick.


Which names (inaugural, big or otherwise) have proven themselves as better CHFs? There's only one, and I've got her 35 spots higher.

Don’t get punchy , it’s just my opinion its all subjective.
What you’ve put together is awesome.

I didn’t think Flemings was that much of a threat, has some wheels and hopefully can be more of a receiver maybe goal scorer. A little unfair to compare those two, Hawthorn three wins and Fleming only 39 tackles for the season. 9 games
Georgie first season two wins and 68 tackles, 10 games pretty impressive for first year.
And seems inside is Prespakis’s natural spot and can play there all game and makes her team better because she can play there all game.
So I think she had more value than Fleming does/did.

It’s not that others are better than KB, I’m just not sure she really had a period where she was playing as good as she can or hitting her ceiling.
Those others did in the way they play I think.
She’s a Rolls Royce but I don’t know we saw/will see her very best.
That’s what I mean.
There’s no doubt she’s potentially the best CHF.


At the risk of you getting punchy, again.
…I don’t really want to argue the point.
But.
Pretty good argument Dakota Davidson (84)made her team better by being able to play CHF.
Just sayin.
13 games (incl finals) 9 goals, pinch hit in the Ruck, mark down the line.
Seemed to turn up in important moments.
KB (52)
7 games 7 goals.

 

[Teen Wolf]

I didn’t think Flemings was that much of a threat, has some wheels and hopefully can be more of a receiver maybe goal scorer. A little unfair to compare those two, Hawthorn three wins and Fleming only 39 tackles for the season. 9 games
Georgie first season two wins and 68 tackles, 10 games pretty impressive for first year.
And seems inside is Prespakis’s natural spot and can play there all game and makes her team better because she can play there all game.
So I think she had more value than Fleming does/did.

It's unfair to Fleming, since she debuted a year younger and had less help in the midfield, but I did it anyway. Hawthorn (2nd in the league for the most meaningless stat: tackles) would've been 0-10 without her. They went 3-6 with her, probably make it 4-6 if she hadn't been unavailable in Round 10 due to school.

In her quietest game of her debut season, the supposed not-much-of-a-threat did this:




Georgie Prespakis had 6 disposals in one of Geelong's two S6 wins (in which McDonald had 26 disposals, Webster 20 disposals and 1 goal). No shame in being carried 2 or 3 times in your debut season though, hence a still high ranking of 21 (as opposed to the original ranking of 9 for better midfield bull Charlie Rowbottom, who was never carried).

It’s not that others are better than KB, I’m just not sure she really had a period where she was playing as good as she can or hitting her ceiling.
Those others did in the way they play I think.
She’s a Rolls Royce but I don’t know we saw/will see her very best.
That’s what I mean.
There’s no doubt she’s potentially the best CHF.

5 of 7 seasons in weak teams generally prevents forwards from maximising their output. Still, she averages the most goals per game of any player, past or present. Back-to-back AA selection, and then a quick turnaround into S7 which screwed up a lot of players' preparations.

Pretty good argument Dakota Davidson (84)made her team better by being able to play CHF.
Just sayin.
13 games (incl finals) 9 goals, pinch hit in the Ruck, mark down the line.
Seemed to turn up in important moments.

Davidson's fitness and workrate, which was never that hot to begin with, has visibly dropped off post-2021. I have previously gambled harder on several self sab-otaging players in the same boat at the same stage of their careers, and it's always ended up the same way.

Don’t get punchy

At the risk of you getting punchy, again.

For the record:

punchy adjective (POWERFUL)​

expressing something effectively and with power, often using only a few words or short words:
a short punchy presentation/speech
The article is written in his usual punchy style.

 

[Cdog71]

For the record:

DDavidson might get found out this year, I guess we’ll see.

Ok, Fleming is top shelf.
To be able to handle her school and preform is pretty impressive, I think she got squished in a tackle.. and couldn’t play out another game too?
I think some clubs took Hawthorn to easy last season but if they add another game or two and now they’ve pulled in some good players other clubs will try to stop some of the Hawks game.
I think Clubs just took them on last year.

Rowbottom might’ve been the first large athlete that had come through all the way from juniors playing as her first sport.
Jasmine Gardner is 175 but started as fwd and has had a few pre-seasons.
Rowbottom turned up large and strong and could play, alotta players hadn’t had to deal with someone like her before and a lot still can’t bring her to ground.

Be interesting watching Ham and Rowbottom go at it.
I think Ham will become more of a threat.

Prespakis has alot more Score Involvement and I50 disposals than Rowbottom.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Ok, Fleming is top shelf.

Woahheyholdonaminute. I didn't give her Golden Gun or Silver Bullet status yet.

Prespakis has alot more Score Involvement and I50 disposals than Rowbottom.

A bit, rather than a lot. I would sooner judge them on the things they do best, i.e. winning ball, clearances and matches for one's respective team. And at the moment Rowbottom is ahead by a bit, not a lot, on all three counts.

 

[Cdog71]

Woahheyholdonaminute. I didn't give her Golden Gun or Silver Bullet status yet.

Haha
It is good to see the likes of her and Hannah Ewing come in and play like they belong, their skills are high level and fit and strong enough to compete.

All the talk by some saying the talent pool is too small for 18 teams…it’s rubbish.
The level is going up.

 

[Teen Wolf]

A crude, but possibly effective, method of comparing the amount of top talent at each club: Take each player's ranking and give them an inverted score (i.e. no.1-ranked Ellie McKenzie is given a score of 108, while 108th-ranked Aine Tighe is given a score of 1), and add all those scores up.

Although these rankings are intended to predict players' values across the remainder of their careers, not just one year, I still wanted to know how strongly they correlate to short-term on-field results.

Using the crude method described above, the table below shows how strong each team's list was heading into last season ("4th ed. points") and how each team performed in relation to that evaluation ("2022 S7 result +/-"). Brisbane, at 806 points, were the 1st-ranked team and finished S7 as runners-up, so their +/- was -1.



Therefore 13 teams finished within 2 or fewer spots of their pre-season ranking, and the other 5 finished within 3 or 4 spots. All up, it was 7 spots more accurate than my personal predictions (which were better than most, just by virtue of not having Carlton in the top 8).

I am kinda expecting the 2023 predictions to be less accurate, because the talent is more evenly spread now. However, that might be balanced out by the fact there is no influx of new unpredictable teenagers for this season.

 

[petits]

It’s not that others are better than KB, I’m just not sure she really had a period where she was playing as good as she can or hitting her ceiling.
Those others did in the way they play I think.
She’s a Rolls Royce but I don’t know we saw/will see her very best.
That’s what I mean.
There’s no doubt she’s potentially the best CHF.

Doesn't really matter does it? She may have a much higher ceiling, but if what she produces anyway is very very good, then she deserves a very very good ranking.

View attachment 1706464

Ouch to the GWS decline. Will have to go back to your last list and work out where the major difference is coming from.
Edit: ok, it's nearly all from Izzy going from 79 to 102 on the basis of the consistency factor (but she already had the same number of knees when the last list came out?) and Beeson going from 14 (!) to unranked.

Your description of Bernasconi is hilariously apt. Surely it doesn't have to translate to the team though. I hope.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Ouch to the GWS decline. Will have to go back to your last list and work out where the major difference is coming from.

Gotta be Rebecca Beeson, first and foremost. Maybe should've balanced my conservative take on her with a punt on Georgia Garnett, but I wasn't thinking about the broader picture when I gave both of them a "UD".

Perhaps a better way to think about that particular chart is less about list strength, and more from a "Know What You're Gonna Get" perspective.

No way a full-strength GWS (which would include collectively 30 games from Beeson/Dalton/Huntington as opposed to last season's tally of 2 games between them) is among the weaker teams... but since those key players have had so much trouble staying on the park, it definitely has made the Giants one of (if not the most) unreliable teams.

 

[JuniorWatch]

Thanks for putting in the effort to post this level of analysis.
Love reading this stuff.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Callipygian It's all relative. Montana Ham (who was a school girl travelling interstate to train) averaged 14.1 disposals in her first season, whereas the similarly bullocking (but not as agile nor skilful) midfielder Charlie Rowbottom averaged 15.6 disposals in her first season while surrounded by a lot more established talent. So there's a good case to say Ham's first season was slightly more impressive.

Rowbottom was ranked 9th after her first season, which in turn was a judgment relative to the first season of... Madison Prespakis, etc.

 

[Callipygian]

Callipygian It's all relative. Montana Ham (who was a school girl travelling interstate to train) averaged 14.1 disposals in her first season, whereas the similarly bullocking (but not as agile nor skilful) midfielder Charlie Rowbottom averaged 15.6 disposals in her first season while surrounded by a lot more established talent. So there's a good case to say Ham's first season was slightly more impressive.

Rowbottom was ranked 9th after her first season, which in turn was a judgment relative to the first season of... Madison Prespakis, etc.

Thanks Teen Wolf. Now I know where this list came from. It's an exceptional effort. You must follow the game a hell of a lot more closely than I do.

Are all the verbal descriptions referenced to be found in the earlier editions of your list?

Also, is there somewhere where you do an evaluation of teams' lists or a season preview? I'd be really interested in anything like that you publish.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Now I know where this list came from. It's an exceptional effort.

I'm very intrigued about how you discovered the list before the thread.

Are all the verbal descriptions referenced to be found in the earlier editions of your list?

Yeah the earlier editions have about the same amount of writing. Often though I've talked about players in gameday threads and just haven't repeated it in these threads due to a (losing) battle with brevity.

Also, is there somewhere where you do an evaluation of teams' lists or a season preview? I'd be really interested in anything like that you publish.

There are bits and pieces on this board already about next season, but there'll definitely be more of that stuff once the fixture is released.

 

[Callipygian]

I encountered the list on BF but I think it was a different thread. Sorry I can't remember more specifically. And I might be mistaken and it was this thread and somehow I missed that.

 

[Blightys Barrel]

Prizes for correctly guessing the remaining seven Top 20 players in order.

View attachment 1698368


GEELONG
9 Georgie Prespakis (--, --, --, 21)
40 Chloe Scheer (80, 81, 40, 40)
45 Amy McDonald (--, --, 70, 63)
59 Mikayla Bowen (--, --, 38, 42)
66 Rebecca Webster (--, --, --, UD)
73 Nina Morrison (40, 80, 92, 76)

Defective Steely Dan be movin’ natural goal-kickers into the back-pocket, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. The Cats went from Paul Hood to Robin Hood. Shelley Scott needs to go forward, not backward. Chloe Scheer needs to go upward, not forward. And Amy McDonald is always twirling, twirling, twirling. There’s still a lack of direction within this team while NiMo finds her mojo, because the anointed one can’t put the GP in GPS all by herself like they might’ve hoped, to which St Kilda can relate.


GOLD COAST
2 Charlie Rowbottom (--, --, --, 9)
41 Kalinda Howarth (--, 11, 11, 55)
66 Claudia Whitfort (--, --, --, 67)
92 Tara Bohanna (--, --, --, 84)
UD Jamie Stanton (47, 45, 49, 86)

GWS GIANTS
6 Alyce Parker (44, 27, 27, 7)
53 Alicia Eva (22, 49, 48, 50)
102 Isabel Huntington (82, 59, 44, 79)
107 Chloe Dalton (78, --, UD, UD)
UD Rebecca Beeson (34, 35, 35, 14)
UD Georgia Garnett

At least Alan McConnell’s too-old-for-this demeanour gave the Giants an identity. Cameron Bernasconi evokes all the intimidation/inspiration/you-name-it of a balloon with a face drawn on it in felt pen by a toddler, and that aura of hollowness is filtering throughout the team. The other 17 teams are starting to talk: “bash and bully Parker, and the rest will lay down like a doormat”. The way things are tracking, pretty soon the doormat will read: “The Neighbours Have Better Stuff.”

The difference with the Suns is Charlie Rowbottom can’t be bashed or bullied. Kalinda Howarth is mad as hell, and not gonna take it anymore. And nobody’s thought of Claudia Whitfort as worthy of the attention yet. But this is a team which also benefitted from the extra physicality brought to the contest last season by the electric Courtney Jones and steamin’ Ellie Hampson (both now at other clubs) before getting their clock cleaned by none other than GWS in the closer. Hardly surprising, too, while Cameron Joyce bumbles around figuring out how to use Tara Bohanna and Jac Dupuy against mid-ladder (or better) opponents.


HAWTHORN
14 Emily Bates (7, 8, 8, 12)
19 Jasmine Fleming
44 Greta Bodey (--, --, UD, 43)
93 Matilda Lucas-Rodd (--, --, --, 87)
97 Aileen Gilroy (--, 76, 78, 94)
UD Charlotte Baskaran

Let me tell you about a friend of mine. Her name is Greta Bodey. She’s a 27-year-old physiotherapist who took up Aussie rules while on placement in the Gold Coast Suns’ academy zone. As you can imagine, her student loan debt is staggering. Under Bec Goddard’s plan, Greta is able to move interstate to a weaker team willing to pay extra marquee bucks out of their own pocket. Under Craig Starcevich’s plan, she would be forced to play in Brisbane for three cents a day while her house would be burned to the ground… and that is wrong! That. Is just. Wrong. Greta’s move interstate is also a good decision for football as a whole, because it ensures a bright up-and-comer like Tahlia Fellows—who will be without the help of Jess Duffin’s senior on-field presence from now on—isn’t left to thrash about in the deep waters of an AFLW forward-line alone. That doubly applies in the case of Jasmine ‘Red Velvet’ Fleming, whose special brand of smoothness will quickly have Melbourne coming ‘round with promises of unleashing her full potential, which she’ll find hard to pass up unless Hawthorn supports the young star with a mentor of Emily Bates’ stature.


MELBOURNE
5 Tyla Hanks (32, 33, 4, 5)
17 Tayla Harris (42, 41, 41, 16)
23 Olivia Purcell (--, 40, --, 81)
26 Kate Hore (38, 39, 39, 46)
29 Lily Mithen (30, 29, 29, 28)
36 Karen Paxman (16, 20, 21, 36)
37 Eden Zanker (83, 60, 45, 19)
79 Alyssa Bannan (--, --, --, 62)
88 Sarah Lampard
95 Libby Birch (56, 56, 56, 91)
UD Blaithin Mackin
UD Eliza West

On the second leg of her “Too Legit to Quit” world tour, Ms. Harris resurrected the 15-year-old ruckgirl who TKO’d adversaries left and right while winning the QAFLW B&F. In doing so, she forged a Tayla-Tyla 1-2 punch that proved more powerful than the Hanks-Zanker combo I prophesised a year earlier. Upon completion of an overdue victory lap, this premiership team didn’t look to desperately lure Chloe Molloy for a shot at back-to-back. Instead, the Dees sent Daisy her flowers, Paxman their blessing, and GF BOG runner-up Eliza West to the VFL to work on the foot-meets-ball part of her game—time will show that none of them ever really left Melbourne’s AFLW program.


NORTH MELB.
11 Jasmine Garner (2, 2, 2, 10)
15 Ashleigh Riddell (79, 12, 7, 13)
28 Jenna Bruton (27, 28, 28, 27)
35 Emma Kearney (15, 19, 20, 35)
72 Mia King (--, --, --, 65)
94 Tahlia Randall (--, --, --, UD)
100 Emma King (43, 43, 75, 90)
UD Erika O’Shea
UD Victoria Wall

Bookending a rough Round 10/Elimination Final fortnight (wherein they just had to let their opponents burn themselves out like an oil fire), North beat the 7-1 Collingwood and the 7-2-1 Richmond like bongos. But it didn’t matter because a fortnight before all of that, at Arden Street against Brisbane, their season ended with the sound of three first-half sitters being haphazardly booted into the void by their force-fed key forward. Curt captain Kearney plays to win; nice guy Garner plays to win respect. Ball-winner Riddell’s goals need to be set higher; shot-sprayer Randall’s need to be ten metres wider.

I think Jasmine Gardner at 11 does not look right. Will go back to back in the Coaches Award again this year, and perhaps the Umpires might even make up for their cluster last year when she should have won the Comp B&F.

 

[Teen Wolf]

I think Jasmine Gardner at 11 does not look right. Will go back to back in the Coaches Award again this year, and perhaps the Umpires might even make up for their cluster last year when she should have won the Comp B&F.

If I could be swayed by such trivialities, I wouldn't have put her at number 2 on the original list back in 2019 (when she had just finished 17th in the coaches' award, 6th in NM's B&F, and polled 0 votes in the league B&F).

With a bit of distance from 2019, we can now all clearly see that my original evaluation of Garner was pretty much perfect, even though it didn't "look right" at the time.

Only the positioning of Bonnie Toogood and Hannah Ewings currently loom as my regrets for this list.