2018 AFLW Season - offseason moves

[The Golfing Lion]

I confess I am struggling with this Aflw trading and expansion. It’s worse simply cause we lost the two GF’s and I really want these guys to have enjoyed some success.

However, it’s been outstanding the way they have become a team over the past two seasons and it’s the growing pins the competition needs to go through :]

 

[cubansombrero]

Interesting move - Arnell got dropped by Carlton last season iirc and is 31, plus Hildebrand was excellent in defence this season. Wonder if she requested to move back to Victoria and this was the club ensuring that we at least got somebody with experience on the list to fill her spot.

 

[jackess]

Interesting move - Arnell got dropped by Carlton last season iirc and is 31, plus Hildebrand was excellent in defence this season. Wonder if she requested to move back to Victoria and this was the club ensuring that we at least got somebody with experience on the list to fill her spot.

You'd assume she requested the move

 

[James North]

Interesting move - Arnell got dropped by Carlton last season iirc and is 31, plus Hildebrand was excellent in defence this season. Wonder if she requested to move back to Victoria and this was the club ensuring that we at least got somebody with experience on the list to fill her spot.

Change that profile pic!

 

[Cockliff38]

Ashmore speaks out - https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5434166/kaitlyn-ashmore-ready-for-new-venture/?src=rss

“I think it was pretty disappointing that they did release it before I even had time to get home. I think that was what upset me the most. I gave them two seasons and everything I had and then they did that. It was just kind of out of spite,” Ashmore said.

“It's gone down now and everything is good, but just that little bit was a little bit hard to take in.”

Ashmore said she loved her time at the Brisbane Lions, which included two losing grand final appearances.

“I gave it everything for the two seasons. I moved my life up there every six months and then back again every six months. It wasn’t an easy thing for me,” Ashmore told The Courier.

“It has been a couple of weeks now and I have actually had people congratulate me, which makes me feel even better about it,” Ashmore said.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Bit of an overreaction Kaitlyn?

 

[jackess]

A bit of having her cake and eating it I think.

 

[James North]

What does one expect when leaving a team that loses heaps of interstate players to homesickness?

 

[Hollow Knight]

And there are other reasons to get in the front foot with a story other than “spite”. Club just being proactive in its messaging. Otherwise they get railed by fans for letting them find out via the Herald Sun or whatever. We don’t have an obligation to add glamour and surprise to her big unveiling at North.

Once you’re out, you’re out. Club takes care of itself, player takes care of themself.

 

[Cockliff38]

Yep way too precious. Might come across as bitter seeing as she left the club but I hadn't lost any respect for her until I read that article

 

[Dalions]

North can have her!
She wasn’t that great this year anyway.
But I will still miss her.

 

[M Malice]

No ill will from me for her reaction, these girls have uprooted their lives for what I would say is very little financial reward, she is being honest with her feelings, good luck with your new less disrupted life Kaitlyn.

“I gave it everything for the two seasons. I moved my life up there every six months and then back again every six months. It wasn’t an easy thing for me,” Ashmore told The Courier.

 

[Ironmonger]

I think the club might be burning a bit at all the losses, and possibly that's causing everyone to be a bit more on edge. Maybe Ashmore reads spite into the announcement because she thought she sensed some bitterness from other players or staff beforehand.

 

[Skoob]

Once you’re out, you’re out. Club takes care of itself, player takes care of themself.

That's the bottom line, for me.

The flipside of "I gave them two seasons and everything I had and then they did that." is of course, that the Lions gave her 2 very good seasons and 2 opportunities of ultimate success.

 

[fanackapan]

I think the club might be burning a bit at all the losses, and possibly that's causing everyone to be a bit more on edge. Maybe Ashmore reads spite into the announcement because she thought she sensed some bitterness from other players or staff beforehand.

I would think they'd be burning a lot more at the losses of Randall and Stanton, and to a lesser extent Gibson. There was always the possibility that Ashmore (and Hildebrand) would move south once more clubs came along, but it stings losing the Qld girls (and Gibson, who had put down more roots in Brisbane) a year out from a possible 100% dilution of the local talent pool. Particularly since Randall and Stanton showed such huge improvement this year.

The flipside might be that North would be wary about losing them to the Suns next year. They'll be very tempting recruiting targets.

 

[JasperBeardly]

Obviously I'm biased, but I think the club has the right to put out whatever messaging they like when a player goes. They don't owe departing players or the clubs they are going to anything.

And I may come across as a bit of a conspiracy nut here, but I'm not sure how long she agonised over the decision for either. The AFLW GF was played on March 24 and then on March 28 Kaitlyn was announced as an ambassador for Spark products, which is a company created by Boomer Harvey and Jona Segal, who has worked at the North Melbourne footy club since 2000. Possibly a coincidence, of course.

 

[jackess]

Our first re-signings

http://www.lions.com.au/news/2018-05-29/lions-aflw-resignings

Brisbane Lions AFLW fans can look forward to another year of magical Jessica Wuetschner goals after the left-footer signed on for the 2019 AFLW season.

The Tasmanian product finished the 2018 season second on the regular season AFLW ladder for goalkicking.

Wuetschner signed official paperwork this week and told lions.com.au she could not imagine playing her football anywhere else.

“I love the Club and I love the atmosphere here,” Weutschner said.

The 26-year-old recently returned from a trip across the United States and feels mentally refreshed ahead of training for the inaugural Winter Series.

In further good news for the Club, Gabby Collingwood, ruckwoman Sharni Webb and the tenacious Emma Pittman will join Wuetschner in the Den next season.

Collingwood signed on as a rookie in 2018 before being elevated to the senior AFLW list ahead of Round 1’s game against the Adelaide Crows.

Webb was inspirational on the field in the inaugural AFLW season and was rewarded with a spot in the Lions leadership group in 2018.

Pittman had a debut to remember after coming in for a sick Shannon Campbell less than 20 minutes before the team ran on against Fremantle in Round 4.

 

[jonnobackpocket]

Whatever Ashmore, she about our 10th best player was the pin up for the lions girls purely on looks. Kicked one good goal and largely went missing in both grand finals. Sorry the club you left didn't run everything past you first.

 

[iBeng]

I guess we need to learn to be less...committed to our favourites in the womens league? Much more fluid in movement.

 

[M Malice]

I guess we need to learn to be less...committed to our favourites in the womens league? Much more fluid in movement.

I go with supportive of the players, coaching and administration but I get very emotionally invested and committed to the club/team as an entity.

Unless you have plenty of runs on the board, whether you were a one club player or not eg. Voss, Black, Power, Akermanis, Brown, Leigh Matthews etc..

 

[Hollow Knight]

Wuetschner has been my favourite ever since the girls played their first ever scratch match vs GWS at Coorparoo.

Thrilled she is sticking around.

 

[Davemonkey]

Yep. Lost one of my favorites when Gibbo left (or Lady Robbo as I called her), but was on the Woosha bandwagon early in S1.

Absolutely stoked and relieved.

 

[Skoob]

Whatever Ashmore, she about our 10th best player was the pin up for the lions girls purely on looks. Kicked one good goal and largely went missing in both grand finals. Sorry the club you left didn't run everything past you first.

Whatever anyone thinks of her attitude or loyalty, I think your assessment here is a fair way off. Maybe there is a natural bias to doubt her ability based on her looks, but among the 'ring-ins' in the league, Kashy was no doubt a footballer.
I had doubts about her, because she is very much an outside player. My knock on her was that she didn't win much of her own ball, but not everyone does. Someone has to be a receiver, and she had better skills than many. As for not doing much in the grand finals, she fought pretty well, particularly this year, despite a couple of blunders.
We'll be fine without her, but would rather have kept her here. I don't wish her any will, but I also won't be lamenting her departure. Once a player decides to leave the Lions, they are done.
Let's not rewrite history and unfairly bag her though.

 

[jonnobackpocket]

Whatever anyone thinks of her attitude or loyalty, I think your assessment here is a fair way off. Maybe there is a natural bias to doubt her ability based on her looks, but among the 'ring-ins' in the league, Kashy was no doubt a footballer.
I had doubts about her, because she is very much an outside player. My knock on her was that she didn't win much of her own ball, but not everyone does. Someone has to be a receiver, and she had better skills than many. As for not doing much in the grand finals, she fought pretty well, particularly this year, despite a couple of blunders.
We'll be fine without her, but would rather have kept her here. I don't wish her any will, but I also won't be lamenting her departure. Once a player decides to leave the Lions, they are done.
Let's not rewrite history and unfairly bag her though.

Bates, Virgo, Webb, Randall,Lutkins, Sab,Woosha, Anderson, Kasler, Conway. There is 10 better players without trying. I did not say she was useless but I don't think she was very good either. Don't think anything I said was unfair. Generally your best player is the one who's head pops up on all the articles, was not the case and that was because she is good looking.

 

[Skoob]

Bates, Virgo, Webb, Randall,Lutkins, Sab,Woosha, Anderson, Kasler, Conway. There is 10 better players without trying. I did not say she was useless but I don't think she was very good either. Don't think anything I said was unfair. Generally your best player is the one who's head pops up on all the articles, was not the case and that was because she is good looking.

Wouldn't agree with your assessment of "10 better players", either but I'm not going to start critiquing them all (especially as some have re-signed and others haven't yet), so I'll leave it at that.