VFLW 2023 Season - Preliminary Final - Bombers lose to the Borough by 5 goals. Season over.

[CrowdedHouse]

The 2023 rebel VFLW season commences on Saturday, March 25, with six matches scheduled across a bumper opening weekend.

The VFLW side will take on the Box Hill Hawks at 11am, also at the NEC Hangar where the Bombers are set to unfurl their 2022 Premiership flag.

All matches in the 2023 Smithy’s VFL and rebel VFLW seasons will be live streamed free via the AFL website (afl.com.au) and AFL Live Official App. Further broadcast details will be confirmed at a later time.

Entry to rebel VFLW matches is free. Where venues host VFL and VFLW double-headers, entry fees will apply after half time of the VFLW match.

Fixtures for all remaining rounds will be released shortly.

2023 VFL and VFLW round one fixture release

Men's and women's reserves opening round fixtures set.

www.essendonfc.com.au

Round	Opponent	Venue	Date & Time
1	Essendon vs Box Hill Hawks	The Hangar	Sunday March 26 @ 11am
2	Southern Saints vs Essendon	Trevor Barker Beach Oval	Sunday April 2 @ 3pm
3	Essendon vs Carlton	The Hangar	Saturday April 8 @ 1pm
4	Essendon vs Casey Demons	The Hangar	Sunday April 16 @ 11am
5	Collingwood vs Essendon	Victoria Park	Saturday April 22 @ 11am
6	Williamstown vs Essendon	Williamstown Football Ground	Sunday April 30 @ 2pm
7	Essendon vs Southern Saints	The Hangar	Saturday May 7 @ 11am
8	Box Hill Hawks vs Essendon	Box Hill City Oval	Saturday May 13 @ 12pm
9	Essendon vs Geelong	The Hangar	Saturday May 20 @ 11am
10	Darebin vs Essendon	La Trobe University	Sunday May 28 @ 10.30am
11	Essendon vs North Melbourne	The Hangar	Sunday June 4 @ 11am
12	Casey Demons vs Essendon	Casey Fields	Saturday June 17 @12pm
13	Port Melbourne vs Essendon	ETU Stadium	Sunday June 25 @ 11.30am
14	Essendon vs Western Bulldogs	TBC	TBC

 

[Lore]

Looks like a few changes but so far only to fringe players, although it is a little painful as Octavia Di Donato and Kasey Lennox were zone eligible for us and they’ve defected to Carlton

Felicity Theodore joins North Melbourne.

And from the look of the player’s Instagram stories, there was an intra-club yesterday and they’re well into preseason

 

[yodellinhank]

AFLW players in the squad or sitting this one out?

 

[ant555]

Is there redevelopment starting at WH this season ? Notice that all our VFL and VFLW home games are at the Hanger.

 

[Lore]

Is there redevelopment starting at WH this season ? Notice that all our VFL and VFLW home games are at the Hanger.

It was like that a bit last year too, first few rounds were at the Hangar, then later in the season we had more games at Windy Hill.

I think we might be having to work around cricket season, whereas the Hangar we have free access to

 

[ant555]

It was like that a bit last year too, first few rounds were at the Hangar, then later in the season we had more games at Windy Hill.

I think we might be having to work around cricket season, whereas the Hangar we have free access to

None scheduled at WH at all for the whole VFLW season and none in the schedule of the VFL season so something is going on.

 

[eth-dog]

Is there redevelopment starting at WH this season ? Notice that all our VFL and VFLW home games are at the Hanger.

It's used for Premier cricket finals.

 

[Lore]

None scheduled at WH at all for the whole VFLW season and none in the schedule of the VFL season so something is going on.

Could be. All AFL, VFL and VFLW games after the 25th of June are TBC for date and time, with VFL/VFLW having no venues (AFL has venues). So some of them could be at Windy Hill, or there could be some work going on.

Would've thought if they got approval for the plans that they put up a year or two ago there would've been a big song and dance about it though. Been talking about it for eons. Although maybe we didn't have a CEO when the cricket club signed on the dotted line...

 

[Lore]

Heh, just chucked all three fixtures into the same calendar, gosh some of the fixturing is downright weird!

There are some weeks where we play (almost) the same opponent for VFL and VFLW, at the same ground, back to back. (I say "almost" coz Sandy and Southern Saints both at Trevor Barker on the 2nd of March qualifies as "almost the same opponent" imo).

Then other weeks we have the VFLW team playing home to a random club, and both AFL and VFL teams travel together to the same place, such the weekend of 13-14 May, when the AFL and VFL teams play Brisbane in Brisbane on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon respectively.

And if you're really lucky, there'll be a triple header of sorts, with all three teams playing on the same day against the same team, without a clash of times, although usually the AFL team is at a different ground, e.g. North Melbourne on the 4th of June. I say that, but there's no way you're getting from the Hangar after the VFL game to Marvel for the AFL game in the scheduled gap between those games. It might be made for TV but I doubt you'd even get your TV from an in-browser live stream to the right streaming service in that amount of time either.

And then other weeks you get an absolute mess, like on the 30th of April Essendon's VFLW game is played wholly within the same timeslot as the Round 7 AFL game, like starts 50 minutes after it and ends about 10 minutes earlier. How the heck am I supposed to watch both games???

And then the following week, you have VFLW 11am-1pm and VFL straight after it at 2.05pm, both at the Hangar. But the AFL game is at 1.10pm that day? Like it is an away game, sure, but this is the 21st century, most people have TVs. Are they gonna install TVs at the Hangar so we can watch both at the same time? pfft.

 

[yodellinhank]

Give the fellers a miss.

 

[CrowdedHouse]

Squad for Sunday's practice match

 

[Lore]

Bump

 

[Lore]

Half time ^ doesn’t look like there’s a live stream

 

[yodellinhank]

Good to get any more info if anyone has it?

 

[Lore]

 

[Lore]

 

[Lore]

 

[yodellinhank]

First loss in x days? Sack Cloke.

 

[Lore]

First loss in x days? Sack Cloke.

6 scoring shots to 12 tells the story I think.

Either Box Hill got a lot better recently, we rested half our players, or premiership hangovers are extreme

 

[yodellinhank]

6 scoring shots to 12 tells the story I think.

Either Box Hill got a lot better recently, we rested half our players, or premiership hangovers are extreme

Yeah, without having seen any of it would seem "tight contest" could be a bit of a stretch.

I don't really understand why our AFLW players aren't a part of this. Is there something that precludes it?

 

[Lore]

Yeah, without having seen any of it would seem "tight contest" could be a bit of a stretch.

I don't really understand why our AFLW players aren't a part of this. Is there something that precludes it?

Erm, probably. In the sense that the VFLW team is only allowed to include listed players and the salary for listed players has a cap on it.

I think last year after the AFLW season 6 ended some of those players joined their VFLW teams, but I think that number is capped too, you can bring in up to about 10? CrowdedHouse might know for sure.

Also most AFLW players have other jobs or other sports in the off-season.

 

[yodellinhank]

Erm, probably. In the sense that the VFLW team is only allowed to include listed players and the salary for listed players has a cap on it.

I think last year after the AFLW season 6 ended some of those players joined their VFLW teams, but I think that number is capped too, you can bring in up to about 10? CrowdedHouse might know for sure.

Also most AFLW players have other jobs or other sports in the off-season.

The ones I'm thinking are Frew, Tierney etc fringe AFLW. Surely they're better off getting games than waiting for an AFLW season to not get games?

I remember Hawkes brought back Abbey Holmes, set up was different then with the AFLW playing before the VFLW. With the leagues not clashing I don't see why, other than protecting stars from getting injured, they wouldn't be playing footy.

 

[Lore]

The ones I'm thinking are Frew, Tierney etc fringe AFLW. Surely they're better off getting games than waiting for an AFLW season to not get games?

I remember Hawkes brought back Abbey Holmes, set up was different then with the AFLW playing before the VFLW. With the leagues not clashing I don't see why, other than protecting stars from getting injured, they wouldn't be playing footy.

I thought Fede Frew was coming back from off-season surgery or something. Doing some sort of training today anyway

No idea about Tierney, she was on the team sheet so should’ve been playing

In addition to some of the stuff I mentioned before, Bella Ayre, Jordan Zanchetta and Olivia Barton were delisted from the AFLW team and a couple more probably still will be, so they might’ve gone elsewhere rather than play for our reserves side

As the 2023 AFLW season is yet to be determined, many senior-listed players will filter through the VFLW side throughout the season.

“We’re going to navigate some of our AFLW players coming back at some stage for some development and also growth, which will compliment our younger players really well,” Cloke said.

VFLW: New look Bombers ready for back-to-back challenge

VFLW Bombers confident ahead of the 2023 season.

www.essendonfc.com.au

Today’s team with AFLW players highlighted

ESSENDON
1.Courtney Ugle, 2.Manaia Huta, 4.Mia-Rae Clifford, 6.Krystal Russell, 9.Lily Bateman, 12.Megan Ryan, 15.Bella Clarke, 16.Tamsin Crook, 17.Leah Spargo, 18.Kendra Heil, 19.Jorja Borg, 23.Renee Tierney, 24.Madison Gray, 25.Melanie Bateman, 26.Scarlett Orritt, 27.Caitlin Sargent, 33.Chloe Prpic, 36.Reese Sutton, 37.Maddy Pearson, 38.Olivia Manfre, 49.Maddison Wilson, 50.Tia Davidge

IN: Davidge, Ryan, Sargent, Tierney
OUT: E.Cornish, G.Dicker, G.Elarmaly, C.Grech, T.Hart-Aluni, Z.Hurrell, N.McDonald, JL.Morrow, J.Richardson

 

[yodellinhank]

I thought Fede Frew was coming back from off-season surgery or something. Doing some sort of training today anyway

No idea about Tierney, she was on the team sheet so should’ve been playing

In addition to some of the stuff I mentioned before, Bella Ayre, Jordan Zanchetta and Olivia Barton were delisted from the AFLW team and a couple more probably still will be, so they might’ve gone elsewhere rather than play for our reserves side

VFLW: New look Bombers ready for back-to-back challenge

VFLW Bombers confident ahead of the 2023 season.

www.essendonfc.com.au

Today’s team with AFLW players highlighted

ESSENDON
1.Courtney Ugle, 2.Manaia Huta, 4.Mia-Rae Clifford, 6.Krystal Russell, 9.Lily Bateman, 12.Megan Ryan, 15.Bella Clarke, 16.Tamsin Crook, 17.Leah Spargo, 18.Kendra Heil, 19.Jorja Borg, 23.Renee Tierney, 24.Madison Gray, 25.Melanie Bateman, 26.Scarlett Orritt, 27.Caitlin Sargent, 33.Chloe Prpic, 36.Reese Sutton, 37.Maddy Pearson, 38.Olivia Manfre, 49.Maddison Wilson, 50.Tia Davidge

IN: Davidge, Ryan, Sargent, Tierney
OUT: E.Cornish, G.Dicker, G.Elarmaly, C.Grech, T.Hart-Aluni, Z.Hurrell, N.McDonald, JL.Morrow, J.Richardson

Ah, thanks for that. I'd only seen the list for the game v Casey.

Should've won with the side you've got there. Sack Cloke.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

Should've won with the side you've got there. Sack Cloke.

Any smoke and shadows behind the windscreens?