News 2024 AFLW season 9 Chat and Media

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Tyanna Smith is one of the many up and coming stars of the AFLW, and we are lucky enough to have her as one of our own. Alana has a great chat with her about the promising star to the 2024 season, and overcoming her injury setbacks.

 
Footy be brutal.


Ins: TBC
Outs: Steph Chiocci, Simone Nalder (retired), Maddie Boyd, Nat Exon, Caitlin Matthews, Beth Pinchin (delisted)

An inaugural AFLW player, Nat Exon joined Carlton as a rookie after crossing from athletics, spending two years at Brisbane before moving to St Kilda for the club's first AFLW season in 2020.

The 31-year-old has played 53 games, kicking 23 goals and winning plenty of fans for her tenacity and attack on the footy.

The versatile Maddie Boyd's time at her fourth club has come to an end, the key position player recording 11 games over two years for a career tally of 33.

Key back Beth Pinchin played five games last year, but tore her ACL in pre-season, while father-daughter signing Caitlin Matthews was unable to break through for a debut in three seasons, suffering a knee injury this year.

"Nat’s resilience has been unfortunately tested regularly through a spate of injuries, however she never let it dim her impact amongst her teammates," head of AFLW Tessie McManus said.

"We thank Nat for everything she’s given to the Saints, and the competition more broadly through her time at the Lions and Blues.

"Nat, Beth, Maddie and Caitlin all made distinct impacts on our club on and off the field. We’re grateful for all their contributions since they first walked through the doors.

"On behalf of the entire club, we’d like to thank these players and wish them all the best for their future careers and endeavours."
 
Footy be brutal.


Ins: TBC
Outs: Steph Chiocci, Simone Nalder (retired), Maddie Boyd, Nat Exon, Caitlin Matthews, Beth Pinchin (delisted)

An inaugural AFLW player, Nat Exon joined Carlton as a rookie after crossing from athletics, spending two years at Brisbane before moving to St Kilda for the club's first AFLW season in 2020.

The 31-year-old has played 53 games, kicking 23 goals and winning plenty of fans for her tenacity and attack on the footy.

The versatile Maddie Boyd's time at her fourth club has come to an end, the key position player recording 11 games over two years for a career tally of 33.

Key back Beth Pinchin played five games last year, but tore her ACL in pre-season, while father-daughter signing Caitlin Matthews was unable to break through for a debut in three seasons, suffering a knee injury this year.

"Nat’s resilience has been unfortunately tested regularly through a spate of injuries, however she never let it dim her impact amongst her teammates," head of AFLW Tessie McManus said.

"We thank Nat for everything she’s given to the Saints, and the competition more broadly through her time at the Lions and Blues.

"Nat, Beth, Maddie and Caitlin all made distinct impacts on our club on and off the field. We’re grateful for all their contributions since they first walked through the doors.

"On behalf of the entire club, we’d like to thank these players and wish them all the best for their future careers and endeavours."
Nat Exon the only surprise. That said, she's about to turn 32 and her body struggles to hold up so that shouldn't be much of a surprise either.
 

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Nat's been good value with limited possessions when she's played though so I wouldn't have minded keeping her to be honest. The others unfortunately (Beth especially with her ACL) just weren't quite up to what we needed. Best of luck to them...
 

Can't say I saw either of these coming.

Barr is a massively underrated player. Played wing this year until she had a serious hamstring injury. Played centre last year. Has played both forward and back before that. Excellent player. Biggest downside is she's had a ton of injuries.

Personally, I'm hoping she's healthy enough to take a spot in our starting midfield (alongside Lambert and Smith, with Patrikios and McDonald out on the wings).

Baskaran's more speculative. She's still very young (turns 20 next week) and was a massive accumulator at junior level. She got pushed out of the Hawks midfield as they acquired experienced players like Bates and West and ended up spending a lot of this year playing forward. She probably factors into the mid rotations somewhere, but you'd think more as depth initially.
 
We are also targeting Amber Clarke from Essendon.
This one feels far less likely to go through, given Clarke is contracted. To say I would be excited would be a massive understatement.

Interesting that we're heavily targetting a couple of the pick one contenders from 2022, given that we were in line to get the top Vic pick on ladder position before the league annihilated our pick. You'd think that we'd have done a lot of work on them back then, at the very least.

A couple of other connections: Clarke played mid as a 15-year old alongside T Smith at the Rays. She played a lot more forward in the following years, including time with Ash Richards in 2021. She beat out Charlotte Baskaran for the then NAB league B+F by one vote in 2022.

Clarke has apparently known Baskaran for a long time, both through footy and junior athletics. Baskaran's Jets beat Clarke's Stingrays in the 2022 NAB League Grand Final. Baskaran led the Jets with 26 possessions in that game and Clarke led the Rays with 28 posessions and 2 goals. Oh, and both players picked up RS noms in R6 of 2023. Here's hoping they're teammates in 2025.
 
This one feels far less likely to go through, given Clarke is contracted. To say I would be excited would be a massive understatement.

Interesting that we're heavily targetting a couple of the pick one contenders from 2022, given that we were in line to get the top Vic pick on ladder position before the league annihilated our pick. You'd think that we'd have done a lot of work on them back then, at the very least.

A couple of other connections: Clarke played mid as a 15-year old alongside T Smith at the Rays. She played a lot more forward in the following years, including time with Ash Richards in 2021. She beat out Charlotte Baskaran for the then NAB league B+F by one vote in 2022.

Clarke has apparently known Baskaran for a long time, both through footy and junior athletics. Baskaran's Jets beat Clarke's Stingrays in the 2022 NAB League Grand Final. Baskaran led the Jets with 26 possessions in that game and Clarke led the Rays with 28 posessions and 2 goals. Oh, and both players picked up RS noms in R6 of 2023. Here's hoping they're teammates in 2025.
I like our approach of targeting these young, top talents who are already friends. If we can get Essendon to let Clarke go on top of the other two, it will be a very good trade period for us.

I am still a bit concerned about the forward line - mainly a partner for Wardlaw - and a ruck but beefing up the midfield should go a long way.
 
I wouldn't pay too much attention to actual trade values. It's AFLW, and they send players wherever they want them. Same with draft picks. All a bit meaningless, really.
 
I like our approach of targeting these young, top talents who are already friends. If we can get Essendon to let Clarke go on top of the other two, it will be a very good trade period for us.

I am still a bit concerned about the forward line - mainly a partner for Wardlaw - and a ruck but beefing up the midfield should go a long way.
I'm pretty happy with Fiedler at R1. I'd rather not aggressively pursue an established ruck.

Second tall forward is probably going to be a bit of a rough spot next year. I'd like to run a bit of a mosquito fleet, particularly if we do land Clarke. I feel like we're more likely to play someone structurally, though, whether that's Caris or someone like Ott. We could move Stevens forward again, but I like her where she is. Friend is running out of chances.
 
I wouldn't pay too much attention to actual trade values. It's AFLW, and they send players wherever they want them. Same with draft picks. All a bit meaningless, really.
I'm confident something will get worked out for Barr and Baskaran. I'm less confident with Clarke. If that happens, I think there will have to be some outs, similar to trading White in the Lambert deal.
 
To get better next year we need,
1. A ruck that can win contests and break away.....like the top sides have.
2. A forward who can aggressively compete in the air to help Wardlaw.
3. A break lines bullocking mid.
We also require but have internally;
4. A fit Patriakos running and distributing off half back will solve the backline issues.
5. A fit Veselly will help the on ball brigade.

Jury out on Hanna Priest (great commitment but lacks skills) and Ella Friend (skills but needs a big pre season).
We also have an old list demographic...which needs to be worked on.
Getting one from GWS and 2 from 2022 draft from Hawks and Clarke from Essendon for a first pick is probably a good result, they do have injury concerns so let's hope they can football in 2025.

On SM-S916B using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
I'm pretty happy with Fiedler at R1. I'd rather not aggressively pursue an established ruck.

Second tall forward is probably going to be a bit of a rough spot next year. I'd like to run a bit of a mosquito fleet, particularly if we do land Clarke. I feel like we're more likely to play someone structurally, though, whether that's Caris or someone like Ott. We could move Stevens forward again, but I like her where she is. Friend is running out of chances.
Friend needs a very big preseason and to build some proper fitness otherwise it should be career over for her.
 
To get better next year we need,
1. A ruck that can win contests and break away.....like the top sides have.
2. A forward who can aggressively compete in the air to help Wardlaw.
3. A break lines bullocking mid.
We also require but have internally;
4. A fit Patriakos running and distributing off half back will solve the backline issues.
5. A fit Veselly will help the on ball brigade.

Jury out on Hanna Priest (great commitment but lacks skills) and Ella Friend (skills but needs a big pre season).
We also have an old list demographic...which needs to be worked on.
Getting one from GWS and 2 from 2022 draft from Hawks and Clarke from Essendon for a first pick is probably a good result, they do have injury concerns so let's hope they can football in 2025.

On SM-S916B using BigFooty.com mobile app
Agree re Hanna Priest. She has led the team admiably for a number of years but her skills have dropped right away to the point where she is almost a liability.
 

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