AFLW 2024 AFLW season - Geelong & the greater league...

[Cursed Cat]

Disappointing to lose a home game, but Melbourne are a quality outfit and there wasn't a lot in it.

We mugged Melbourne early but could only reap 2.2 from a quarter of dominance, and Melbourne only needed a couple of quality F50 entries to mow down our lead.

A lot to mull over; Georgie Prespakis was our classiest player but some of her decision making left a bit to be desired, especially when she had time and space; still room for improvement.

Becky Webster made a good start to the year, she gave plenty of drive off half-back; a couple of errors but nothing too egregious, and she generally used the ball well.

Agree with those who criticized Georgie Rankin, she lacked urgency.

Darcy Moloney has played better games too, she was fumbly and a bit panicked.

Aishling lacked some of her usual zip; tricky conditions didn't help but she looked a little preoccupied with wanting to get physical separation from her opponent, she often engaged early and vigorously but it seemed to throw her off as much as her opponent.

Key talls Jackie Parry and Claudia Gunjaca were both really strong.
Parry really transformed her game last season, and it looks like she'll pick up where she left off; her F50 tackling was superb and she provided a strong target all night. Kate Surman needs to work a bit smarter around Parry's feet imo.
Gunjaca was tough and desperate as she always is, and got better and better as the game tightened up.

The Ruck is going to be a tough one for us this year; Kate Darby has a lot of heart and no lack of skill, but she's got her work cut out for her.
Featherston regularly played as an undersized ruck at the Falcons, tonight she was called upon to give Darby a chop-out in the ruck and she really warmed to the task as the night wore on. It was easily her best senior game to date.

Anna-Rose Kennedy only played the solitary game last year and her countrywoman Kate Kenny was making her debut, neither looked overawed or out of their depth.
Kennedy had a couple of shakey moments early in the game in some tricky contests but she did some nice things later on.
Kenny looks very promising, two searing kicks - one with the right foot and one with the left - showed she has skill. She's strongly built and her goal showed good awareness.

 

[cats_09]

From an article on the Harris injury - Kearns gets this mention:

The Cats defender has her own injury concerns, being ruled out for the match with a chest/rib issue.

 

[GuyIncognito]

The undersized ruck in Featherston at the centre bounces was comical.

 

[rocker_oz33]

No ruck going to hurt the AFLW team ...


Dees always set up well behide the ball..
Lack of leading half forwards hurt to add better i50s..

Not a good day to support the s.

 

[winty]

Decent night at the office....

 

[Pure_Ownage]

The undersised ruck in Featherston at the centre bounces was comical.

Yeah i dont understand why we arent putting aishling or even parry in there.

 

[Willo_]

The undersised ruck in Featherston at the centre bounces was comical.

Tbh I thought she gave us more in there than Darby did.. She jumps well for it, is strong and competed really well when it was on the ground
The Dee's ruck was just a monster and that killed us regardless who was in there

 

[winty]

Yeah i dont understand why we arent putting aishling or even parry in there.

I couldn't understand why we didn't name the only ruck we have on the list in Lilly Pearce on Thursday night. Darby should be our back-up ruck, not the number 1.

 

[cats_09]

When I first saw Featherston go into the ruck at a throw in, I was as little confused, thinking maybe she was the closest option but then realised she was playing back up to Darby

Featherston is listed at only 170cm to Darby's 181cm, but I thought we got more from Gabbi in there last night and she was competing better when the ball hit the ground

Both players are undersized as rucks, but when your key option is undersized it's worse. Darby just didn't seem to time her jumps, and she gave up height when trying to out body Pearce

This was my quarter time comment and I stand by it come the end of the night:

"I like Darby and think she's in our best team, but not sure she's the right option to be leading our ruck

If the opportunity presents, I'd like to see what Lilly Pearce has to offer - she's 5cm taller than Darby, and helps to put us in a position where straight away we aren't giving away multiple centimetres to the opposition ruck"


I want to see our Pearce named to play round 2

 

[thejester]

Yeah I thought Featherstone gave us a bit - obviously would be preferable to have a competitive, full-size ruck but she was good at ground level. I wonder if she's a player who has got the talent but maybe struggles with some of the positioning aspects of the roles she's previously played in the seniors. Not so much an issue with the ruck.

 

[Willo_]

I'm with Willo_ - when I first saw Featherston go into the ruck at a throw in, I was as little confused, thinking maybe she was the closest option but then realised she was playing back up to Darby

Featherston is listed at only 170cm to Darby's 181cm, but I thought we got more from Gabbi in there last night and she was competing better when the ball hit the ground

Both players are undersized as rucks, but when your key option is undersized it's worse. Darby just didn't seem to time her jumps, and she gave up height when trying to out body Pearce

This was my quarter time comment and I stand by it come the end of the night:

"I like Darby and think she's in our best team, but not sure she's the right option to be leading our ruck

If the opportunity presents, I'd like to see what Lilly Pearce has to offer - she's 5cm taller than Darby, and helps to put us in a position where straight away we aren't giving away multiple centimetres to the opposition ruck"


I want to see our Pearce named to play round 2

Darby consistently looks uncoordinated and hopeless... Then all of a sudden she will have random moments where she takes marks and can dominate patches..

She's another one that I've long thought as the league progresses and as our side does should find herself out of the side if we are legit.. Rankin the same and tbh Crockett-Grills as well, Albeit she has surprised me more often than not

 

[cats_09]

Darby consistently looks uncoordinated and hopeless... Then all of a sudden she will have random moments where she takes marks and can dominate patches..

She's another one that I've long thought as the league progresses and as our side does should find herself out of the side if we are legit.. Rankin the same and tbh Crockett-Grills as well, Albeit she has surprised me more often than not

JC-G is no doubt a limited player, but I'd compare her with Atkins in that she's not one to take a backward step and she's prepared to get in & under and get her hands dirty. As long as she's used right, she has a role within the team, but if we have a younger player who can offer similar, then a call should be made

Rankin looks to be in that transition out of the team - she's been a mainstay of our defensive unit since our start, but last night she found herself starting off the bench & then playing higher up the ground, with Anna-Rose Kennedy taking her spot in defence. I can see her being phased out over coming matches, especially as I couldn't tell you what her actually role was last night - highly doubt she plays the full season

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I couldn't understand why we didn't name the only ruck we have on the list in Lilly Pearce on Thursday night. Darby should be our back-up ruck, not the number 1.

I do think thats weird they didnt-maybe they think shes too raw at this stage.

But my point was use parry as the 2nd ruck surely shes at least physically mature enough to manage it. I know they probably dont want to change fwd structure until scheer is back but featherson rucking wont work against the best teams.

 

[Chinacats]

Lowther in his presser says we don’t have a genuine ruck , so the girls did well just to lose the contest whilst conceding they were up against it without a proper ruck.
Seems it’s a club wide thing that we don’t rate rucks or it’s not our game plan style to have a dominant ruck?

 

[cats_09]

Lowther in his presser says we don’t have a genuine ruck , so the girls did well just to lose the contest whilst conceding they were up against it without a proper ruck.
Seems it’s a club wide thing that we don’t rate rucks or it’s not our game plan style to have a dominant ruck?

Pretty sure that it's a club wide thing that rucks are rated - hence why they've invested time at the trade table & draft picks in trying to recruit to options to the club. They don't waste their time though when ruck isn't the right fit

But in regards to our AFLW team, if you'd been following them and the news over the past 8 months, you'd be aware that our two #1 ruck options have both opted to walk away from football subsequent to the trade & draft period - ones following her career ambitions, and the other retired & most likely also focusing on her family and career

There's not necessarily these secret rucks sitting in the wings, available as replacement selections during the available window

 

[rocker_oz33]

Lowther in his presser says we don’t have a genuine ruck , so the girls did well just to lose the contest whilst conceding they were up against it without a proper ruck.
Seems it’s a club wide thing that we don’t rate rucks or it’s not our game plan style to have a dominant ruck?

We had a ruck erin Hore .

Once the AFLW lists were set after trading and draft etc.
She left the club to go into the army something like that.

 

[cats_09]

We had a ruck erin Hore .

Once the AFLW lists were set after trading and draft etc.
She left the club to go into the army something like that.

Fuller joined the Air Force as a firefighter - at this stage she's only unavailable for this season

Erin retired from football, and when she spoke about her decision, it was around the focus of this year being on her family

At some stage she'd likely also be returning to focus of her studies of which is mental health research

'I have so much pride': Retiring Cat on footy journey, women in sport

From playing local netball to AFLW football, Erin Hoare has seen sport from all angles. After announcing her retirement, she speaks to Sarah Black about footy, family and fearlessness

www.afl.com.au

 

[PzBlinky]

We had a ruck erin Hore .

Once the AFLW lists were set after trading and draft etc.
She left the club to go into the army something like that.

Pretty sure that was Liv Fuller - I think she's joining the Air Force. Then Erin retired before pre-season (or just after it started?) so we went from two #1 rucks to zero in pretty short time.

 

[rocker_oz33]

Pretty sure that was Liv Fuller - I think she's joining the Air Force. Then Erin retired before pre-season (or just after it started?) so we went from two #1 rucks to zero in pretty short time.

I got them mixed up.

Prob makes worse now not casing a ruck type .

 

[rocker_oz33]

I thought Scott was poor no speed didn't offer much .

 

[cats_09]

I got them mixed up.

Prob makes worse now not casing a ruck type .

The problem is that in the AFLW, there's only 30 players on the list - with 2 rucks on our list during the trade & draft period, we weren't exactly going to chase a 3rd designated ruck

We were able to replace Fuller with Pearce

 

[rocker_oz33]

Few times they didn't want to bend down to get the ball.
Next min dees player does and goals .

Smalls things are big things

 

[cats_09]

 

[Commando]

Anyone know why the broadcast is on the opposite side at KP
Tho show the crowd maybe?

 

[Willo_]

Anyone know why the broadcast is on the opposite side at KP
Tho show the crowd maybe?

that was my guess, I actually thought it looked good as well and would be fine if they made that switch permanently