AFLW AFLW 2023 - Geelong & the greater league

[cats_09]

Webster is a funny one.

She was clearly in our top 3 players a couple of seasons ago, but her form and confidence seems to have leached away over time.

She got plenty of it in her return game last week, and she probably looks ok on the stats sheet today, too, but her attack on the ball should be stronger - she is a strong woman and should be body-lining the ball a lot better than she does. Her kicking and ball use has really plateaued too; looked as though her kicking might be a real weapon at one point.

I agree on Webster and not quite sure where she's at - I think we forget that she was drafted at pick 7 in our first draft, so it was only Nina & Sophie VDH who we took before her, while a Liv Purcell was drafted at 14

At 172cm, she's the tallest of our midfield group, with Pres at 168cm & Nina at 167cm just that little bit shorter. We talk about needing that midfield bull type player and I feel Webster was on track for that, but I'm not sure where she's at now

I'm trying to be careful with how I word the following - over her first couple of seasons, Webster did look to be a bigger player, and I'm not sure if she was necessarily the fittest player which is reflected in her numbers. She definitely looks like she's toned up and a much fitter player now days, and you can see that reflected in her numbers as her disposal averages have also increased each season and she's currently averaging 20 disposals this season. But with the change in body shape, I'm curious how that's affected things in terms of being in the thick of things & strength in the contest. At her height, if she has the strength to play more of an inside role and get it to the likes of Morrison, Pres or D. Moloney, I think that'd be of great value to the team

She may be one at bit of a crossroads come season's end and trying to find where she fits in the team

 

[ToreadorMarch]

All in all, that was extremely disappointing. Even worse than last week and the Norf game. They have to work out how to win these games as the squad is clearly good enough, but that has dropped us back to pack when I felt we were credible contenders on the rise. As an aside, the AFLW is becoming more professional and I love that but from today there are clearly areas of improvement:
1. The umpiring - I hope it is incompetence and not bias, but they have to be better. Makes you actually appreciate the level of umpiring in the AFL, which is saying something. It is actually even more impactful in the AFLW due to less goals kicked and therefore greater impact when goals, or lost goals, come from umpire errors.
2. The commentary - look at above re: incompetence and not bias. Last week, I can’t recall the amount of times the commentator got the players wrong and had no idea they’d stuffed up at all. The coverage rarely replays contentious moments for clarification; it has a long way to go to become professional and I hope they are doing the work to get better.
3. Goal kicking - when goals are premium, the effort by Parry, as an example, dead in front with game still up for grabs, has to be an outlier in terms of skill - it isn’t.
I lock it in each week to watch the girls, so I’m on board and I’m verging on calling AMac my favourite Geelong player across the whole club, but they need to keep improving as a team, and as a league.

 

[winty]

liveladders.com have us now finishing 9th at the end of the season - before the match they had us finishing 5th.

 

[rocker_oz33]

Yep - it's been that way for a little while too, not just today. We scored 20 goals in the first 2 weeks - and have scored another 20 in the last 4, and only 6 in the last fortnight.

Last week was really bad.

Can't turn it over in and around centre half forward pretty much giving up an inside 50 to the OPP alot of the time .
Forwards need to make them selfs a option ..aswell...some play centre forward mids and forwards not working as one.

 

[Cursed Cat]

I agree on Webster and not quite sure where she's at - I think we forget that she was drafted at pick 7 in our first draft, so it was only Nina & Sophie VDH who we took before her, while a Liv Purcell was drafted at 14

At 172cm, she's the tallest of our midfield group, with Pres at 168cm & Nina at 167cm just that little bit shorter. We talk about needing that midfield bull type player and I feel Webster was on track for that, but I'm not sure where she's at now

I'm trying to be careful with how I word the following - over her first couple of seasons, Webster did look to be a bigger player, and I'm not sure if she was necessarily the fittest player which is reflected in her numbers. She definitely looks like she's toned up and a much fitter player now days, and you can see that reflected in her numbers as her disposal averages have also increased each season and she's currently averaging 20 disposals this season. But with the change in body shape, I'm curious how that's affected things in terms of being in the thick of things & strength in the contest. At her height, if she has the strength to play more of an inside role and get it to the likes of Morrison, Pres or D. Moloney, I think that'd be of great value to the team

She may be one at bit of a crossroads come season's end and trying to find where she fits in the team

I understand your caution; i've kind of wondered the same thing too though - I have no doubt at all that Webster has worked really hard in her time at Geelong, she has gone from being a talented teen who could maybe physically intimidate her opponents a little as a kid to being a super-fit athlete - but has she sacrificed something in her quest to become AFL-fit?

She was always one to play every AFLW, game and then every VFLW game for a few seasons there.
But toward the end of last year her form started to decline.
I wondered if she was carrying a niggle at the end of last season, but her decision-making and even her skill level seemed to drop away too - she was a thumping kick early on.

I honestly suspect it is largely mental with Webster though.

As yourself and a couple of others have alluded to, perhaps it is time for the MC to bite the bullet (especially as she's now had a couple of weeks to find her feet after injury) and put her in the thick of things. She might find a bit of form and confidence, and our other mids could certainly use some help in there.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Time for my annual sliding doors/what if rant.

Maddie Prespakis is the best player in the comp.

I've thought that ever since she was drafted to Carlton, in fact when I watched her in the U/18s I knew she would be a flat-out gun.

She could have been ours but for a last-minute change in drafting rules.

Great player.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Danger game today imo.

Maddie Prespakis and Bonnie Toogood are as good a 1-2 punch as there is in the comp.

We should be good enough to get it done, but there's no room for complacency.

... woke up this morning with a bad feeling we might not be alert to the danger this game represented ...

 

[Willo_]

Can't argue with any of that.

Very poor day at the office; Lowther needs to arrest the regression before the season is completely lost.

You've pointed out the limitations of some of our bottom end talent, and fair enough - but I thought the top end talent was just as poor today, Morrison, McDonald x 2, Webster; not good enough at all.

It was, and the problem is the gap between top and bottom is so great that if the top crew don't have great days we are horribly exposed

 

[Cursed Cat]

It was, and the problem is the gap between top and bottom is so great that if the top crew don't have great days we are horribly exposed

The teams we have beaten in 2023 are currently 13th, 14th and 17th on the ladder.

I think a few of us (myself included) - and perhaps the girls themselves - got a little ahead of ourselves after winning against pretty poor opposition.

There was talk on this board that we might go undefeated through the rest of the season after dropping the game against Melbourne.

Well that is clearly off the table now, and I think the club needs to really go to work to get the season back on track.

 

[terry_bright]

I understand your caution; i've kind of wondered the same thing too though - I have no doubt at all that Webster has worked really hard in her time at Geelong, she has gone from being a talented teen who could maybe physically intimidate her opponents a little as a kid to being a super-fit athlete - but has she sacrificed something in her quest to become AFL-fit?

She was always one to play every AFLW, game and then every VFLW game for a few seasons there.
But toward the end of last year her form started to decline.
I wondered if she was carrying a niggle at the end of last season, but her decision-making and even her skill level seemed to drop away too - she was a thumping kick early on.

I honestly suspect it is largely mental with Webster though.

As yourself and a couple of others have alluded to, perhaps it is time for the MC to bite the bullet (especially as she's now had a couple of weeks to find her feet after injury) and put her in the thick of things. She might find a bit of form and confidence, and our other mids could certainly use some help in there.

Webster is currently our Mrs Fix-it.
We need her in the middle as a big-bodied mid, but at the moment we need her more down back to provide some rebounding with her long kicking.
I personally think she plays her best footy in the middle of the ground.
Might be time to see what Featherston can provide either down back or through the middle. Big bodied and showed a bit in her 1st season but unsighted since.

 

[goyoucatters]

Unforgivable work rate from our girls today. It's all very well to get beaten by a better team. Take last week, for example. This game was just a simple case of getting totally outworked around the ball and also when moving away from the contest. Their tackling was far more ferocious, and their second and third efforts just totally embarrassed us. For all the other deficiencies in our game, this stood out like Aaron Sandilands

Aaron Sandilands

Age

41

Ht

211cm

Wt

118kg

Pos.

Ruck

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.7

3star

K

4.4

2star

HB

8.2

5star

CL

3.3

5star

HO

31.4

5star

No current season stats available

D

5.4

2star

K

3.4

2star

HB

2.0

2star

HO

13.6

5star

at FF in the U7's Auskick.

Going on that game, we definitely do not have the better Prespakis. Maddie gave us an absolute bath, and just ran the whole game whenever she had the footy.

I'm glad Nina's petulance wasn't game-defining. But it was certainly incredibly dumb, considering the balance of the game at that point. Indefensible, in every sense of the word.

After some promising early signs this season, we now look like a distinctly average football team. Might just make the finals, I guess. But we will be entirely making up the numbers if we do. Lowther was seeing improvement through last season and also early on in this campaign. But the progress appears to have well and truly stalled now.

No goals for three consecutive quarters is a return to the dark days. We won't go close to winning any games if we keep up that sort of nonsense. One of the more deflating losses I've seen from this team for quite some time.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Webster is currently our Mrs Fix-it.
We need her in the middle as a big-bodied mid, but at the moment we need her more down back to provide some rebounding with her long kicking.
I personally think she plays her best footy in the middle of the ground.
Might be time to see what Featherston can provide either down back or through the middle. Big bodied and showed a bit in her 1st season but unsighted since.

I'd love to get another look at Featherston too, good call.

 

[cats_09]

I came down to Warrnambool a few days ago to treat myself to a self-made long weekend...

Not all the squad was at yesterday's open training session - those I noted as absent include Hoare, Fuller, Plummer & Featherston; that includes 2 of our 3 emergencies...

Hoare must have driven down today, she also seemed to be the first Cat out of the rooms and looked to be headed straight to her car for the drive home

I also saw both Plummer & Featherston here today, and Brooke was pretty chatty with the fans

As I mentioned earlier, the team was straight into the rooms very quickly after the siren, but what was interesting (at least to me) when they started to emerge is that Garing was out not long after Hoare and she was in her training gear. There was kick-to-kick on the ground, but the area in front of the benches was roped off - Garing was in that area with a trainer going through bit of a routine with stretches & stuff, similar to what we sometimes saw in the mens last year if the sub wasn't used

If Garing had done some sort of warming up in the rooms before the match, say if Kearns was in doubt, then surely she would have gone thru a cool-down routine during the first quarter rather than waiting until after the match. To see Garing going through that process with a trainer, but not the other emergencies or gals in attendance stood out to me

 

[patience]

Have been away over the weekend. Was disappointed when I read the score this evening. Even more dismayed after reading everyone’s posts. I was hoping for better from the year this season.

 

[Cursed Cat]

I came down to Warrnambool a few days ago to treat myself to a self-made long weekend...

Not all the squad was at yesterday's open training session - those I noted as absent include Hoare, Fuller, Plummer & Featherston; that includes 2 of our 3 emergencies...

Hoare must have driven down today, she also seemed to be the first Cat out of the rooms and looked to be headed straight to her car for the drive home

I also saw both Plummer & Featherston here today, and Brooke was pretty chatty with the fans

As I mentioned earlier, the team was straight into the rooms very quickly after the siren, but what was interesting (at least to me) when they started to emerge is that Garing was out not long after Hoare and she was in her training gear. There was kick-to-kick on the ground, but the area in front of the benches was roped off - Garing was in that area with a trainer going through bit of a routine with stretches & stuff, similar to what we sometimes saw in the mens last year if the sub wasn't used

If Garing had done some sort of warming up in the rooms before the match, say if Kearns was in doubt, then surely she would have gone thru a cool-down routine during the first quarter rather than waiting until after the match. To see Garing going through that process with a trainer, but not the other emergencies or gals in attendance stood out to me

I know Garing doesn't get a lot of the pill, but I'd be tempted to bring her straight back in after this week's performance.

Her tackling and forward pressure is very good, and her intensity is what should be expected of all of our players. Crockett-Grills in my sights.

 

[cats_09]

 

[cats_09]

Geelong v Essendon ​

9 Bonnie Toogood (Ess)
9 Madison Prespakis (Ess)
6 Georgie Prespakis (Geel)
3 Amber Clarke (Ess)
2 Sophie Van De Heuvel (Ess)
1 Amy McDonald (Geel)

 

[Cursed Cat]

Geelong v Essendon ​

9 Bonnie Toogood (Ess)
9 Madison Prespakis (Ess)
6 Georgie Prespakis (Geel)
3 Amber Clarke (Ess)
2 Sophie Van De Heuvel (Ess)
1 Amy McDonald (Geel)

Toogood was good, not sure she was that good though.
I didn’t think Amy was at her best either tbh.
I barely noticed Sophie VDH!

 

[goyoucatters]

Toogood was good, not sure she was that good though.
I didn’t think Amy was at her best either tbh.
I barely noticed Sophie VDH!

Toogood was too good for our girls, that's for sure. And their Prespakis was streets ahead of ours on the day.

Like you, though, I'm bemused by the minor votes here. Barely saw Sophie at all until the game was pretty much decided, and Amy had basically no influence on the game at all. Several Bombers players would have made better sense for these votes in my view.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Toogood was too good for our girls, that's for sure. And their Prespakis was streets ahead of ours on the day.

Like you, though, I'm bemused by the minor votes here. Barely saw Sophie at all until the game was pretty much decided, and Amy had basically no influence on the game at all. Several Bombers players would have made better sense for these votes in my view.

Love Maddie Prespakis, what a player. She really is too good.
Personally I thought Gunjaca was close to our best against the Bombers

 

[goyoucatters]

Personally I thought Gunjaca was close to our best against the Bombers

Absolutely. She is now the glue that holds the defence together. Much as I love Meg, Claudia is the rock back there now.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Absolutely. She is now the glue that holds the defence together. Much as I love Meg, Claudia is the rock back there now.

Yeah, agree with that - Claudia’s emergence couldn’t have come at a better time with Maddie McMahon’s departure, too

 

[cats_09]

Yeah, agree with that - Claudia’s emergence couldn’t have come at a better time with Maddie McMahon’s departure, too

It was good to see McMahon down in Warrnambool supporting the gals

I'm loving the development of Claudia over the past 18 months in her new defensive role, especially when you consider we would have thought she was more likely to be playing forward at the time of recruiting her

 

[winty]

 

[winty]

Congrats Chantel!