List Mgmt. AFLW List Management, Trades, Draft, Expansion Thread

[cmndstab]

I always thought she played midfield/wing.
Protect Dayna Cox?
I always liked Dayna Cox. She was a good small defender. Her career was ended from injury or loss of joy from what I recall, or maybe both. I met her once post retirement.

Varnhagen mostly played on the wing in 2017/18, but moved into a back flanker role in 2019 since we were pretty stacked on the wings already.

She and Cox were childhood friends, and they played U11s footy together in primary school (which was coached by Phil Harper, of all people). Cox was always the smallest player on the team, while Varnhagen was very tall for her age and usually played ruck. Any time one of the boys got physical with Cox, Varnhagen would go in and rough them up, haha.

Cox stuck around for a while, but eventually the competition moved past her and she bowed out. She had issues with bulging disks before she even started AFLW which probably didn't help. She was a great player in those early years though, super important in the first two premierships, just ultra competitive. She was pretty fiery too, there was a game in 2018 where she got cited for striking Ellie Blackburn and then also striking Emma Kearney a few seconds later. She arguably should have missed the 2017 grand final too after she punched Alicia Eva during a goal celebration.

And as a final piece of trivia, she was literally the final player to make it onto our inaugural squad. She didn't get pre-listed, and didn't get drafted, so she listed herself as a free agent, and we took her as our third and final free agent after Sarah Perkins and Lauren O'Shea (who?)

 

[dplggr47]

Varnhagen mostly played on the wing in 2017/18, but moved into a back flanker role in 2019 since we were pretty stacked on the wings already.

She and Cox were childhood friends, and they played U11s footy together in primary school (which was coached by Phil Harper, of all people). Cox was always the smallest player on the team, while Varnhagen was very tall for her age and usually played ruck. Any time one of the boys got physical with Cox, Varnhagen would go in and rough them up, haha.

Cox stuck around for a while, but eventually the competition moved past her and she bowed out. She had issues with bulging disks before she even started AFLW which probably didn't help. She was a great player in those early years though, super important in the first two premierships, just ultra competitive. She was pretty fiery too, there was a game in 2018 where she got cited for striking Ellie Blackburn and then also striking Emma Kearney a few seconds later. She arguably should have missed the 2017 grand final too after she punched Alicia Eva during a goal celebration.

And as a final piece of trivia, she was literally the final player to make it onto our inaugural squad. She didn't get pre-listed, and didn't get drafted, so she listed herself as a free agent, and we took her as our third and final free agent after Sarah Perkins and Lauren O'Shea (who?)

I remember she was fiery lol. That punch was accidental right? I mean, who punches someone after a celebration?

 

[Scorpus]

"ADELAIDE is set to land Irish rookie Kayleigh Cronin, a Gaelic footballer from Kerry who took out this year's All-Ireland player of the final."

Crows, Giants both sign Irish cross-coders

Adelaide and Greater Western Sydney are set to sign Irish players ahead of the 2025 AFLW season

www.afl.com.au

 

[cmndstab]

"ADELAIDE is set to land Irish rookie Kayleigh Cronin, a Gaelic footballer from Kerry who took out this year's All-Ireland player of the final."

Crows, Giants both sign Irish cross-coders

Adelaide and Greater Western Sydney are set to sign Irish players ahead of the 2025 AFLW season

www.afl.com.au

Excellent

Quickly Googling the name, it appears that the Irish press was aware of this a couple of days ago, haha: https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-41529467.html

 

[cmndstab]

I did a quick bit of Googling, looks like she is pretty tall. She's listed at 5'11" here: https://traleetoday.ie/profiles-the-kerry-ladies-football-panel-heading-to-the-all-ireland-final/, that would put her at a similar height to Gould or Sarah Allan. She's a full back in Gaelic football.

Sounds like she played Gaelic football until she was 13ish, then switched over to athletics and specialised in discus. Then she left discus in her early 20s after some injury setbacks and came back to Gaelic football.

 

[Firewalker]

I did a quick bit of Googling, looks like she is pretty tall. She's listed at 5'11" here: https://traleetoday.ie/profiles-the-kerry-ladies-football-panel-heading-to-the-all-ireland-final/, that would put her at a similar height to Gould or Sarah Allan. She's a full back in Gaelic football.

Sounds like she played Gaelic football until she was 13ish, then switched over to athletics and specialised in discus. Then she left discus in her early 20s after some injury setbacks and came back to Gaelic football.

Was going to say at least from looking at pictures she’s key position height which would be a change, but given the Boyle-Carr experience this season I wouldn’t get hopes up that Clarke will trust playing her especially early.

It will be interesting what position they have her start training in, old conventional thinking used to say it’s easier to learn the game as a defender but it looks far easier especially for the taller Irish players that come over to just play forward, Jen Dunn at Brisbane is really the only Irish convert that has settled in defence.

 

[cmndstab]

Was going to say at least from looking at pictures she’s key position height which would be a change, but given the Boyle-Carr experience this season I wouldn’t get hopes up that Clarke will trust playing her especially early.

It will be interesting what position they have her start training in, old conventional thinking used to say it’s easier to learn the game as a defender but it looks far easier especially for the taller Irish players that come over to just play forward, Jen Dunn at Brisbane is really the only Irish convert that has settled in defence.

Given that the one area on the ground we're "full" in is key position defenders, I think she would likely end up training as a forward out of necessity.

I figured since she was BOG in a final I would be able to find some footage of her actually playing, but if there is some out there I couldn't find it. Best I could do was a post-match interview with her, but if you're not used to a thick accent it takes some understanding!

 

[Firewalker]

Given that the one area on the ground we're "full" in is key position defenders, I think she would likely end up training as a forward out of necessity.

I figured since she was BOG in a final I would be able to find some footage of her actually playing, but if there is some out there I couldn't find it. Best I could do was a post-match interview with her, but if you're not used to a thick accent it takes some understanding!

Imagine trying to understand an interview with her with Mark Keane translating it

Would be like that farmer scene in Hot Fuzz

 

[dplggr47]

Given that the one area on the ground we're "full" in is key position defenders, I think she would likely end up training as a forward out of necessity.

I figured since she was BOG in a final I would be able to find some footage of her actually playing, but if there is some out there I couldn't find it. Best I could do was a post-match interview with her, but if you're not used to a thick accent it takes some understanding!

Might be easier to move one of our defenders up forward.

 

[cmndstab]

Might be easier to move one of our defenders up forward.

That hasn't exactly worked well when we've tried it so far though.

 

[Firewalker]

Crows making moves to move up the draft order according to this…

Six-club mega-deal agreed, leaving Harris in limbo

Lily Mithen is set to head to Gold Coast as a new version of a six-club mega-trade gains momentum

www.afl.com.au

Even in a full national draft can’t help but think you only really go out to make that small move up the order so they get in front of Port for someone local that Port also want.

My speculation around that part of the draft would be they’re aiming to stop the Scholz sisters playing together and could be after the Glenelg tall Poppy Scholz (I’d be a little disappointed if this is the case as Charlotte Riggs is still the much better tall option for mine).

 

[dplggr47]

Crows making moves to move up the draft order according to this…

Six-club mega-deal agreed, leaving Harris in limbo

Lily Mithen is set to head to Gold Coast as a new version of a six-club mega-trade gains momentum

www.afl.com.au

Even in a full national draft can’t help but think you only really go out to make that small move up the order so they get in front of Port for someone local that Port also want.

My speculation around that part of the draft would be they’re aiming to stop the Scholz sisters playing together and could be after the Glenelg tall Poppy Scholz (I’d be a little disappointed if this is the case as Charlotte Riggs is still the much better tall option for mine).

With how easy it is to move clubs in the AFLW, I don't see the point in drafting someone that would prefer to play with their sister.

 

[Scorpus]

The proposed mega trade would see us move up from pick 16 to 12, and down from 34 to 48

No players involved on our end

 

[Firewalker]

With how easy it is to move clubs in the AFLW, I don't see the point in drafting someone that would prefer to play with their sister.

Siblings have played for different clubs before… They’d be picking on talent first and foremost, she is very highly rated and her versatility to play anywhere on the ground is very highly coveted and who knows from memory they were Crows fans before Matilda was literally handed to Port so maybe a long play to pose the question to Matilda if she wants to play with her sister in a few years time… (though that might involve playing against her current partner Abbey Dowrick, which is probably unlikely)

 

[Firewalker]

The proposed mega trade would see us move up from pick 16 to 12, and down from 34 to 48

No players involved on our end

Yep that and all other pick swaps pretty much been confirmed, still disappointed Gold Coast somehow managed to convince Lilly Mithen to go to their basket case of a team, could only be the financial package they offered that other teams including the Crows wouldn’t have been able to get close to.

 

[cmndstab]

The proposed mega trade would see us move up from pick 16 to 12, and down from 34 to 48

No players involved on our end

Would be a pretty good result for us on the face of it.

Edit: Confirmed now, https://www.afc.com.au/news/1702682/aflw-crows-bolster-draft-hand-in-six-team-pick-swap=

Puts us ahead of Port for the first round pick, and pick 48 is still ahead of Port's pick 51 if we want to focus on local talent.

 

[cmndstab]

Courtney Cramey awarded life membership at the Crows, absolutely deserved. She joins only Phillips and Randall as our AFLW players to have been awarded life membership so far.

She was a very good player in those early days, one of our best handful right off the bat. While Phillips carved out arguably the greatest grand final performance in the history of AFLW in 2017, Cramey was the clear second-best on ground. We wouldn't have won that match without her. Pretty impressive considering she was injured and almost didn't play! She nearly missed the 2019 grand final as well. And you always hear the players rave about Cramey as a coach.

Even before AFLW started, Cramey was just about a lone hand in flying the flag for women's football in SA. We're super lucky to have her.

Congrats Cramey

 

[Slime Roy]

"ADELAIDE is set to land Irish rookie Kayleigh Cronin, a Gaelic footballer from Kerry who took out this year's All-Ireland player of the final."

Crows, Giants both sign Irish cross-coders

Adelaide and Greater Western Sydney are set to sign Irish players ahead of the 2025 AFLW season

www.afl.com.au

Kerry Gold!

 

[cmndstab]

Unsurprisingly, Marinoff is our best and fairest this year, with Randall, Hatchard, Gould and Biddell rounding out the top five.

Randall wins the Members MVP and the Player's Player Award, while Prowse wins the Best Defensive Player award for the second year in a row.

https://www.afc.com.au/news/1702711/aflw-marinoff-completes-clean-sweep

 

[Slime Roy]

Unsurprisingly, Marinoff is our best and fairest this year, with Randall, Hatchard, Gould and Biddell rounding out the top five.

Randall wins the Members MVP and the Player's Player Award, while Prowse wins the Best Defensive Player award for the second year in a row.

https://www.afc.com.au/news/1702711/aflw-marinoff-completes-clean-sweep

Weird that Chelbo was Top 5 but Z.P was Defender of the Year
It definitely would have been close to call, so maybe they split the results.

 

[cmndstab]

Weird that Chelbo was Top 5 but Z.P was Defender of the Year
It definitely would have been close to call, so maybe they split the results.

After learning that Varnhagen was our best defensive player in 2019 the award suddenly doesn't seem as prestigious, haha.

I think they treat it as a bit of a "player who has performed above expectations the most" award. It's often gone to a relative newcomer to the backlines.

 

[Firewalker]

 

[Untouchables22]

So what do we think we need to address in the draft?

KPF? Mid speed/skills?

I'd love to see EJ transition to fulltime mid, but obviously going to be a bit of time now before that happens.

 

[cmndstab]

Our obvious need is a good medium sized forward to complement Gould. Someone on the mould of Gemma Houghton who has some pace, can mark the ball, and can kick well and long.

However, I suspect we'll mostly just go for best available.

 

[Firewalker]

So what do we think we need to address in the draft?

KPF? Mid speed/skills?

I'd love to see EJ transition to fulltime mid, but obviously going to be a bit of time now before that happens.

As much as you’d like EJ to get a lot more of the ball she still needs to be played as a forward, given how much I lobbied for it to happen after she was being wasted higher up the ground I want her playing as a forward for the rest of her career. When you lack talent forward of centre you end up with the end product we saw most of this year, if anything they need to get more talent forward of centre not take it away hence why Randall had to be played there in the 2nd half of the season.

From the draft I’m expecting the same mix as last year’s draft that covers all basis; a utility tall (Poppy Scholz most likely), a midfielder & either a halfback or half-forward, probably will be at least one from interstate again to show the ‘recruiting team’ are putting in some effort.

Things might change as this week goes on but again it looks like they’re probably only going to cut the minimum off the list to be ‘Nice Guys FC’ again despite Clarke (probably rightly) not trusting/rating the bottom 10-15 on the list.