AFLW AFLW Season 2022

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GC2015 said:
I should have also mentioned that although it's not great news that five of our players have tested positive to COVID-19, the fact that they are all showing mild to no symptoms would suggest they should all be available to play next Sunday.
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And not knowing who they are, that will be an indicator to how they perform.

At least the isolation time has been cut to 7 days


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
 
GC2015 said:
Pretty good outcome for us. 4+ hour plan ride for West Coast vs our 2 hour plane ride. It's a similar situation in round 1 with us spending 90 minutes on the plane to Mackay vs 2.5 hours for the Giants. Then we have 2 games at Metricon.

For our girls I think it's just about starting the season strong and trying to nab a win or 2 in the opening rounds to give themselves the best possible chance of competing for a finals position later in the season. GWS, West Coast and St Kilda are all seemingly beatable and two of those three games are in Queensland with the third being at a neutral venue so the opportunity is definitely there for the girls. I remember our round 2 victory and round 3 draw in the 2020 season were the reason we were still a chance to secure a finals position later on in the season and we went into the away game against West Coast knowing a big win would secure a finals position. The girls were up for the challenge that day and smashed West Coast by 4+ goals to secure our club's first and only finals appearance. I could see something similar playing out in 2022 if we're able to start the season well and I'm sure we're all going to be impressed by what we see from Charlie Rowbottom over the next few months.

Hard to know who we will play in round 5 and beyond (at this point) but I would suggest the AFL might give us some favourable treatment given we are the reigning wooden spooners and are in desperate need of good news stories as an organisation. Two more games against Geelong and Richmond would be nice :thumbsu:
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Sorry, but I think you are way too optimistic. Did you actually watch the practice game? I am aware it was just the first practice, Lions look like juggernaut but there was very little shown by Suns girls to make me optimistic. Besides Rowbottom performance, good pressure at times and looking in decent shape, I could not see positives. For 90% of the game it did not look like Suns can even score and let's be honest, it should be 100+ loss as Lions were very rusty in front of goals and missed so many easy shots.

Unfortunately, when possessing the ball just kicking it randomly forward was a AFLW teams plan the first 2 seasons. Now most teams are somewhere else. Levi sisters missing is a big loss and probably too big gap to close. On top of it Bradfield will not play this year and it looks like Yorston and Ahrens will not be ready round 1. Players in isolation is also far from ideal preparation for round 1.

No idea how good other teams will be, that's our only hope. Signs are not good. Bottom 4 for me. I do hope girls will get to enjoy some wins.

As for fixture, I don't expect changes to it besides Eagles and Fremantle. I do expect games postponed, re-scheduled due to covid positive players. GWS game could still hang in balance if more positive players come up in coming days. First positive player detected on Tue, 5 players on Fri. It would not surprise me if more positive players are coming up.

I honestly hope I am too pessimistic but I am worried. I guess we will find out a bit next Sunday.
 
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Jirik13 said:
Sorry, but I think you are way too optimistic. Did you actually watch the practice game? I am aware it was just the first practice, Lions look like juggernaut but there was very little shown by Suns girls to make me optimistic. Besides Rowbottom performance, good pressure at times and looking in decent shape, I could not see positives. For 90% of the game it did not look like Suns can even score and let's be honest, it should be 100+ loss as Lions were very rusty in front of goals and miss so many easy shots.

Unfortunately, when possessing the ball just kicking it randomly forward was a AFLW teams plan the first 2 seasons. Now most teams are somewhere else. Levi sisters missing is a big loss and probably too big gap to close. On top of it Bradfield will not play this year and it looks like Yorston and Ahrens will not be ready round 1. Players in isolation is also far from ideal preparation for round 1.

No idea how good other teams will be, that's our only hope. Signs are not good. Bottom 4 for me. I do hope girls will get to enjoy some wins.

As for fixture, I don't expect changes to it besides Eagles and Fremantle. I do expect games postponed, re-scheduled due to covid positive players. GWS game could still hang in balance if more positive players come up in coming days. First positive player detected on Tue, 5 players on Fri. It would not surprise more positive players coming up.

I honestly hope I am too pessimistic but I am worried. I guess we will find out a bit next Sunday.
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To be fair, I can understand your pessimsim. New coach, new game plan I imagine? It's gonna take some time to adjust. And maybe it won't be pretty. Lots of inexperience too I think. But I think for 2022, the focus should be on improving skills and areas of the game. Just each player try to improve and as a team.

It'll get better, but sometimes these take time. Look at Geelong and eagles, they have been in the comp since 2019, two extra years and I wouldn't say they are much better. Just sometimes it takes longer than others to improve as a team.

Hopefully there will be some improvement and they'll get some wins.
 

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Jen2310 said:
To be fair, I can understand your pessimsim. New coach, new game plan I imagine? It's gonna take some time to adjust. And maybe it won't be pretty. Lots of inexperience too I think. But I think for 2022, the focus should be on improving skills and areas of the game. Just each player try to improve and as a team.

It'll get better, but sometimes these take time. Look at Geelong and eagles, they have been in the comp since 2019, two extra years and I wouldn't say they are much better. Just sometimes it takes longer than others to improve as a team.

Hopefully there will be some improvement and they'll get some wins.
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I can only agree with everything you said. It's not like girls don't work hard. It will happen for them but I doubt it will this year. Also there is some real talent in academy which should be coming through in the next couple of years.

I actually really enjoy watching AFLW. Girls always give it all and competition improved enormously from 1st year. Teams like Lions play great footy already. IMO, the sooner AFLW become professional the better. To expect girls train, play games and at the same time work during the day is not sustainable for most of them.
 
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Jirik13 said:
I can only agree with everything you said. It's not like girls don't work hard. It will happen for them but I doubt it will this year. Also there is some real talent in academy which should be coming through in the next couple of years.

I actually really enjoy watching AFLW. Girls always give it all and competition improved enormously from 1st year. Teams like Lions play great footy already. The sooner AFLW become professional the better.
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100%
Sometimes I think the girls go harder at it than the mens haha.

I've really gotten into it since 2019, I'd say. Now I try to go to every game if I can, depending on the locations. Vic based ones at least. The standard has improved immensely, and the support and the attendances have grown. Even when they ticketed it. I think most people have no issue in paying to watch the girls.

I think once they get their own TV rights, the league can start paying them more and they can start to become professional. Fingers crossed that's not too far into the future.
They may only "officially" do pre-season and games from nov-April, but they work year round, whether thats in a local league or elsewhere. Its not just part time for them. They do so much work unofficially, when in the off season, in their own time.

And just to think AFLW wasn't even originally meant to start til 2021, I think it was. But they were ambitious and had it begin back in 2017. Sure, the standard back then wasn't as great as it is now, but they had faith and if they didn't begin it then, the skills and the game standard wouldn't be what it is today.

I feel scoring is improving too when you look league-wide.

I love having footy almost year round, as I attend fair few VFLW games as well when that begins.

I'm looking forward to next weekend. Sunday game for me too.. Though down at Ikon Park -- I may need to take a shower once I leave there lol
 
Jirik13 said:
Sorry, but I think you are way too optimistic. Did you actually watch the practice game? I am aware it was just the first practice, Lions look like juggernaut but there was very little shown by Suns girls to make me optimistic. Besides Rowbottom performance, good pressure at times and looking in decent shape, I could not see positives. For 90% of the game it did not look like Suns can even score and let's be honest, it should be 100+ loss as Lions were very rusty in front of goals and miss so many easy shots.

Unfortunately, when possessing the ball just kicking it randomly forward was a AFLW teams plan the first 2 seasons. Now most teams are somewhere else. Levi sisters missing is a big loss and probably too big gap to close. On top of it Bradfield will not play this year and it looks like Yorston and Ahrens will not be ready round 1. Players in isolation is also far from ideal preparation for round 1.

No idea how good other teams will be, that's our only hope. Signs are not good. Bottom 4 for me. I do hope girls will get to enjoy some wins.

As for fixture, I don't expect changes to it besides Eagles and Fremantle. I do expect games postponed, re-scheduled due to covid positive players. GWS game could still hang in balance if more positive players come up in coming days. First positive player detected on Tue, 5 players on Fri. It would not surprise more positive players coming up.

I honestly hope I am too pessimistic but I am worried. I guess we will find out a bit next Sunday.
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I've already expressed my opinion on the practice game in this thread but in case you missed it, I don't read much into it given the quality of the opponent and the fact that we now have a new coach. It was literally the best team in 2021 vs the worst team in 2021. It was never going to be close.

The way we perform against the mid-lower end teams is what interests me more because that's an indication of where we truly stand in the league. Momentum can take you a long way in the AFLW and securing a win or two in the first five rounds legitimately gives teams a shot at competing for a place in the finals. We saw it in 2020 and I believe that to still be true in 2022. We know our girls are talented (quite a few of them are U18 AAs) so in my mind it's more of a confidence/experience issue and the fastest way to address that is to win games. Here is a list of our current U18 AA players - Kalinda Howarth (2017), Lauren Bella (2017, 2018), Serene Watson (2018, 2019), Jacqui Yorston (2018), Charlie Rowbottom (2020), Teagan Levi (2020).

I remember some onlookers having similar opinions in our first AFLW season and stating we'll be lucky to win a single game... then we made the finals. I know people will counter by saying we weren't very good in 2021 but the covid situation really did wreak havoc on our girls having to play away for 5 consecutive weeks between rounds 2-6. That's enough to ruin any team's season. The fact of the matter is neither you, I or anyone else here truly knows how good our AFLW team will be in 2022 and that's exciting from my perspective. Yes, we're a young team but we were also young in our first season when we pulled off some good wins and got close in a few other games.

I wrote this after the practice game and I'm going to repeat it here now - let's at least wait until we see how the girls perform in round 1 before anyone starts writing off the season. If we're absolutely terrible and well off the mark in round 1 then we can have a legitimate conversation about the concerns you've raised.
 
Are we expecting a big game from Bella in round 1? She'll be playing in front of a hometown crowd in Mackay and played well in her only other appearance in the 2020 Mackay game where she recorded 19 hitouts and 4 tackles.
 
Keeping it simple.
Just looking forward to the season, to follow the Suns (win or lose, but expectations are low), and to watch some of the other games.
A good game of footy is just that, and there were some good games of AFLW footy last year. Expecting a few more this year.
 
GC2015 said:
I've already expressed my opinion on the practice game in this thread but in case you missed it, I don't read much into it given the quality of the opponent and the fact that we now have a new coach. It was literally the best team in 2021 vs the worst team in 2021. It was never going to be close.

The way we perform against the mid-lower end teams is what interests me more because that's an indication of where we truly stand in the league. Momentum can take you a long way in the AFLW and securing a win or two in the first five rounds legitimately gives teams a shot at competing for a place in the finals. We saw it in 2020 and I believe that to still be true in 2022. We know our girls are talented (quite a few of them are U18 AAs) so in my mind it's more of a confidence/experience issue and the fastest way to address that is to win games. Here is a list of our current U18 AA players - Kalinda Howarth (2017), Lauren Bella (2017, 2018), Serene Watson (2018, 2019), Jacqui Yorston (2018), Charlie Rowbottom (2020), Teagan Levi (2020).

I remember some onlookers having similar opinions in our first AFLW season and stating we'll be lucky to win a single game... then we made the finals. I know people will counter by saying we weren't very good in 2021 but the covid situation really did wreak havoc on our girls having to play away for 5 consecutive weeks between rounds 2-6. That's enough to ruin any team's season. The fact of the matter is neither you, I or anyone else here truly knows how good our AFLW team will be in 2022 and that's exciting from my perspective. Yes, we're a young team but we were also young in our first season when we pulled off some good wins and got close in a few other games.

I wrote this after the practice game and I'm going to repeat it here now - let's at least wait until we see how the girls perform in round 1 before anyone starts writing off the season. If we're absolutely terrible and well off the mark in round 1 then we can have a legitimate conversation about the concerns you've raised.
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I respect your more optimistic opinion but I am also pretty sure there is nothing wrong to have different views. I am just expressing my less optimistic version after watching the practice game. Not sure why I should wait until after round 1 to assess team and express my prediction based on how I see it right now. It's just opinion. Could I be wrong? Definitely. Usually, I am quite optimistic but not this time. A lot of new players, the young list, injuries, players left, new coach, new plan, practice game performance (Bella and Horwath both disappointing) are pretty good supporting arguments that we are probably not finals team. I will be one very happy supporter if girls prove me wrong and play good footy on Sun. GWS could be an average team this year for what I know (though Sarah Black has them rising and Herald in 5-8 position). Yes, let's see how we go against middle/bottom teams.

Our opinions don't really mean anything. 2-3 years ago, if I remember correctly you thought that Suns are ahead of Lions (apology if it was not you but I do remember somebody (I assume you) was arguing with briztoon about which team has better future). In that time, I expected both teams to struggle. Obviously, I had no idea.

So did you watch the practice game? That's what I am most curious about. My admiration to you for being optimistic if you watched the game.

BTW, I will watch every Suns game with keen interest regardless of results, so no writing off the season for me at any time. Just hoping for decent footy from Suns at some stage. I can't wait, the off-season and covid crap is not best time for me.

FWIW, both Sarah Black (afl.com.au) and Herald Suns have us winning a wooden spoon.
 
Jirik13 said:
I respect your more optimistic opinion but I am also pretty sure there is nothing wrong to have different views. I am just expressing my less optimistic version after watching the practice game. Not sure why I should wait until after round 1 to assess team and express my prediction based on how I see it right now. It's just opinion. Could I be wrong? Definitely. Usually, I am quite optimistic but not this time. A lot of new players, the young list, injuries, players left, new coach, new plan, practice game performance (Bella and Horwath both disappointing) are pretty good supporting arguments that we are probably not finals team. I will be one very happy supporter if girls prove me wrong and play good footy on Sun. GWS could be an average team this year for what I know (though Sarah Black has them rising and Herald in 5-8 position). Yes, let's see how we go against middle/bottom teams.

Our opinions don't really mean anything. 2-3 years ago, if I remember correctly you thought that Suns are ahead of Lions (apology if it was not you but I do remember somebody (I assume you) was arguing with briztoon about which team has better future). In that time, I expected both teams to struggle. Obviously, I had no idea.

So did you watch the practice game? That's what I am most curious about. My admiration to you for being optimistic if you watched the game.

BTW, I will watch every Suns game with keen interest regardless of results, so no writing off the season for me at any time. Just hoping for decent footy from Suns at some stage. I can't wait, the off-season and covid crap is not best time for me.

FWIW, both Sarah Black (afl.com.au) and Herald Suns have us winning a wooden spoon.
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No problem with a difference of opinion but I've fallen into the trap of gaining optimism/getting down based on preseason results too many times to know it really means nothing. For all we know, Cam Joyce could have been playing the girls a particular way for a reason with absolutely no intention of winning a game that meant nothing. You see the truth shining through when we get to the real stuff which is why I was urging everyone in here to at least wait until round 1 concludes to draw any kind of predictions for the season.

Briztoon and I were having a similar discussion in this thread in the lead up to the 2020 season. He believed that splitting the depth of female talent in Queensland wasn't going to allow for even one competitive AFLW teams and that he felt both QLD clubs were heading for multiple seasons towards the bottom of the ladder. To his credit, he came back in this thread later in 2020 when both clubs had qualified for the finals and admitted he was way off with his prediction. Obviously Brisbane have gone from strength to strength since then and claimed the premiership last year but disappointingly we headed in the opposite direction. I still believe our run of five away games between rounds 2-6 was a huge reason as to why we ended up with the wooden spoon and that won't be the case this time around with 3 of our first 4 games being played in Queensland.

I didn't watch the practice entire game but I did catch parts of it. As has already been stated, it wasn't pretty but pressure being applied by the reigning premiers will do that to a young team. This time next week we will have a much better idea of whether our girls will be competitive this season.
 
I am going to put my few cents in here.

We need to be positive.

The girls would have learnt a hell of a lot from 2021. Yes, the Levi girls not playing is a big hole (they are my fav players) but we are getting more experience after every season, every pre season, every training session. We are a young list and Cam Joyce has experience with young players after coaching Tassie Devils in the NAB League Women's. Charlie Rowbottom will be a huge in for the team and we have Yorston coming back from ACL which will also lift the team.

I never read anything into PS games especially when it was last years premiers (who again will be very strong) vs last seasons wooden spooners. We have played solid games despite going down against GWS in the past two seasons so I think we are a chance against them.

C'mon guys! Let's get behind our girls and support them all the away. #neversaydie!
 
GC2015 said:
Are we expecting a big game from Bella in round 1? She'll be playing in front of a hometown crowd in Mackay and played well in her only other appearance in the 2020 Mackay game where she recorded 19 hitouts and 4 tackles.
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Bella I think will be in for a big season as she continues to grow and develop! Mackay hometown hero ready for takeoff!
 
Interesting, says the 5 girls who have covid will be fine for sunday

Pending tests.


Gold Coast’s entire playing list was placed into isolation last week after a player tested positive to Covid-19.

Five players who eventually all tested positive remain in isolation but will be released before Sunday’s match against Greater Western Sydney, pending the results of final PCR tests to be completed this week.
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The lines are being painted, the food vendors are preparing their trucks and the activities are being set up as Mackay readies itself for a taste of AFLW action.
Despite the fears of a Covid outbreak in the Gold Coast Suns camp ruining Mackay’s only AFLW game for the year, the anticipation surrounding the round-one fixture is building.

Harrup Park general manager Adrian Young said it was all systems go at the ground.

“Indications we’ve been given from the clubs and the league is that the game will still be going ahead,” he said.

“We’re not concerned about the Suns' actual cases, we’re preparing to have the game.”


Gold Coast had five players test positive to Covid last week, but the club expects to take a full squad into round one.

Only vaccinated patrons will be allowed to attend the match at Great Barrier Reef Arena, with QR codes at the gates.

Masks will be required within Harrup Park itself, but fans can barrack freely around the outdoor stadium.

Mr Young said the hub setting would return for the AFLW match.


“It’ll be a similar set up to the WBBL, but not quite as big as the first week,” he said.

“There’ll be a few activities set up, a couple of food vendors as well.”

The gates will open at 4pm, for a 5.10pm start on Sunday, January 9.
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Jen2310 said:
Yeah, that's right. I think day 6 you get a test and if negative, you are free to go. Much better than the 10 days it used to be. Before that 14.
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Do you know that Collingwood has also 4 players in isolation at the moment according to Herald? This season will be fun.
 
It looks like Ahrens and Yorston could be available.
“At this stage I think we’ll have full availability… our medical and high performance staff have done a great job in getting the girls fit and healthy which is great,” Joyce said.

“Understand the world we live in things can move and shape very quickly, but we’re hoping the girls will train tonight and also train Thursday leading into a captains run on Saturday, and fly into Mackay early Saturday afternoon to take on the Giants on Sunday.”
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Hannah Dunn embracing new role for 2022 (theinnersanctum.com.au)
 
It could be a case of survival of the fittest this weekend. I wasn’t impressed with the skills displayed in our practice match (or last season, for that matter), but our team keeps fighting. The hot weather in Mackay may be to our advantage


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Fat Pizza said:
It could be a case of survival of the fittest this weekend. I wasn’t impressed with the skills displayed in our practice match (or last season, for that matter), but our team keeps fighting. The hot weather in Mackay may be to our advantage
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Warm and humid weather certainly plays in our advantage. Maybe the GWS team will be missing a few players through COVID protocols as well. Who knows but for us to have a full strength team going into round 1 gives us as good a chance as any team to get the W.
 

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