AFLW AFLW/VFLW 2024 - General Discussion

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geoffjennings79 said:
% after R1: 12.5
Opponent: 800

Lucky there's no relegation system. Girls' teams from some of the secondary schools in Ballarat would beat us atm.

Are Port any good? That early game next week could be 'challenging'...
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So glad for all the hoo ha about not wanting a Friday night game because the Awfl was on….those people who got tickets to the big show because of the clash probably deserve a friggin medal if they actually pay good money to watch it

The quality of the game today makes our request look pathetic

I get some people enjoy it, I don’t. Nothing against the girls, they try, but please don’t ever petition to not play Friday night prime time in the men’s if this is the alternative
 
weltschmerz said:
We were an AFL-authorised one for half a decade.
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That no longer stacks up as an excuse. The club has neglected the AFLW, we didn’t replace Deb Lee, until this year, our players are unfit, and our list management and incentives to stay are non existent. We have gone from a pioneering club, the first to break through and win a premiership to a pathetic, feeder club. Loyal players like Lamb have gone because there was no incentive to stay.

Meanwhile the other pioneering team, Melbourne who faced the same obstacles, has become a powerhouse. It’s not good enough.
 
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W W Biscuit said:
Tuned in briefly to the Essendon-Freo game to see how Gabby Newton was going. Saw that Daria Bannister and Aisling McCarthy had two goals apiece. Both former Dogs players :(

Why have we been such a revolving door?
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It's what happens when a foundation club is allowed to be continually raided for talent from expansion clubs. We get to add good junior talent but without experience around them they get smashed.
They soon get sick of that then with a bit of experience they look to move on. So we get to add ore junior talent again rinse and repeat in a constant cycle as we don't have enough good experienced talent to support the good junior talent.
See Norf as the men's equivalent
 

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Munnez said:
It's what happens when a foundation club is allowed to be continually raided for talent from expansion clubs. We get to add good junior talent but without experience around them they get smashed.
They soon get sick of that then with a bit of experience they look to move on. So we get to add ore junior talent again rinse and repeat in a constant cycle as we don't have enough good experienced talent to support the good junior talent.
See Norf as the men's equivalent
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We are the Gold Coast suns of women’s AFL.
 
It's going back a few years now but the ways in which the AFL botched the reintroduction of teams put our club into a death spiral over the last 5 years that we've never been able to recover from, which is highly unfair. Especially as if any team should be advantaged over another (not saying that they should be, but if it is such), it should be the original teams that get benefits from winning the inaugural bids for teams in the first place.

Overall, there should have been more stringent in forcing teams to be equal in talent levels, even if it took away some player and club freedom, for the overall good of the league.

There was not enough flexibility in some areas and too much flexibility in others.

  • Allowing some clubs (ours) to be pillaged
  • Allowing some clubs (Melbourne) to retain a majority of their players, even as new clubs came in.
  • Too much leeway and helping clubs find money for players outside of the salary cap, such as through jobs or third-party sponsorships
  • Over-valuing draft picks as it related to players as a form of compensation. The league isn't mature enough in its talent identification and development to assume a random pick 8 in the draft will replace a top-end player
  • Flexibility in terms of salaries - the tier system meant that it was far too easy for players to move clubs on an identical or greater salary (or that a minor greater salary was not worth the new opportunities a club would provide, meaning there was nothing a club could do.
  • In order to facilitate the above, being quicker to a proper national system with full-time salaries. An equal league with a national draft and salary cap being effective in its equalisation could have been more effective if that had been implemented earlier.
In essence, given the Dogs have drafted and lost a bunch of players - one only has to look at the players who have dominated the last week or the last season that are ex-Dogs, it's put us in a bit of a death spiral where there's no critical mass that we can get out if it. We're likely to lose a handful of players that we just drafted in a year or two if we don't start winning games.

This whole thing could have been avoided if right from the word go post-2018 the AFL put limitations on both the capacity for new entry clubs to recruit players on an identical tier/salary, heavily limited the expansion clubs (or the clubs that didn't lose players through the draft)'s entry in the draft should they recruit players from existing clubs, and put a maximum number of players that could transfer from one club to another. They didn't do any of that.
 
Reading some of the earlier posts we didn't invest in our women's program enough from after the first season or two, and which is fair enough - players want to leave for a better overall program.

Both can be true though - we can lose some players but it shouldn't have been as easy from a list management ruleset point of view for it to happen so easily.
 
We should have access to 3 uncontracted players (similar to FA) and a priority pick after our 1st pick during the next trade/draft period. This year’s draft was compromised even though we had Pick 1. The new teams no longer need help and there should be a push to get us competitive from next season.
 
Dogs_r_barking said:
That no longer stacks up as an excuse. The club has neglected the AFLW, we didn’t replace Deb Lee, until this year, our players are unfit, and our list management and incentives to stay are non existent. We have gone from a pioneering club, the first to break through and win a premiership to a pathetic, feeder club. Loyal players like Lamb have gone because there was no incentive to stay.

Meanwhile the other pioneering team, Melbourne who faced the same obstacles, has become a powerhouse. It’s not good enough.
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Agreed, I feel like club management was content with getting an early premiership and then have just lived off that success instead of actually doubling down and putting the effort in to become a true powerhouse.

There is no doubt were shafted during the 2019 and 2020 expansions but since then other teams have faired far worse in losing talent than us especially in regards to players being able to walk without a trade and yet last year we lost Lamb, Lynch, Moody and Newton, all seemingly wanted out except for Lamb who I understand wanted to stay but was only offered a Tier 3 contract which is mind boggling to me.

But also let's not forget that even after being "raided" during the expansion years, we did actually make the finals in the 18 team era. 12 players from our 2022B elimination final team were missing from our R1 game this week.

Bateman - delisted at end of 2023
Bennetts - injured (2-3 weeks)
Coyne - injured (season)
Cranston - retired at end of 2023
Ferres - injured (2-3 weeks)
Hunt - delisted at end of 2023
Lamb - traded to Port Adelaide at end of 2023.
Lynch - traded to Gold Coast at end of 2023
Moody - traded to Carlton at end of 2023
Newton - traded to Fremantle at end of 2023
Snell - injured (1-2 weeks)
Woodley - not selected in R1

4 traded
4 injured
3 retired/delisted
1 not selected in R1

Add E. Brown to the injuries as well as she has yet to return from that concussion in R10 2022B, so we have approximately 5 players who are missing from our best 21, which is not ideal but it doesn't excuse professionalism and general fitness which are by far our two biggest issues and were largely the main reasons Burke was let go as coach. I would've thought they would be the priorities to be worked on during the off-season but nothing in the 2 practice games and R1 has really shown me that we've made any progress.

I know it's very early on and we did completely revamp the entire coaching staff and management over the last 9 months so things are going to take a bit of time but I really thought we would've come out firing in R1, not necessarily winning but at the very least looking like a different team to last season. Look at West Coast they were in a very similar situation to us with lots of new players and coaching staff and they seemed switched on from the get-go.
 
Fitness is something that doesn’t necessarily change within a year if we are so behind. Hyett and crew will need time
 
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'Took a real emotional toll': Blackburn opens up on captaincy shift

Ellie Blackburn says she's able to play more freer football after handing over the Bulldogs captaincy after six seasons in charge
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au

ELLIE Blackburn says she will keep leading by example despite losing the Western Bulldogs captaincy, but is anticipating a freer version of herself on the field after a tough 2023.

In July, the Bulldogs made the decision to elect Deanna Berry as skipper under new coach Tam Hyett following Blackburn's six seasons in charge.

Blackburn said the transition had been a "challenging" one, but was quick to praise her replacement as skipper.

"It's obviously been quite a challenging process, in a way, handing over the reins. Deanna's been amazing with it though, I will say. She's incredible, she's a great leader, a wonderful human being and her and I have a great connection," Blackburn told AFL.com.au's The W Show. "I think it's probably more so for me, adjusting to what the role looks like and what my role in the team looks like. [It's] transitioning from being that person that has predominantly that voice, the bigger voice amongst the group, and allowing Deanna the space to have her space and have her voice."
The Western Bulldogs won just one of 10 games last year, the victory coming in the penultimate round of the season, a campaign Blackburn concedes now took a toll on her.

"I think as [this] season goes on, it potentially does allow me the opportunity to take a step back and not be so involved in it. I think last year, I was very involved in each outcome that presented itself throughout the season," Blackburn said.

"It took a real emotional and mental toll on me, I would say, so allowing myself to take a step back and just be a footballer and not having to worry about the captaincy title, might be a nice opportunity for me to play a bit more freer football.

"On-field, I'm going to keep being myself and keep trying to lead and play the football I would naturally play. It's something that regardless of a title, you can't take that away from me."
Blackburn only has a small sample size of life under fresh coach Hyett, but has noticed a natural difference in approach after five seasons with Nathan Burke.

"What I've seen Tam able to do is connect with the other coaches and allow them the space to show themselves a little bit more," she said.

"I don't think she feels like she has to be the voice the whole time, and be the one barking instructions as such at us. I think she allows the freedom for the other coaches to step up a little bit more.

"She's great at building relationships with people, she's great at presenting a new game style and plan and educate us on and off the field, which has been a nice addition to have this year."
 
Change for change sake. Ellie should have been the one handing over the captaincy when she felt it was time. She has been our most loyal player and it must have been gut wrenching for this to occur. As I have stated previously it would be like the Bont being asked to hand over the captaincy to VDM.
 
Our AFLW is a bit of a mess, we seem to be very reactive, rather than proactive.
 


Elle Bennetts will play her first AFLW game in over 12 months when she takes to the field tomorrow night against Port Adelaide.

Bennetts suffered an ACL injury in last year’s opening round, proving her fitness in time to be selected for Friday’s Dogs’ double-header.

She will start on the interchange bench, replacing Ellie Gavalas in the line-up.
The rest of the team remains unchanged.

The Bulldogs are looking for their first win of the 2024 campaign, after going down to the Giants in Week 1.

The first bounce will be at 4.30pm at the MCG tomorrow night, and broadcast via Fox Footy/Kayo Sports.

Following the AFLW game, the AFL Bulldogs will meet Hawthorn in an Elimination Final from 7.40pm.
 
stevieg1969 said:
Change for change sake. Ellie should have been the one handing over the captaincy when she felt it was time. She has been our most loyal player and it must have been gut wrenching for this to occur. As I have stated previously it would be like the Bont being asked to hand over the captaincy to VDM.
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How do you know? You may be right but maybe she decided it was for the best?

"It took a real emotional and mental toll on me, I would say, so allowing myself to take a step back and just be a footballer and not having to worry about the captaincy title, might be a nice opportunity for me to play a bit more freer football.

"On-field, I'm going to keep being myself and keep trying to lead and play the football I would naturally play. It's something that regardless of a title, you can't take that away from me."
 
Foxman98 said:
We kicked 1 goal for the game and got flogged by 10 and make 1 change?
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There's not 10 fit players unselected running around, there's a big injury ilst and limited list size
 

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