AFLW Finals, Week 1 - 2024 AFLW season

[adammania9]

Deliberate call was correct. If you have time and space to dispose of the footy, you must

 

[X_box_X]

This match is lit.

 

[X_box_X]

Great work by Randall is rewarded with a goal

Bresnehan had a brain fart. Too focused on running into defence instead of manning the mark to prevent Randall playing on.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Bella Eddey looking like one of the few who rocked up to Arden Street during the week. The rest spent time strolling down media street.

Vikki Wall (the most powerful female athlete on planet earth--I think Champion Data measure her stats in horsepower!) is one proper pre-season away from joining Ebony Antonio and Brea Moody on my personal faves list. Gotta finish off the hard work.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Refer to almost exactly 8 and 4 minutes left in Q3 with the pressure-free midfield turnover kicks by Charlton and possibly Levy. That's when you know it's going to be just about impossible for the Crows to win.

Though I do have to point out, once again, Chelsea Randall despite a great game tonight: a player of her experience still trying for set shot goals from 45m+ out... Pass. the. ball.

 

[The Nostradamus]

Who comes here looking forward to a North Melbourne vs Fremantle GF?

Good luck against the crows in Adelaide next week

 

[Liam Boy]

Unfortunately, Adelaide haven't kicked straight for a long time. Our last six matches have seen us score 34.49. And if you exclude the 14.8 performance against GWS (who didn't put up much of a fight), it's 20.41.

I'd dearly love for them to get their goalkicking right when it really counts, but it would require a massive turnaround in form.

Kicked way straighter than us and still lost, so I don't think that's it

Actually think it will be the winner of the other qf that wins the flag

You're that bullish about Brisbane?

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Kicked way straighter than us and still lost, so I don't think that's it

You're that bullish about Brisbane?

I think Brisbane have the right make up to counter the roos, yes.

I think if the hawks overcome Brisbane, that our gameplan can cause headaches for the roos

 

[cmndstab]

Kicked way straighter than us and still lost, so I don't think that's it

Adelaide has had two issues. One - they have tended to miss genuine shots on goal. Not an issue tonight, at least! Two - they struggle to turn I50s into genuine shots on goal. That was on full display tonight.

 

[Liam Boy]

Adelaide has had two issues. One - they have tended to miss genuine shots on goal. Not an issue tonight, at least! Two - they struggle to turn I50s into genuine shots on goal. That was on full display tonight.

I'm sure you're right but our backline does this to everyone, we're normally really hard to score against even when the opposition gets a lot of I50s

 

[cmndstab]

I'm sure you're right but our backline does this to everyone, we're normally really hard to score against even when the opposition gets a lot of I50s

No doubt. North weathered the storm well, as was expected.

But the Crows also have a bad habit of just blindly kicking when they go inside 50. And the only players in our forward line who know how to lead are Gould, and Randall (when she's there) so we usually just end up kicking to a contest. Which turns out to be an ineffective strategy against any half-decent side who know to drop an extra number or two back.

For all that, I think the Crows played pretty well tonight. Just not as good as North.

 

[The Nostradamus]

crows still the best team we’ve played this year

 

[Amarula]

I’d call it in the spirit of the rule. She picked up the ball when no north player was within 9 m, then just stood there before walking it back over the line. I’m happy for that to be paid every day

This is the point: “to be paid every day”. Just about every time this situation happens in footy, a huge amount of latitude is given to the defender. This time, this umpire decided not to. So is this situation now going “to be paid every day”? Or was this just a one-off decision that happened to swing things right back in favour of the home team at a crucial point in the game?

Let’s face it, all of us would have been highly pissed if this had been paid against our team.

 

[Crankyhawk]

This is the point: “to be paid every day”. Just about every time this situation happens in footy, a huge amount of latitude is given to the defender. This time, this umpire decided not to. So is this situation now going “to be paid every day”? Or was this just a one-off decision that happened to swing things right back in favour of the home team at a crucial point in the game?

Let’s face it, all of us would have been highly pissed if this had been paid against our team.

I would have been annoyed at the player for being stupid, but yes I would also want it to be paid more consistently too. There aren't many that blatant in my recollection.

 

[X_box_X]

Adelaide has had two issues. One - they have tended to miss genuine shots on goal. Not an issue tonight, at least! Two - they struggle to turn I50s into genuine shots on goal. That was on full display tonight.

The issue was compounded by the fact Ferguson (and to a lesser extent Wright) had her worst game of the season. I wouldn't expect Ferguson to play that poorly again in the GF if they were to meet again.

 

[NetworkNerd]

Freo should be too strong for Essendon setting up a decent game next week v the crows in Adelaide

Massive test for the Hawks tomorrow. Hope they get a good crowd to cheer the girls on. Brisbane are battle hardened and of course the reigning premiers

I think Richmond will get the chocolates in an upset.

 

[radiojake]

This is the point: “to be paid every day”. Just about every time this situation happens in footy, a huge amount of latitude is given to the defender. This time, this umpire decided not to. So is this situation now going “to be paid every day”? Or was this just a one-off decision that happened to swing things right back in favour of the home team at a crucial point in the game?

Let’s face it, all of us would have been highly pissed if this had been paid against our team.

I have to wonder how much that decision made Niamh Kelly in the last qtr decide to turn around in the defensive goal square with 3 North players on her and blindly kick back into the corridor for a North player to mark (they missed the goal)

Reckon should would have been in her rights to rush, but that dodgy free from earlier probably was messing with her


Adelaide weren't clean enough for the evening and North were - That was the main difference from my view at the ground

 

[The Nostradamus]

The issue was compounded by the fact Ferguson (and to a lesser extent Wright) had her worst game of the season. I wouldn't expect Ferguson to play that poorly again in the GF if they were to meet again.

Plus we will get Kearney back

 

[BallaratBulldog]

If North lost the flag it would be one of hell of a choke. Just far too good all season long.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Harsh but true to say the AFL don't have much use for Fremantle and Port Adelaide after this week, as they'd obviously much rather Essendon and Richmond to be the away teams in the semis. And they'd probably want the first prelim to be NM vs Haw/Rich on a Friday night.

In the meantime, though, they might be useful for ticking over the turnstiles. With last night's crowd announced as 3689, the other matches this weekend should draw as follows:

Frem v Ess - 5638​

PA v Rich - 4553​

Haw v BL - 5963​

(Total: 19,844 - up 4.5% on 2023)​

That's assuming the difference between NM men's home crowds (in Melbourne) and Frem/PA/Haw men's home crowds (in their respective home cities) is proportionate to AFLW figures.

I'm personally not expecting Hawthorn will get that many, whereas Port Adelaide should comfortably clear 4.5k (given they drew 4.1k last Sunday at 4.35pm vs GWS).

Fremantle is the big unknown. Record attendance for da boyz this year (4th highest in the league despite failing to make finals). But crowds for da girlz this year are well down on the league average, despite finishing 5th on the ladder. And you could perhaps intuit that from another wacky editorial choice by the paper over there...

 

[Tas]

If North lost the flag it would be one of hell of a choke. Just far too good all season long.

I don't think there is a lot of difference between North, Crows and Lions. We have probably been a bit more consistent and not as wasteful going forward but I don't think there is much separating these three teams. To me it just comes down to who plays better on the day. Beating Brisbane round 1 doesn't mean we will or should beat them in a final.

I do not know if Hawks or Fremantle are around the same mark or a peg below, we didn't get to play either of them this year so have nothing to compare them to and they seem different teams to last year. Hawks I think only played the Crows out of the top three and lost that but they have played some really good footy... how well it will hold up under finals pressure is something that has to be tested and they will learn from it if it doesn't much like we learnt some painful lessons during finals.

I think you have to defend well to be able to win a flag and I think we made inroads last year into defending better as a team and this year with the addition of Birch we defend well without having to drop a lot of numbers back.

Even though we beat Brisbane by 44 points in round one, it was 35 inside 50s a piece, they dominated clearances, they were just off, didn't apply defensive pressure well, gave us a lot of room to run and carry the ball. They wont play the same way if we meet them again so how much can you take from that win?

I think our game plan stands up now in finals, it didn't a few years ago, we learnt from that. We've had some good inclusions in Shierlaw last year and Birch this year, but have seen that second tier of player really step up, they might not be stars of the game but their standard has improved a lot even within a 12 month period.

I think that has been the Crows major weakness, they have great players all over the park and two really good key forwards but you become somewhat predictable in where you are going to go with the ball and if you have a bunch of forwards who usually don't impact the scoreboard enough then their defenders can afford to sag off you and help to nullify the ones who do impact the scoreboard.

I think the Crows coach to some degree has to cop some criticism for that, they have tried the same thing the last three times and it has resulted in the same outcome. They have been very good tight games but I think the Crows have the players to do better. Our first half was really poor imo, we were very fumbly, they had the opportunity to blow the game wide open but didn't take the opportunity. Question is will the penny drop before this finals campaign is over or not.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Another blow for Mum's Army:

 

[BarbieITFC]

Harsh but true to say the AFL don't have much use for Fremantle and Port Adelaide after this week, as they'd obviously much rather Essendon and Richmond to be the away teams in the semis. And they'd probably want the first prelim to be NM vs Haw/Rich on a Friday night.

In the meantime, though, they might be useful for ticking over the turnstiles. With last night's crowd announced as 3689, the other matches this weekend should draw as follows:

Frem v Ess - 5638​

PA v Rich - 4553​

Haw v BL - 5963​

(Total: 19,844 - up 4.5% on 2023)​

That's assuming the difference between NM men's home crowds (in Melbourne) and Frem/PA/Haw men's home crowds (in their respective home cities) is proportionate to AFLW figures.

I'm personally not expecting Hawthorn will get that many, whereas Port Adelaide should comfortably clear 4.5k (given they drew 4.1k last Sunday at 4.35pm vs GWS).

Fremantle is the big unknown. Record attendance for da boyz this year (4th highest in the league despite failing to make finals). But crowds for da girlz this year are well down on the league average, despite finishing 5th on the ladder. And you could perhaps intuit that from another wacky editorial choice by the paper over there...

Really good crowd building - many many more than H&A season

 

[norway blue]

Hope for a tough close game.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Teen Wolf]

Kate McCarthy always playing favourites. Can't even call a push in the back for what it is. Poor defending, clear as day.