AFLW Finals, Week 3 - 2024 AFLW season

[Teen Wolf]

Saturday, 23 November

1st Preliminary Final
North Melb. (WWWWW) v Port Adelaide (WWWWW)
3.05pm AEDT, Ikon Park
7mate - VIC, SA, WA, NSW, QLD

2nd Preliminary Final
Brisbane (WLWWW) v Adelaide (WLWLW)
7.30pm AEDT, Brighton Homes Arena
7mate - VIC, SA, WA, NSW, QLD


Oh dear. North v Port PF? The AFL would be piiiiiiiissed... if they actually cared about crowd numbers. Clearly not the case though, evidenced by another final scheduled for the hottest part of a 30+ degree day, when they could've just gone 7pm in Melb and 8pm in Bris.

Yesterday the Crows managed to pull just over 2,000 people for a semi final. They had more than double that last year. Went very close to their lowest-ever attendance at Norwood Oval. Disaster!

On the other side of the fence: North Melbourne have a 3-0 H2H record vs Port Adelaide. Previous encounters have been at Alberton, Arden Street and Whitten Oval. All have been comprehensive victories to NM, though PA did outscore them in the 2nd half earlier this year (1 goal to 1 behind) in extremely heavy rain.

Last week we talked about the history of men's finals between Hawthorn and Port potentially being mirrored by the women, which aged pretty well. So this week we may as well mention a) the Kangaroos went on to win the premiership last time they beat the Power in a final, and b) in 2007 the Power won a PF vs the Kangaroos then lost the GF by 119 points.

Moving on to the other prelim and oh look it's those two teams again, ensuring the law of the AFLW Grand Final always featuring either Brisbane or Adelaide is abided.

The Crows choked away their last 3 games vs the Lions imo, which were decided by margins of 3 points (2023 R8), 2 points (2023 QF) and 2 points (2024 R5). Not opinion but fact: Adelaide with Erin Phillips have a 3-2 win-loss record vs Brisbane, while Adelaide without Erin Phillips are 0-7 vs Brisbane.

Most importantly, by virtue of losing last week, Ebony Marinoff is now ahead of Ally Anderson on the Most Games Played list. Therefore the result of this match is likely to be pivotal in determining who gets to 100 first, aka the Charlie Pannam of our time.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Not many giving Port a chance next week, no doubt Nth are a much more exp team than Hawks and at dealing with footy that isn’t all on their terms. Hawks couldnt seem to deal with it. Or Richmond. Also seeing Rich players start breaking down last week and Hawks this week (stupid condensed fixture)that rest is a big advantage.
However…
Port ran over GWS, Rich, Hawks.
Port’s last quarters over the last four weeks.
11.7
That’s very good, last two weeks 40 I50 for 17 scores against Tiges. That’s good
29 I50 for 15 scores last night.
That’s very good.
Conceded nearly 100 points last two weeks and are still undefeated.
Little bit of the Collingwood mens game about em..how they want the oppo to not play conservative football they want the Oppo taking risks to win.
Cdog prediction:
If they play Kearney and she breaks down.
Port will be right there at the end.

Yeah PA not phased yesterday as $5 outsiders.

 

[Teen Wolf]

North are due for a loss, very rarely has a team gone through a season undefeated.
Brisbane did in the inaugural season and lost the GF to Adelaide.
Port have nothing to lose and have shown that a 3qtr time deficeit is not a hurdle too big.

 

[Teen Wolf]

despite knowing that we've been a better team all season I was a little bit concerned about the Hawthorn matchup just because we've never played them before and they might be able to catch us off guard. Well, we've played Port 3 times before and it's never been remotely close. They managed a single goal and no behinds last time we played. They've clearly improved since that early stage of the season, but that much? I suppose we'll see.

Yeah not sure, guess we'll find out!

 

[Teen Wolf]

AFL yet to confirm FTA TV details but with Test cricket starting on Friday, in Perth mind you, expect both finals on 7mate wherever you are.

Adult tickets for prelims start at $20, which is twice as much as last year although the AFL didn't draw attention to that in their media release.