AFLW North Melbourne Football Club AFLW - Season 2024

[The Nostradamus]

Spoke to her afterwards. She seemed to imply it wasn't that bad.

Do I dare say
2 weeks

 

[kool kangas]

Aim high Nostra, top spot = home GF.

at Ikon park...

 

[Liam Boy]

I hope Kearney doesn't miss enough games for them to snub her from the AA team. They shouldn't but they might.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Spoke to her afterwards. She seemed to imply it wasn't that bad.

That's great to hear although Kearns does have a bit of Black Knight from Monty Python energy.

 

[Pravda Roo]

Bang, another W for our champs.

 

[shinboner magic]

Heard that they’re looking at starting the league in July next year - does that mean 17 game h/a season

 

[ferball]

these ****ing maggots

One of my girls asked me today why I call umpires maggots.

LOL.

People sitting in front of us went absolutely deadpan...

 

[ferball]

I like these Irish girls

They go in hard compared to the rest

Wall was really good today. Just huge in contests that mattered.

 

[Flawed Genius]

Wall was really good today. Just huge in contests that mattered.

A day that seemed tailor made for Vikki. Miserable weather and in close contested style. She was massive.

 

[ferball]

Yeah, and by "the wet" they mean monsoon rain and swimming pools on the ground.

The conditions were a nightmare. Had a 50km drive to get there and it was sketchy as.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Yeah, and by "the wet" they mean monsoon rain and swimming pools on the ground.

The conditions were a nightmare. Had a 50km drive to get there and it was sketchy as.

If that was a men's game, surely they bring out a super sopper and remove the large pools of water before the game is allowed to start.

 

[ferball]

Good win in the end - inelegant, and not a highlight reel we'll be reaching for any time soon, but after quarter time we worked our way professionally into it and largely neutralised the advantages Richmond were finding in the first term (e.g., Conti out the back of the stoppage was damaging early, still busy afterwards but less influential; we found ways to play something like our usual game rather than bombing it to their spare quite so often). Especially for a third game in nine days, two of which were played in pretty awful and wearing conditions, and with Kearney down so early in the match - it may not have been the domination we've shown in every other win this year but proving we're capable of winning ugly as well is important. Solid stuff.

We've had four games since Sunday 15 Sept. Its the 29th today.

 

[CURVE]

This was posted yesterday from the Mongrel Punt website .

AFLW – The Stars and Finds of R5… so far

THE STARS​

ASH RIDDELL
Over the last few years, we’ve been revelling in the Jasmine Garner-led North Melbourne midfield. And whilst she’s proving to have another fine year, it’s just about safe to say that Ash Riddell is owning the Kangaroos midfield this year.

Garner’s strength has always been around her contested work and her ability to push forward and score, and Mia King is putting together a fine year as well as playing as an inside midfielder as well.

Still, Riddell has always been the dynamic link-up player, who tirelessly runs from end to end and is willing to do whatever she can to ensure North are on the end of a good scoring opportunity.

In 76 per cent of game time, Riddell racked up 36 disposals at 69 per cent efficiency, but also recorded 418 metres gained and was involved in six scores. The only players to have more score involvements were Mia King, Niamh Martin and Bella Eddey.

So far this year, Riddell is averaging well over 30 touches per game. She’s closer to averaging 32 touches per game than anything. But another thing that people might overlook is the fact she’s a great tackler in close when the ball is there to be won.

She laid another seven tackles against Carlton and currently averages a smudge under eight per game in 2024, ranking her in the top three at North Melbourne, behind Mia King and Ruby Tripodi. So if she’s not damaging you on the outside, she’s punishing you on the inside.

THE FINDS​

BELLA EDDEY
With the amount of star talent around at North Melbourne, it’s easy to overlook someone like Bella Eddey, who’s refined to a specific role in the forward line and credit the midfielders for the job they do.

North Melbourne’s forward line is easily one of the best in the competition so far, they average 61.6 points per game across their five matches, and when you look at the goalkickers, it’s not so heavily reliant on one person.

Kate Shierlaw leads the way, but then you’ve got Alice O’Loughlin and Bella Eddey trailing behind her. O’Loughlin deserves a lot of props for her start to the season, even should be in the consideration for All-Australian, given how dangerous she’s been both when she does and doesn’t have the ball.

But for mine, Eddey continually gets overlooked in this forward line. She kicked another two goals on Wednesday night against Carlton, both of them came on the back of brilliant positioning and great awareness for a small forward.

What might separate O’Loughlin from Eddey is that O’Loughlin is the pressure forward, and is averaging over two tackles inside 50 per game. Eddey hasn’t even cracked the one tackle inside 50 per 50-per-game average.

But, given how she also manages to excel around a forward 50 stoppage, (she had five clearances in this game), her strengths lie with the ball in her hands. She’s an elite runner, knows how to link up and in winning the ball at the source, she can hold her own.

WHERE TO?​

NORTH MELBOURNE
Well having covered Carlton last week, and watching the effort on Wednesday night, you don’t need to tell me how inept the Blues were at defending the exits.

They were listless, thumped around the contest and slow on the transition. North flexed their muscle and did what they liked and had the Blues out the back on multiple occasions: +35 in the contest, +53 in the uncontested ball, and 40 inside 50s for a return of 19 scoring shots is a decent return.

North Melbourne recorded their highest-ever winning margin in the AFLW on Wednesday, and except for the Geelong game, have hardly put a foot wrong in this competition. They were on track for a smashing against Port Adelaide last Friday before the diabolical weather turned that game into an out-and-out war of attrition.

Along with Adelaide and perhaps Brisbane (never count them out), they are the teams to catch and we’re at that stage of the season where sides will fatigue and depth will be tested.

North opted to rest both Jenna Bruton and Kate Shierlaw for their game against Carlton, and those they brought in were fairly handy. Niamh Martin kicked 1.2 playing a high half-forward role, and Lulu Pullar looked as if she never left her post on the wing.

Sunday will be a big test, against a Richmond side that has not tasted defeat since the start of the season. Darren Crocker might be inclined to give a few other stars a rest. Their next few games are comfortable enough, they play the Bulldogs at Arden Street, Sydney at North Hobart Oval and Essendon at Windy Hill.

They should be able to win all three of these games and maintain a top-two position ahead of their massive showdown at Norwood Oval in week nine against Adelaide.

 

[ferball]

Do I dare say
2 weeks

LOL

Don't you dare.

 

[ferball]

A day that seemed tailor made for Vikki. Miserable weather and in close contested style. She was massive.

Yeah, after quarter time we smashed them and we probably would have anyway (in another reality without her) but she was a huge part of how we did it today. She is so strong over the ball and in contests.

 

[Samsquanch]

The conditions were a nightmare. Had a 50km drive to get there and it was sketchy as.

Do you pass any McDonalds along the way?






Asking for a friend an internet acquaintance.

 

[ferball]

If that was a men's game, surely they bring out a super sopper and remove the large pools of water before the game is allowed to start.

I was at the same ground for the Hawthorn game and I thought the weather was bad then, but some of those pools of water today formed in the first few minutes! It was crazy how much it rained at one stage. Mum sent me a message saying it was flooding in Lismore again and I was watching the ground fill up with water as she did. I said "R U sure you don't mean Launnie?"

They could have got it out at half time tho.

 

[ferball]

Do you pass any McDonalds along the way?






Asking for a friend an internet acquaintance.

There's one round the corner from the ground lol. Launceston only has two MCDonalds tho. Gave us (ie the kids) free cheeseburgers after the game tho cos we won.

 

[DarwinRoo]

Every club would have a series of grievances like this. You're taking for granted the immense amount of work that has gone into getting the club as competitive as it is now. Our position in the league is exceptional, even though we haven't won the flag yet (give it a couple of months) we're the only expansion club that has made a grand final. We have yet to even lose a game to an expansion club, including Geelong who entered at the same time as us. This is largely thanks to extracting the maximum benefit from the Tasmania arrangement as well as laying the groundwork with MUGARS for years before the league was formed, but other clubs had a head start on us and have fallen dramatically behind.

I'm not going to speak to the process to appoint Crocker because you and I don't really know anything about how that was conducted behind closed doors. I think most clubs would probably jump at the chance to appoint someone with over 20 years of experience in assistant coaching at AFL level, who'd done a great job as an interim head coach on multiple occasions. The resumes of most coaches in this league pale in comparison.

When he took over, even with all of that groundwork laid we were still clearly behind the really strong foundation clubs. Maybe we would've won the flag in the cancelled season, who knows, personally I doubt it, we just squeaked past Collingwood in that final and Freo would've been a massive obstacle. In Crocker's first season we fell pretty short, but he's significantly reshaped the list and gameplan since then. It's built around players who were already there but we wouldn't be competing like this without Shierlaw, O'Loughlin, Eddey, Martin, Wall, Gatt, Craven, O'Shea, Tripodi, Rennie, Ferguson and Birch who we've added during his tenure. Kearney's move to the backline and Randall's move forward (as much as you hate that one) were also great uses of personnel that have made us more competitive and better at implementing his gameplan.

I don't think we should be taking all of that for granted, we'd be the envy of a lot of clubs right now. It's hard to get to a strong position and it's almost as hard to stay there. I think at this stage it's hard to say appointing Crocker was a mistake.

And sorry, but most of your complaints are a load of nonsense. Fixturing is completely out of our hands and it turns out all we needed to do to overcome the massive Casey Fields disadvantage was get better so we could win down there. With the way we flogged Melbourne, I hope we get to go there next year. We have no idea what the club is saying to the league behind closed doors, which is by design. Crocker already does vent certain things in public, like when he complained about the stupid 5pm start last Friday, but he's smart enough not to overstep the line and cause a genuine controversy about it. B&F votes are even more out of our hands than the fixture, and EVERYONE has complained publicly from inside and outside our club about the snubbing of Jasmine Garner. Are they supposed to direct the umpires to vote differently? What do you expect the club to do about that? And the assistant coach stuff, I'm sorry but how is it the club's fault if we give a guy a job, then they get a more lucrative offer from another club's AFL program and bail on it? There's no club in the league that could do anything to prevent that, if we wanted any club's AFLW assistants for our Men's program we would have them in an instant, because it's a way better job.

Just because you get the jollies over the 2nd win we’ve ever had at Casey doesn’t mean we should be scheduled to play there in perpetuity.

It’s dog shit and if the club is saying something then it’s falling on deaf ears.

 

[shinboner magic]

We've had four games since Sunday 15 Sept. Its the 29th today.

Should of really given the skipper a game off in that stretch - was likely to happen to one of the older players in the league

 

[Liam Boy]

Just because you get the jollies over the 2nd win we’ve ever had at Casey doesn’t mean we should be scheduled to play there in perpetuity.

It’s dog shit and if the club is saying something then it’s falling on deaf ears.

So again, what the **** can the club do about fixturing?

 

[The Nostradamus]

Should of really given the skipper a game off in that stretch - was likely to happen to one of the older players in the league

Yeah that was silly by us, even without hindsight

No doubt she would’ve wanted to play every game but there was no harm giving her one game off this season

 

[Pravda Roo]

No Gowans has a much better list because he was able to bring every good North Melbourne player to Sydney due to the fact that they were all supremely loyal to him and disagreed vehemently with the reasons for his departure from Arden St. Or so you were whining incessantly at the time.

LOL surely not?! Crock is the best coach in the AFL_W

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

I hope Kearney doesn't miss enough games for them to snub her from the AA team. They shouldn't but they might.

There's probably a minimum number of games that you have to play to qualify.

 

[Pravda Roo]

Should of really given the skipper a game off in that stretch - was likely to happen to one of the older players in the league

No need to be critical mate, they know what they are doing.