AFLW North Melbourne Football Club AFLW - Season 2024

[Dodecahedron]

I’ve watched every one of North’s AFLW games since inception. The fact that we are dominant now has been the result of a slow build over many years. I for one, am enjoying seeing our dominance this season. However, we must put a premiership cup on the mantle or it will all be for nought.

PS: It’s nice to come back to this thread today to find that the tone-deaf, miserable, pathetic, positivity-sapping posts have been deleted by the mods.

 

[Only Forwards]

Yeah it feels at times like the opposition adjusts to the conditions better than us which is bizarre.

During the Geelong game we were going far to aggressively where they shifted to taking territory.

We were slow in adjusting.

however since that singular half of footy it’s not been an issue.

Almost like we reviewed it and adjusted our approach and are clearer on what to do when.

 

[hale]

I so love watching this team! I flew over for the GF last year and am hoping I'll get to do the same this year. (Also hopeful this time I won't be flying back after a defeat, and I won't catch COVID!)

I really wish they could do something about the AFLW umpiring standards though. It's the least enjoyable aspect of this league. I think one of the looks Ash gave the umpire yesterday sums it up well...


That free against Tahlia for a supposed push (that caused Ash's expression) was particularly galling considering Thalia herself was earlier blatantly infringed against by a doggie running up behind her and shoving her to the ground with two hands in her back (not during play, Q3 12:20 on clock). This was ignored by the umpire about a meter away and the other watching on from ~20m away.

I try not to believe in conspiracies but for a long time we've seemingly been umpired very differently to our opponents :/

 

[Luke72]

It feels like they try to keep the games close. Thankfully I reckon Croc has told them to take it out of the umpires hands. They really show no mercy and I love it.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

I so love watching this team! I flew over for the GF last year and am hoping I'll get to do the same this year. (Also hopeful this time I won't be flying back after a defeat, and I won't catch COVID!)

I really wish they could do something about the AFLW umpiring standards though. It's the least enjoyable aspect of this league. I think one of the looks Ash gave the umpire yesterday sums it up well...
View attachment 2133589

That free against Tahlia for a supposed push (that caused Ash's expression) was particularly galling considering Thalia herself was earlier blatantly infringed against by a doggie running up behind her and shoving her to the ground with two hands in her back (not during play, Q3 12:20 on clock). This was ignored by the umpire about a meter away and the other watching on from ~20m away.

I try not to believe in conspiracies but for a long time we've seemingly been umpired very differently to our opponents :/

I don’t believe in conspiracies, the umpiring standard is just not very good. But they are doing their best, and I don’t think any team is targeted particularly.

 

[Sillygit]

I don’t believe in conspiracies, the umpiring standard is just not very good. But they are doing their best, and I don’t think any team is targeted particularly.

Yup, they're just low tier umps.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

I find it funny that the one ground where we struggle to convert in front of goal is the ground we train on every week.

As much as we hate Casey Fields we are almost 20% better in front of goal there than our home ground. Our accuracy at Casey is 63.8% compared to 44.5% at Arden Street.

It's such an open field subject to winds. But you'd think we'd be pretty used to it no matter which direction the wind is blowing.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

it can feel that way when the commentary team is constantly trying to push the narrative but I don't think it's really borne out by reality, when you're talking about scenarios where one team might kick a single goal and the other team doesn't during a downpour, there's way too many other factors that come into it to be able to point to a pattern, the sample size is too small.

I think the draw with Geelong had more to do with coming back from the Brisbane heat with a 6 day break after giving everything against a fellow top side, and then having to front up against a side that's had a chip on their shoulder about finally getting a win over us since they lost that final 2 years ago, and so threw absolutely everything at us. Alice being out also made our forward line a lot worse, I think. All the other wet weather games we've won, and decisively. We slowed down against Port once the monsoon began, but isn't it normal for a side to absolutely flog another for a half and then naturally slow down a bit since the game's pretty much already won? The closest anyone came is Richmond, where they barely outscored us in a half where we lost our captain early to an injury and had to readjust the defensive gameplan on the fly to account for her absence. Also on a shorter break than them, significantly a 3 day break compared to their 4.

What they normally point to is an increase in pressure. They particularly couldn't shut up about it during the Carlton game. But it becomes easier to shut down free-flowing football like ours with pressure when it's pouring, because clean disposal becomes so much harder. That's just physics, it's a factor that affects everyone.

The other counter-argument with regard to your last point about Carlton increasing pressure is that they did so at the expense of being able to score themselves. Basically, they flooded our forward line after quarter time and had nobody to kick to whenever they managed an intercept. They just bombed it as far as possible upfield where there were two or three of our defenders waiting. So yeah, it's relatively easy to increase pressure and stop a team from scoring so heavily if you're prepared accept a loss a quarter of the way through a game.

 

[Caracas]

I don’t believe in conspiracies, the umpiring standard is just not very good. But they are doing their best, and I don’t think any team is targeted particularly.

Of course, H2H. If anything, there were more times yesterday that I was surprised we got a free than the other way around. The free kick count was very much in our favour. I think it’s trickier to umpire AFLW because the ball is in dispute for much more of the game. Also, everybody is giving 100% all the time, leading to lots of accidental contact. The umpires appear to err on the side of caution too much, in my view. I’m almost surprised they didn’t pay a free kick to Niamh for high contact when we were making our circle before singing our song after the game.

 

[ferball]

Of course, H2H. If anything, there were more times yesterday that I was surprised we got a free than the other way around. The free kick count was very much in our favour. I think it’s trickier to umpire AFLW because the ball is in dispute for much more of the game. Also, everybody is giving 100% all the time, leading to lots of accidental contact. The umpires appear to err on the side of caution too much, in my view. I’m almost surprised they didn’t pay a free kick to Niamh for high contact when we were making our circle before singing our song after the game.

Any other club they would have...

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Of course, H2H. If anything, there were more times yesterday that I was surprised we got a free than the other way around. The free kick count was very much in our favour. I think it’s trickier to umpire AFLW because the ball is in dispute for much more of the game. Also, everybody is giving 100% all the time, leading to lots of accidental contact. The umpires appear to err on the side of caution too much, in my view. I’m almost surprised they didn’t pay a free kick to Niamh for high contact when we were making our circle before singing our song after the game.

They have a tendency to officiate to Under 14s standard whereby a free kick is paid for any tackle or bump fierce enough to potentially cause an injury regardless of whether it was legal. It's possible that some of these umpires have recently graduated from junior leagues but they need to realise that the rules at this level are supposed to be the same as for AFL men's competition. This is not non-contact to protect the ladies.

 

[Liam Boy]

The other counter-argument with regard to your last point about Carlton increasing pressure is that they did so at the expense of being able to score themselves. Basically, they flooded our forward line after quarter time and had nobody to kick to whenever they managed an intercept. They just bombed it as far as possible upfield where there were two or three of our defenders waiting. So yeah, it's relatively easy to increase pressure and stop a team from scoring so heavily if you're prepared accept a loss a quarter of the way through a game.

Oh yeah, exactly. Same thing with the Port game. If you absolutely flog a team in the first half, they're going to spend the second half just trying to shut you down with the knowledge that they can't win themselves, trying to avoid a more humiliating loss. It's not realistic to expect that a 7 goal to 0 first half should mean a 7 goal to 0 second half.

 

[CURVE]

As bad as the umpiring has been in the AFLW we do generally get a pretty good run from them, we are currently +30 for frees this season, we were +57 last season and +31 in season 2022B.

What frustrates me is the number of obvious frees they miss, and more often than not they will then award a free for a far less obvious indiscretion almost immediately and usually going the other way.

 

[shinboner magic]

As bad as the umpiring has been in the AFLW we do generally get a pretty good run from them, we are currently +30 for frees this season, we were +57 last season and +31 in season 2022B.

What frustrates me is the number of obvious frees they miss, and more often than not they will then award a free for a far less obvious indiscretion almost immediately and usually going the other way.
View attachment 2133728

To many soft free kicks get called , that if not called no one would really complain about