AFLW North Melbourne Football Club AFLW - Season 2024

[Colby Cheer Squad]

It took me a minute or two to work out what you meant, firstly because you can't spell a simple word like 'she' and secondly because I was trying to think of a man named Rikki or Amy.

It would have been a funny joke otherwise.

Cheers, yeah I have the most annoying S key that doesn't engage half the time.

 

[CURVE]

 

[shinboner magic]

Was that the qualifying final? No wonder we barely got past a mediocre Collingwood team. It's far from certain that we would have made it through to the grand final against Freo, and even more unlikely that we could have beaten them.

Yeah the days of having a thousand inside 50s for a couple of goals

 

[sutcliffe's hotel]

One more sleep. How are the nerves?

 

[DarwinRoo]

There is a lot of revisionist dogshit in here.

 

[muttley45]

100 % agree with Crock our best is THE BEST, just have to keep up the good work and continue to improve while doing it. go girl's

 

[Liam Boy]

There is a lot of revisionist dogshit in here.

reply button is right in the corner of the post if you want to have a discussion!

 

[Samsquanch]

Cheers, yeah I have the most annoying S key that doesn't engage half the time.

Annoying to have a dodgy key. My wife threw something at me one night and I successfully batted it off with my keyboard, however the F4 key was smashed into oblivion ( lucky it wasn't a real key). I have a few other keyboards but that was my favourite.

 

[DarwinRoo]

Yeah the days of having a thousand inside 50s for a couple of goals

reply button is right in the corner of the post if you want to have a discussion!

Ok, here are the facts:

In 6 games we only kicked less than 6 goals once. The game we didn’t was played at that shithole Casey Fields.

We were the highest scoring team in the league and had the 2nd lowest against.

The “mediocre” Collingwood we played in the final lost to Fremantle in Perth by 3 points. They also won 4 games and finished with a percentage of 153.7. The all conquering Dockers percentage was 154.7

If the Pies were in our group they would have finished 2nd and hosted a home final.

I guess we were lucky to dodge the powerhouse Gold Coast Suns with their awesome record of 2 wins and percentage of 101.3

2024 is the first season since 2020 that we have averaged over 50 points a game.

Fact: The money we saved not paying Gowans went to pay some campaigner to do **** all and live in Hawaii.

 

[Caracas]

North Melbourne’s undefeated season makes them ‘one of the most complete teams we’ve seen’ says former Lion Kate McCarthy

The Kangaroos have become the third team to go through an AFLW season undefeated, but commentator Kate McCarthy says the Roos are better than both of them.

All Australian-turned-popular commentator Kate McCarthy says this North Melbourne outfit is one of the “most complete” sides the AFLW has seen in the wake of the Roos finishing the season unbeaten.

The Kangaroos joined the 2017 Lions and the 2020 Dockers as the only teams to go undefeated, but are looking to create history as the first premiers to finish an entire season unbeaten.

With Fremantle’s bid for a maiden premiership in 2020 cancelled due to Covid, and Brisbane falling short in the grand final after a 6-1-0 home-and-away record, McCarthy said the Roos were possibly the best team ever assembled.

“They are one of the most complete teams that we’ve seen,” she said.

“There’s been teams from Brisbane that have probably had less sort of superstars, so to speak, but even contributors.

“But they (North Melbourne) have players in all lines that have had really good seasons and then they also have had a younger brigade that’s added even more to their depth.

“And then in the back half of the season they have done it without their captain and one of their best players in Emma Kearney so it has been super impressive.”

North Melbourne became the first team to win 10 games in a home-and-away season, and was quickly joined by Hawthorn, which finished with a 10-1 record.

But the Roos have produced the most dominant season ever, boasting both the most potent attack and the stingiest defence in the competition, finishing with a percentage of 315.4.

McCarthy, who was an All Australian in Brisbane’s undefeated 2017 season before later joining St Kilda and then Hawthorn in her seven-year playing career, said the Roos were in the conversation for the best-ever team.

“I just think they’re in such a good position, and they’ve earned the right to be the team that sort of hunted for the final series,” she said.

“You feel like anyone that wins the flag is going to have to beat North Melbourne to do it.

“I think their ability to get things on their terms defensively, regardless of what the opposition allows them, is very, very impressive.

“And they’re super adaptable. So if something sort of happened in a game that they’re not expecting or that they sort of haven’t maybe prepared for. They’re able to change and sort of adapt on the fly really quickly.

“And they don’t just play the same game plan, regardless of the opposition they play. They play appropriate to how they’re prepared to come in.”

There’s definitely a bias on my part of liking this article because it says positive things about North. However, I still think this is a refreshingly well thought out piece. Kate McCarthy, obviously, knows football and does her homework. There are absolutely no cliches or beige comments.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Ok, here are the facts:

In 6 games we only kicked less than 6 goals once. The game we didn’t was played at that shithole Casey Fields.

We were the highest scoring team in the league and had the 2nd lowest against.

The “mediocre” Collingwood we played in the final lost to Fremantle in Perth by 3 points. They also won 4 games and finished with a percentage of 153.7. The all conquering Dockers percentage was 154.7

If the Pies were in our group they would have finished 2nd and hosted a home final.

I guess we were lucky to dodge the powerhouse Gold Coast Suns with their awesome record of 2 wins and percentage of 101.3

2024 is the first season since 2020 that we have averaged over 50 points a game.

Fact: The money we saved not paying Gowans went to pay some campaigner to do **** all and live in Hawaii.

I'm just grateful that when Scott Gowans got to Sydney, he allowed us to keep a few of our good players.

 

[DarwinRoo]

Here is another fact.

Of the teams to go undefeated only North have had the best for and lowest against.

Freo were only the 2nd best for and 8th best against

Brisbane were the equal 5th best for and best against.

 

[CURVE]

Anyway, here's a story about everyone's favourite Irish player.

Interview 'I'm the greyhound now': Why there's no catching Erika O'Shea

'I'm the greyhound now': Why there's no catching Erika O'Shea​

Two years ago, Erika O'Shea lay in bed not knowing if she would ever regain full vision
By Matt Price - NMFC Media

Two years ago, as North Melbourne began its AFLW Season 7 finals campaign, Erika O'Shea lay in bed not knowing if she would ever regain full vision.
Though the blood that had filled her eye socket had been drained, the Irish defender's view from her left eye was a void.
"It was pure black," O'Shea says.
"I had no idea when I was going to get my vision back. It was a mad time, so scary. I was lying there really worked up with all these thoughts just rushing into my head.
"How are you going to be a footballer when you've only got one eye?"
North Melbourne had been clinging to a narrow lead in the dying minutes against Richmond at Arden St when O'Shea, playing in her 10th AFLW game, sprinted back towards the ball. In a sickening accidental collision, she ran headfirst into a Tigers player coming the other way, the player's elbow striking O'Shea on the point of her left eye.
Rushed to hospital, O'Shea underwent emergency treatment for an extreme hyphema, in which blood fills the eye's anterior chamber.
She was just 19 at the time, and doctors offered no guarantee her vision would fully return.

O'Shea makes her way from the ground after the incident against Richmond. All pictures: AFL Photos

Remembering the experience, O'Shea remains grateful for the "incredible" support she received from the club, including doctors, coaches, support staff and her teammates.
Kangaroos captain Emma Kearney collected her from hospital and took her to live with Kearney's extended family while she recovered.
Not wanting to worry her parents, a hemisphere away in Ireland, O'Shea told them she had regained her sight.
In reality, she stayed with Kearney's family for two and a half weeks before the function in her left eye began to return.
"It started getting a bit brighter, but it was still really, really blurry and dark," O'Shea says.
"Then it slowly returned but it was so gradual that you could barely tell."
The feeling when she finally regained clear sight?
"Huge relief. Oh my God. I can't describe it."
****
Growing up in Cork as the youngest daughter of a greyhound trainer, O'Shea surprised her parents by being the only one of their four children to take an interest in Gaelic football.
"None of the family was sporty," she says.
"My mum didn't know much about (football). My dad knew a bit but wasn't huge. But I started making County teams and oh my God, they jumped on board straight away. Every training session they could be travelling two and a half hours just to bring me, and they sat outside having tea and coffee and watching."

In her mid-teens, she was cut from the County team. She remembers it as a formative moment.
"That's when I learned resilience as a child, to be able to come back and work on stuff that I need to work on," she says.
"I'm happy I was dropped because I don't think I would have worked as hard if I did make the team straight away.
"And my mum and dad were amazing through that whole period and afterwards. I genuinely owe my career to them, and I wouldn't say that lightly."
****
North Melbourne's interest in County Cork's tearaway star arrived partway through 2022, via Instagram DM from recruiter Rhys Harwood.
"I was a diehard Cork footballer at the time and I was also very young, so at first I said to my mum ‘No’," O'Shea says. "But I got such support from her. She said, ‘If it's your dream, then go for it.’"
The raw pace that had caught Harwood's eye made her an instant asset for the Kangaroos.
The AFLW's youngest ever Irish recruit, she played every game in her first season until the eye injury.

With captain Emma Kearney, whose family became O'Shea's adopted family in Australia

While pundits noticed her zip and creativity, the praise disguised what had been a rough start for a teenager thousands of miles from friends and family.
Her dad John flew over to help her settle during her first pre-season, chain-drinking cups of tea while he virtually lived at the club for eight weeks. But when he eventually returned to Ireland, O'Shea found herself abruptly alone.
"It's a laugh now but my mum had always cooked me food, and I couldn't cook," she says.
"I had pasta for dinner every single night for about four months.
"Basic things I found so difficult, and I think I was just a bit naive too. When I first came out, I was on the tram and someone asked me for my phone. So I gave it to them. And they took my phone.
"One day before training I gave myself food poisoning, because I ate raw chicken. I cooked it, but I didn't cook it fully."

With Irish teammate Niamh Martin

Learning the standards required of a pro athlete also took time.
Running had become a mental release for O'Shea, and whenever she felt stressed in her first year at Arden St, or missed family, she would go for a jog, not realising coaches were strictly managing players' training loads. She'd never before been to the gym. Never lifted weights.
"I suppose I had to grow up," O'Shea says.
"It was an extremely difficult year, especially with the injury, but I learned a lot. And it definitely shaped me more as a person."

With teammate Bella Eddey

She credits the "lifelong friends" she forged at the club that year for pulling her through.
"I do consider North my second family. Whenever I was feeling isolated, I just reached out to one of them and in an instant, I was going for coffee with someone.
"And Kearney's family did become my family. When I stayed with her when I was injured, me and her aunts became so close.
"I couldn't imagine myself in any other club or any other place in Melbourne."
****
Two years on and with nearly three AFLW seasons under her belt, O'Shea has added power and craft to her game.
Her pace helps launch the fast transitions that have become a feature of North Melbourne's footy, while there's no better example of the strength she's developed than her run-down tackle of Adelaide's Hannah Munyard in Week 9; O'Shea locking cheetah-like onto the Crow forward and hauling her to the ground.
At games this season she's been greeted by an army of flag-bearing friends bringing the love from back home. Queen of Cork boxing Christina Desmond was in the crowd for the Roos' final home game. So was Orlagh Farmer, a Cork Gaelic legend who won six All Ireland medals ("She was one of my idols growing up", says O'Shea).

The O'Sheas have been regulars, too.

After initially hiding the full nature of her 2022 eye injury from her family, O'Shea eventually broke down to her mum on the phone.
When they knew the true situation, her parents immediately flew over. They've returned each season since, including this year as the Roos earned their first minor premiership.
Greyhound trainer John continues to support his daughter the way he knows best.
"He always says to me, 'You put in what you get out', so if you put in good food, you're going to have a good engine, you're going to keep going," O'Shea says.
"He used to give a spoon of honey to the dogs before the race, just to give them a bit of energy. So when I started playing football, it was a spoon of honey before the match every time. And he'd feed the dogs steak the night before every race, so I would get that too."
Does he still try to feed her steak and honey?
"Oh, he does. After training the other day, he put two steaks in front of me. I was like, 'Dad. I'm going to explode, that's too much'.
"So I am definitely the greyhound now."