AFLW Semi Final vs Hawthorn @ IKON Park Saturday 16/11/24 7:00pm

[Interstater]

I've watched one quarter of AFLw in 2 or 3 years and it was the last quarter of the game vs Hawthorn yesterday.

It was the most Port Adelaide thing I've seen since 2004.

Will be making a point to watch the whole game next week.

 

[Coobk001]

Scholz Houghton and Dowrick were all instrumental


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Ella Boag did a few great things in the last. Goody kept making silly errors and immediately turned them back into offence. Saint was also huge in the middle.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

It is apparent that more actual footballers are coming into the league over the mixed sports women that launched the league. There are hints of really good quality footy being played.

The next generation of footballers should help elevate the games standards.

As I read somewhere today, Scholz and Goody were 11 or 12 when the league started in 2017, so they have been watching and playing the game for most of those years, rather than 5 minute converts in the early years and the women that were playing but in a part time, poorly resourced local comp teams and had low end skills.

 

[Willsy10]

Ella Boag did a few great things in the last. Goody kept making silly errors and immediately turned them back into offence. Saint was also huge in the middle.

All round good team effort but I thought the 3 I mentioned were the clear standouts in that last quarter.

They were physically imposing too.

I must admit of missed a lot of the season but the games I’ve watched I’m struggling to work out why dowrick wasn’t in the AA squad?


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[Duckimus Prime]

I must admit of missed a lot of the season but the games I’ve watched I’m struggling to work out why dowrick wasn’t in the AA squad?

Look at the stats. She's well down compared to the other top midfielders. Buts its also what Arnell was talking about before the Finals with regards to a lack of respect. We play a low possession game.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

A slew of first-year players then stepped up for Port Adelaide. Shineah Goody (15 disposals, 354 metres gained) was stunning running up and down the wing, Molly Brooksby (18 disposals, 512 metres gained) held up brilliantly in defence and Piper Window (11 disposals, 11 tackles) fought it out admirably in the midfield.

Electric Power storm home to edge Hawks in semi-final classic

Port Adelaide has come from the clouds in the final term to earn a preliminary final berth against North Melbourne

www.afl.com.au

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

In late 2015 and early 2016 when the talk of an AFLW comp started, SA was not going to have a team in a 6 team comp as SA had poor development of women's footy, was in Div 2 at the women's national carnival and the SANFL and AFL spent bugger all outside of Auskick, on female footy development in SA.

Div 1 was Vic, WA, Qld and NSW in that order of strength and it was going to be 3 teams from Victoria and 1 from each of the other states.

I have written about this history, starting in late 2015 and thru 2016 in the 2 main threads on the Port Adelaide AFLW board, The General AFLW Talk and Port Adelaide AFLW threads, and how lazy the SANFL was in not investing in women's footy and how poorly that was compared to the WAFC who had spent over a decade development women's footy and devoted a page about it in their 2006 annual report and kept adding to it each year.

The QAFL/AFLQ put in decent funding from the late '00's into women's footy and why they were in Div 1 at national championships.

Phil Harper was bloody smart to go and chase a partnership with NT for the crows. NT female footy was pretty much as strong as SA female footy, and by doing a merger team, it meant the AFL could put in 1 extra Vic team and cover 2 more parts of Oz so that all the mainland was represented in the AFLW.

I know that not all of the crows players were from SA in the first year 1/3 were from NT and that they lucked out in getting Erin Phillips, but they had a lot of SA girls and SA women's footy talent has developed remarkably quickly with the U/18 girls who used to play in Div 2 in 2016, won the 2022 and 2023 national championships and finished 2nd this year and getting between 6 and 8 All Oz players for several years at the end of the nationals, as well as winning a couple of U/16 championships.

Port's success is now formulated around these star SA teenagers and 20 year olds, ie Scholz, Goody, Syme, Boag, Window, Borg and Brooksby, with Lauren Young to come and hopefully the return of fully fit and firing Hannah Ewings. And there are potentially more SA based All Oz U/18 and U/16 players coming thru the pipeline, which will become tougher to get our hands on now its a national draft and not a state based draft.

The question has to be asked of the SANFL, what could have been if like WAFC, they had of started investing in women's footy in this state in the early 00's and not worried about snipping at Port, running us down, and playing favourites with the crows so that decent profits were made by all concerned, and develop programs invested in by the SANFL and its clubs and the 2 SA AFL clubs had started around 2005 like in WA??