Each week, The Doc devours the AFLW action to bring you the best and worst of it.
Here are his likes and dislikes from Round Three.
LIKES
Why I love Ella Roberts
In the 2022 AFLW Draft, Ella Roberts was seen as a likely generational talent. In the open draft, it was just about guaranteed that 18 clubs out of 18 would’ve drafted her at number one. She’s got height, she’s got speed and she’s got ability.
We’re just three seasons into her career, and whilst it was against a Bulldogs side that won’t be a lot of chops this year, we’re seeing the fruits of her potential brought to the fore.
In season seven of 2022, she was utilised more in the forward half. Last year she was given short stints in a midfield that prioritised Aisling McCarthy and Emma Swanson.
Under Daisy Pearce in 2024, she’s been given the license to become a full-time midfielder and it’s already reaping the rewards.
The thing that Eagles fans will appreciate about Roberts is her speed for her size. She’s got the height for a key position forward, but she showed in many instances on Thursday night that she can burn opposition out of a stoppage, including a ripping goal from just inside the paint of the fifty metre arc.
She and Ali Drennan were difference makers in a game where they were in danger of losing. The Dogs kicked the opening two goals of the match, but the work both offensively and defensively in close was what saw the Eagles home.
The Eagles were +15 in tackles and +20 in the contested ball. Drennan and Roberts combined for 31 contested possessions, while Drennan also recorded 12 tackles.
Why I love Belle Dawes
There’s not a lot of her – she’s only 162 centimetres and at 23 years of age, she’s got the football world in her hands.
Against a hapless Collingwood on Friday night, she, along with the rest of Brisbane’s midfield unit took the Pies to task. The Lions were +17 in inside 50 entries and were +14 in the contested ball. Dawes had 22 disposals and 15 of them were contested, leading all Lions on the ground.
She also picked up six clearances and nine score involvements in their win over the Pies.
We often wax lyrical on Ally Anderson, and rightly so, she’s an absolute gun footballer, but for years many have labelled her as an underrated figure for one absurd reason or another. Those in the know will rate Dawes accordingly, but there’ll be a strong contingent that has her in the ‘underrated’ category.
I’m writing here to tell you casual fans, don’t. Her form over the past 12 months is an insult to her game. She deserves all the credit that comes her way. She hunts, she tackles, she wins her contested footy and is dangerous with it in the forward half.
Why I love the Blues
Last year, there was an emphasis on pressure and making the opposition earn their keep when the football is in congestion. There has been more of the same of that in this game, particularly through their forward half – the Blues broke the game open through forward 50 tackles in the second term.
It was a drab game of football, but the conditions were largely responsible for that. What wasn’t drab was the Blues midfield that torched a unit that, despite no Georgie Prespakis, was still pretty heavy on for talent.
Maddy Guerin (31 disposals, 21 contested possessions, eight clearances and a goal) has not only had a mammoth fortnight, she’s had a breakthrough fortnight and looms key to a midfield that already boasts talented stars like Mimi Hill (32 disposals), Abbie McKay (30) and Keeley Sherar (24).
Between the four of them, they had 72 contested possessions between them. To outline the astonishing gap in the Blues’ contested game, Geelong’s quartet of Amy McDonald, Nina Morrison, Mikayla Bowen, and Darcy Moloney combined for 40.
The Blues adapted to the conditions better, looked cleaner than the Cats by a country mile and were harder at the contest for longer.
I’d also love to shout out the efforts of Tarni Brown at half-forward – kicked a really good goal, and showed a lot of great defensive pressure throughout the game.
Richmond’s warning shot
The Tigers have secured themselves a second win in a row, and in doing so, they dominated the Swans, kicking the first 31 points of the match and securing their second-highest ever score in the AFLW.
The Tigers have rediscovered their brand of manic pressure. The pressure rating was at an average of 220 for the match, and they capitalised on their turnover through intercept: +15 in forward half intercepts, +17 inside 50s and the Tigers scored 46 of their 68 points from the turnover.
Eilish Sheerin’s return to the Tigers line-up adds a world of difference to their structure. Sheerin was one of three Tigers to top the tackle count (six tackles) but also picked up seven clearances, three of which came from centre bounces.
Captain Katie Brennan played perhaps one of the best games of her career to date. As captain, they needed this performance from her – her first two weeks have been ordinary, to say the least. She kicked 3.2 from 11 disposals and five marks but also had four tackles (including two inside 50).
They found a likely one in Mackenzie Ford, kicking 2.1 from six touches and three tackles, while Ellie McKenzie showcased her talents (23 disposals, seven marks, four clearances, 432 metres gained).
McKenzie hasn’t had a clean season free of injuries for the past couple of years and looms as the Tigers’ most important piece in the midfield this year, and alleviates some pressure off of Mon Conti in the midfield.
A good response from the Dockers
The Dockers lost Aisling McCarthy pre-game to knee soreness, who you’d probably argue has been Fremantle’s best midfielder the first two weeks.
They trailed Port Adelaide for 62 minutes of the game and didn’t taste the lead until nearly 13 minutes into the last quarter. But the Dockers last quarter was one of guts and determination and they had to pull out all the stops to record the win.
There’s no questioning the improvement of Port Adelaide so far this year, but the Dockers, on the back of a poor showing last week, showed they’ll prove sides wrong again this year.
Their last term was built on the back of both outstanding want for the contested ball, and an elite forward press that saw the Dockers concede just one inside 50 to Port Adelaide and secure 16 inside 50 entries themselves.
Hayley Miller (18 disposals, one goal, seven clearances and five tackles) had perhaps one of the biggest four-touch quarters in the last term, she kicked a goal and had two clearances. Gabby Newton stood up and Orlagh Lally was in the thick of it on the wing.
Coach Lisa Webb had high praise for Gabby O’Sullivan, who was moved from defence last week to a role that saw her split time between midfield and forward. She kicked 1.1 from 15 touches and also had four tackles and three clearances.
Bags of goals on Sunday
Danielle Ponter and Kate Shierlaw were the stars up forward in their respective games in the 1:05 Sunday slots.
After playing a lot of time a little further afield over the past year, Ponter reminded us all, just how dangerous she is when she’s closer to goal. She seems to have found a great mix of floating forward and attending stoppages – she saw plenty of it on the weekend – 22 disposals (11 contested), five clearances, and her bag of 5.2 from nine score involvements.
She might be called upon a little more frequently now, given the unfortunate Achilles injury to Eloise Jones from this game, and as damaging as the loss sounds, the Crows have got the talent and the depth to cover her off.
Kate Shierlaw’s five-goal performance against Melbourne at Casey Fields further strengthens the claims that the North Melbourne forward line is the most potent and the most dangerous forward unit in the entire competition.
Gab Colvin is not a slouch defender, but Shierlaw’s leading patterns and aerial presence, combined with North Melbourne’s exquisite ball movement, couldn’t have stopped the greatest of key backs.
Shierlaw’s five goals from 17 touches and eight marks was one of many key moments from North’s demolition job of the Demons.
Still undefeated
It wasn’t a pretty game to watch at Windy Hill, but all the Saints needed to do was be in front at the right time, and they took their chances when presented.
Essendon are one of many sides in the mix of playing finals, but sterner tests lie ahead for St Kilda. Next week against a Hawthorn side that will be reeling from their beating at the hands of Adelaide in South Australia is going to be one of them.
The Saints out-tackled Essendon 91 to 69, secured many free kicks as a result of holding the ball, and displayed a greater pressure rating of 234, all the while beating the Dons in the contested ball by one.
What will be of some concern is conceding the inside 50 entries by 10, and giving up nearly 40 uncontested possessions. If they concede that to the Hawks, they’ll be in some serious strife.
St Kilda have a good fixture, only playing Brisbane and Adelaide of the sides who made the final four last year. They also play Melbourne during the year, but if they can maintain their pressure, they can win that game.
In wild conditions and under manic pressure, the number of times Serene Watson (22 disposals, 19 kicks at 91 per cent disposal efficiency) got clear and found targets out of the defensive half was a joy to watch at times.
Conversely, watching the defensive pressure from the Saints slowly shut down the Bombers was also fun. Seven Saints players recorded six tackles or more, which will please Nick Dal Santo.
Tyanna Smith (11 tackles), Nicola Xenos, Liv Vesely, Jaimee Lambert, Nat Exon (all eight tackles), Paige Trudgeon and debutant Emmelie Fiedler (six tackles each) all were busy defensively around the stoppages.
Charlie Rowbottom
The Suns had no right to secure any premiership points in this game against the GWS Giants. The Giants led from the one-minute mark, up until Jamie Stanton’s goal after the siren to tie it all up.
Of course, fans will replay Stanton’s goal after the siren, it was a sublime approach and a sweet connection from around 30 metres out, and as Stanton pointed out, it’s her job to slot them.
It’s not to be dismissed, Stanton, after a disappointing start to the year, stepped up in a moment that salvaged the Suns’ first premiership points of the season. However, the efforts in the last quarter of Charlie Rowbottom were on another level.
Last week, Ally Anderson broke the league record with 43 disposals, and Rowbottom was only a minute and a half away from at least equalling the record. She eventually finished with 42 disposals, 26 of which were contested.
In that last quarter, she had 13 disposals, nine contested possessions and six clearances alone in what was a mammoth effort.
Kate McCarthy lauded Rowbottom’s efforts after the game, stating she’s easily one of the best midfielders in the competition. It’s hard to argue with numbers, especially when she runs through the contest: 26 on the weekend against GWS, but 16 against Carlton and 18 against the Saints in round one.
DISLIKES
The Dogs’ nightmare come to life
The Western Bulldogs could very well be without Ellie Blackburn for the remainder of the year, following a crunching tackle that saw her foot roll inwards.
It was a rough night for the former Bulldogs captain, who copped a hard tag from Sanne Bakker, and hits to boot as well, but still soldiered on to be one of the Dogs’ best players,
It’s also decided to take the captaincy off her and name Deanna Berry, who had just five touches and no influence, look even stupider. Blackburn has been a driving force for this Bulldogs team from the opening bounce of the AFLW.
The Dogs are about to hit their double game window next week – Brisbane in Brisbane on Wednesday, and then Collingwood at Victoria Park on Sunday, given Blackburn is hurt, the Dogs must make the tough decision to give her a rest if she’s to play out the rest of the season.
If she gets ruled out for the longest part, the Dogs’ season from hell will go from bad to worse. We know they’re in for a tough spell over the next few years while the kids develop and progress, so finals were probably never in the question, but this club is already destined to go through the season winless.
The Dogs had very few that stood up around the contest and even fewer who had the composure or the skill set. Perhaps the only positives that came from last night, were Issy Pritchard’s game (19 disposals, 10 tackles and a goal) and Elaine Grigg’s speed and evasiveness early.
There’s no questioning the heart and commitment of players like Dom Carruthers, Jasmyn Smith or Maggie Gorham, but if we’re in the business of being brutally honest, how many of them would be playing regular senior footy elsewhere if they can’t nail the fundamentals?
There’s trouble for the Swans
It was speculated by the Swans about how the injury of Chloe Molloy affected their season, and we found out by quarter time that it affected them pretty miserably.
Richmond controlled them around the contest in the opening term and on the rare occasion the Swans had the ball inside 50 (they only went inside 50 four times in the opening term), it was repelled back and repelled back with interest.
The back had no idea what hit them, with the Tigers finding seven marks inside 50 in the opening term, they finished with 16 marks inside 50 for the match.
Five Swans didn’t register a disposal in the opening term and only one Swan managed more than three touches for that quarter – that was Laura Gardiner with eight.
They found positive spots through Montana Ham (two goals from 13 touches and five marks) and Sofia Hurley (17 disposals and four clearances), but it’s the same problem that haunted the Swans in their first year – the fact that it’s too reliant on too few.
But another positive is that Scott Gowans is handing senior opportunities early to first-year players like Sarah Grunden, Lara Hausegger and
Holly Cooper in the hopes their developments can be fast-tracked.
But right now, the Swans are miles away from the side that made the semi-final last year, and it might be a year where they have to take a step back to go two steps forward.
And even more trouble for the Cats
After two impressive weeks without securing wins, the Cats eyed this one as a big opportunity for their first win of the season.
Unfortunately, the Blues pressure and work rate around the contest proved too good for them in what I can only describe as heinous conditions at Ikon Park, where the adage ‘four seasons in a day’ came to life in Melbourne.
The Cats have serious issues around the midfield. Their ruck stocks already took a massive beating pre-season, with Erin Hoare retiring, and Liv Fuller taking time off to chase commitments outside of footy. Their replacement signing Lilly Pearce ruptured her ACL on the eve of their match, leaving Kate Darby and Gabbi Featherstone as the ruck pair.
There’s no faulting in the endeavour of either player, but against both Breann Moody and Jess Good, they were taken to school. They were taller, bigger and stronger and enabled Carlton’s mids to have the upper hand.
Moody and Good combined for 49 hitouts, whereas Featherstone and Darby had just 16.
They missed Georgie Prespakis in this one, there’s no telling how she impacts the game, but the Cats had a severe case of the fumbles, and it allowed Carlton in the contest and they showed better skills for longer.
There’s no doubt this performance was extremely disappointing for Dan Lowther, and it makes their game next weekend against the Suns all the more important.
Harsh lesson for Port
Geez, they were very stiff to lose this game, given how in control they were in large parts of the opening three quarters, but the Power blew it, by allowing the Dockers to run all over them in a lot of departments.
I’m not sure if the criticism is warranted on Lauren Arnell’s decision to throw Julia Teakle in as a loose player behind the footy during the last quarter, but it certainly warrants some discussion, given that throwing arguably, Port’s most influential forward robbed them of an important figure when they did attempt to move it forward.
But given the game was still well and truly in the balance throughout the early goings of the last stanza, one can make the argument that the decision to pull the trigger was made way too early and it robbed Peter to pay Paul to try and hold on.
We’ve seen it time and time again in football, you’re at a greater risk if you attempt to hold the game up in a desperate attempt to hold on to the four points.
You can also make the argument that Arnell had to decide how to rectify the countless inside 50 entries Fremantle were having.
Coaching, it’s a double-edged sword sometimes – who’d want to be a senior coach at the top level?
Warning signs for Melbourne
A 50-point loss at home against a rampaging North Melbourne side is concerning – last week against Brisbane, they were having a hard time scoring, this week it was both offensively and defensively that they had a hard time.
After an even first term that saw the two sides level at quarter time, North Melbourne went on to kick nine of the next 10 goals and blew the margin out to the 50-point result.
There are questions about their midfield – they got spanked in clearances (-8) and contested possessions (-14).
The leading disposal-getters were all North Melbourne midfielders – the combination of Ash Riddell, Jasmine Garner and Mia King had 73 disposals, 13 clearances and 46 contested possessions between them.
Melbourne’s top three on-ballers by way of Centre Bounce Attendances so far this year have been Sarah Lampard, Tyla Hanks and Grace Beasley. Between the three of them, they had 40 disposals, seven clearances (Lampard had zero), and 15 contested possessions.
The same problems that plagued them last week were on display this week. They were helpless when they turned the ball over, conceding 52 of North Melbourne’s 71 points as a result of turnovers.
Mick Stinear has been revered as one of the best coaches in the land, but he’s got a big task on his hands to get Melbourne back up to scratch as one of the competition’s powerhouses.
Get off it, umpire
I hate making a beeline for the umpires, but this weekend they’ve probably upset a few sets of supporters over the weekend.
Western Bulldog fans felt stiffed by many non-decisions by the umpire to see them go the other way some moments later. That game was a ‘sleep on it’ moment, sure, the umps have their howlers and I was prepared to move on.
But watching the Essendon and St Kilda game on Sunday was what tipped it over the edge. In what was a low-scoring scrap with the game still well and truly up for grabs, Paige Scott gave a 50-metre penalty away for a knock that landed Darcy Guttridge on her backside.
What the umpire didn’t see was that Nicola Xenos gave a slight shove that in term resulted in Scott bounding over Guttridge, and that was enough to suck the umpire in. It cost them a goal and a lead that the Bombers never got back.
Umpiring at this level has often been scoffed at, with decisions that haven’t been closely looked at, but that was a costly one.
The Bombers won’t be let out of the woods either, they conceded another 50-metre penalty during the last quarter that saw Ash Richards kick the go-ahead goal due to what looked like an encroachment of the protected zone.
Fumbles kill you in the AFLW these days, and so does ill-discipline, and the Bombers copped a bit of the latter in this one.
Festival of football… give it a spell
The AFL loves to harp on about branding it as a ‘festival’ and pat themselves on the back for marketing something as diabolically crap as fixturing teams on extremely short turnarounds.
We start this little method of madness by having at least one game every day except Monday this week, with West Coast, Collingwood, Western Bulldogs and Brisbane all having games mid-week and then having another game for the weekend.
The good of it is, that each of those four sides will play two of the other sides that have those two games in a six-day block. Take the Eagles for example, they’ll play Collingwood on Tuesday, before taking on Brisbane on Sunday – you follow?
What happens when we get to 12-game and 13-game seasons in the years that follow? Are the AFL going to condense the season even further by giving them four or five-day breaks throughout the 10-week block?
And another thing, hosting games during the week, it’s being said is to accommodate for school holidays, which is okay, the kids are ideally what the AFL are targeting, to get more numbers at the local level.
But what about the adult fans who are working jobs from 9-5, you can’t possibly expect someone from outer suburbs to catch a game in Footscray or Ikon Park on a weeknight and then try and find their way back home when they’d be tired.
It’s just another classic example of the AFL sabotaging themselves by dangling the carrot for the fans to come to games to increase the number of games for the next season and then hosting games in the middle of the week in Geelong and Frankston.
Ridiculous, the league deserves better.
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