AFLW off-season - Signing, trades, draft....

[LP]

I must say I have found this all a bit disheartening, it has an air of pseudo-professionality, it looks a bit like they want the big dollars but they want the fantasy, but perhaps without the hard work required or demanded of them from an experienced AFL coach.

Should I pity them, sook it up, or become bitter?

PS; Brooke Walker bails out.

[kruddler]

I must say I have found this all a bit disheartening, it has an air of pseudo-professionality, it looks a bit like they want the big dollars but they want the fantasy, but perhaps without the hard work required or demanded of them from an experienced AFL coach.

Should I pity them, sook it up, or become bitter?

PS; Brooke Walker bails out.

Walker will only be gone for a few rounds at the start of the year to play NRLW.
TBH, its probably a good thing which allows us to try a few players before trying to shoehorn her back in. She underperformed last year and perhaps 'a big pre-season' playing rugby is going to be a big benefit to her footy career.
I know previously though she (and Chloe Dalton) have talked about the differences in playing weights for both sports and the difficulty 'gaining' for rugby and then having to 'shed' for AFLW. So perhaps we'll see a 'thicker' Walker next season?

[LP]

Walker will only be gone for a few rounds at the start of the year to play NRLW.

I suspect though she will struggle, as she did last season missing for other reasons, at the highest level of a sport regardless of the relative sport continuity is everything.

[kruddler]

Looks like we lost enough talent to keep our first rounder (That sentence still makes me shake my head)

https://www.womens.afl/news/94642/what-p...r-revealed
That means our first pick is pick 21!
Although it is essentially 10th from the Vic based draft.

Not sure how we can replace both Prespakis and Gee with pick 21 (or pick 10 in vic draft) though.

Victoria

1. (2 overall) Hawthorn – cannot be traded
2. (4) Essendon – cannot be traded
3. (6) Hawthorn – cannot be traded
4. (8) Essendon – cannot be traded
5. (9) Hawthorn – cannot be traded
6. (10) Hawthorn – cannot be traded
7. (16) St Kilda
8. (17) Geelong
9. (18) Richmond
10. (21) Carlton
11. (22) Hawthorn
12. (24) Western Bulldogs
13. (25) Collingwood
14. (26) North Melbourne
15. (28) St Kilda
16. (30) Hawthorn
17. (32) Essendon
18. (33) Hawthorn
19. (39) Essendon
20. (37) St Kilda
21. (38) Carlton
22. (39) North Melbourne
23. (42) Melbourne
24. (45) Hawthorn
25. (47) Essendon
26. (51) Geelong
27. (52) Richmond
28. (55) Carlton
29. (56) Western Bulldogs
30. (57) Collingwood
31. (59) Melbourne
32. (62) Hawthorn
33. (64) Essendon
34. (66) St Kilda
35. (67) Geelong
36. (68) Richmond
37. (71) Carlton
38. (72) Western Bulldogs
39. (73) Collingwood
40. (74) North Melbourne
41. (77) Melbourne
42. (80) Hawthorn
43. (82) Essendon

[Professer E]

So Essenscum get to pinch another side's best talent,  then get an early draft selection,  while the robbed party gets nothing?

On what planet is this anything like a fair or reasonable exercise?

Surely this is a piss take,  I can't take the AFLW seriously if this is so. 

[LP]

We get St Kilda's 1st Rnd pick, pick #28 (Vic Pick #15), for Nic Stevens.

Somebody obviously knows what is going on at our club, but it's not the fans!

[crashlander]

So Essenscum get to pinch another side's best talent,  then get an early draft selection,  while the robbed party gets nothing?

On what planet is this anything like a fair or reasonable exercise?

Surely this is a piss take,  I can't take the AFLW seriously if this is so. 

I find this just too much. I can't take this seriously either, no matter how much I've been involved. We should get the #1 pick for losing Prespakis. Simple as that. Anything is just ridiculous.

[kruddler]

We get St Kilda's 1st Rnd pick, pick #28 (Vic Pick #15), for Nic Stevens.

Somebody obviously knows what is going on at our club, but it's not the fans!

This has been talked about for weeks now. No surprise.

Greg will be next to the tigers.

[Professer E]

We should hand the keys in and ask for a refund on the licence,  the "competition" (sic) is a farce,  totally rigged. The AFL suits buggered this totally, for their own grubby little club agendas.

[LP]

At this stage the agenda is mostly about collecting sponsorship cash, nothing more nothing less.

Unfortunately, the AFL have chosen to focussed on the marketing and spin, and not really pushing very hard on the quality of the product, it's like a cheap drop of $5 red being flogged in a $40 bottle.

I feel sorry for the girls, because really they aren't being respected as sportspeople, at least not if you measure things globally, they'll be happy with the cash but with that cash (no matter how little or how much) comes expectations of performance and loyalty, and the fans won't forget no matter how much the AFL hopes the fans stay quiet and respectful.

As a hypothetical, how many on our own list for example measure up to the bags of cash?
( Yes, I get it that the cash isn't really in bags and bags but that reality won't help them in front of grunt supporters! )

As such I think the girls are about to get a gob full of reality, if they thought things were bad for Tayla in social media, something she could easily just turn off if she chose to, wait until they are stuck in the middle of an MCG full of gold-digger abuse with nowhere to hide!