AFLW Round 2: Carlton vs GWS at Ikon

[Navy Maven]

The broadcast did have its issues, and the focus on GWS was one of them. There were times when I wondered if we had won or not when I was listening to what they said.
Nichevo. We won.

[1] Our centre setup;
This didn’t work as well this week. Our rucks tried hard and did well around the ground: Alison Downie in particular showed her ability in some really good clutch marks under a lot of pressure, and her ability to snap a goal was excellent. But the young Giant ruck was good and she was able to interfere with the effectiveness of our taps.
As a result we did not appear to be able to stop GWS getting the ball away like we did with Collingwood. They moved the ball quickly out of the middle, so our defence was always having to deal with that.
GWS also appeared to block Arnell effectively in the centre.

[2] Smothers:
We were down in this area compared to last week. GWS were able to move the ball quickly at times, which made it much harder to set up. Even so, you had to be impressed with the intensity of our players.

[3] Out bodying Opponents:
Again, we were not as good at that this weekend. GWS had a couple of very strong girls and a couple of very fast ones, making the task more difficult. What did impress me was the number of times we blocked the girl on the mark. It gave us an extra few metres which made a real difference.
I don’t really like this is a tactic: Hawthorn appear to have it as their modus operandi. However, while it is legal and accepted, I’d much rather see us doing it than having it done to us.

[4] Marking:
I don’t think the marking was as clean as often yesterday. A number of times we just couldn’t hold our marks. However, we were better at it than the Giants and a few of our players really stood up and were marking targets. Downie and Shierlaw and Hardiman stood out with their marking. But I would like us to work on that a tad.

[5] We were challenged and we won. I like that.

[6] Best Players:
We had a real team effort. A lot of players stepped up when we were under pressure, although Vescio and a few others were down compared to last week.
Best:
Bree Davey: Another really solid effort and a lot of the ball. I don’t think she played as well this week, but she still was crucial in getting the ball out of defence.
Katie Loynes: Loynes probably doesn’t get the ball enough, but she does get in the thick of the action and was involved in most of our position forward moves. I liked her last week, and he impressed me again.
Lauren Arnell: Not as effective in the centre square, I was impressed at her work rate. Her possessions were good value.
Nat Exon: Like last week Exon probably didn’t get as much of the ball as I would like, but, like Arnell and Loynes, she was a real contributor who put her body in and made things happen.
Dani Hardiman: Like last week, she was strong in defence and kept the GWS tall forwards from firing a shot.
Kate Shierlaw: In the first half we were probably too Vescio conscious, aiming at Darcy even when she was was being double teamed. After half time we appeared to realize that Shierlaw was there and all of a sudden we had avenues to goal. Shierlaw took some good strong marks and really made the GWS work.
Tilly Lucas-Rodd: A solid performer last week, Tilly did some nice things and deserves a mention. One of our lesser ranked players who really stood up when we needed a lift.

I thought our marking was much better this week. Ball seemed to stick in their hands a lot more. Also, I don't think Arnell spent as much time in the middle as last week. Seemed to spend a bit of time in the pockets, which I think hurt us in the middle.

Not sure why Keeping changed the lineup much after last week, it worked very effectively. Going to need to be on our A-game this week.