ALFW 2022 Rd 1 Carlton vs Collingwood

[LP]

I didn't even notice Wilson missing, is she injured? Lee keeping her out of the side?

Did I read somewhere she only returned to training from a long injury layoff just prior to Christmas?

[kruddler]

Did I read somewhere she only returned to training from a long injury layoff just prior to Christmas?

I know gab pound fits the bill you just described.
Mimi Hill is similar with her knee.

Not sure about Wilson.

[LP]

I've serious doubts about Harf having watched the 1st half of Rnd 1.

We've basically got the same game plan as last season, but now without Downey or Harris.

Across the ground our general ball use or decision making hasn't improved at all, do they actually do any handball drills, I was expecting far more progress than I've witnessed!

Not sure what Prespakis has done to be penalised in the calls like she is, it's pretty ordinary treatment different from any other AFLW player!

[kruddler]

Prespakis limping off the ground with 2 seconds to go sums up our performance.

Disappointing result.
Too many passengers.
Wholesale changes possible, but with 22 out of 30 players already playing....and some of the other 8 injured, its a bit hard.
Grace Egan going down early was not ideal and may be a forced change.

Of the 'debutants'...
Annie Lee....largely unsighted, had high hopes for her. Its only her first game though.
Jess Good was ok and showed something we can work with.
Courtney Jones was very good. Been on the list for a few years and persistence paid off. Top 3 today IMO.
Paige Trudgeon is a work in progress, but has the athletic attributes that could set her apart. Needs to work on her kicking.
Jess Dal Pos.....only a carlton debut, but was the most disappointing of the lot. Barely sighted. Simply not good enough for essentially the Jess Hosking replacement in terms of trade value. She is better than that.....at least was....hopefully she can recapture it.

[kruddler]

I've serious doubts about Harf having watched the 1st half of Rnd 1.

We've basically got the same game plan as last season, but now without Downey or Harris.

Downey and Harris would offer about 10 touches between them, on a good day, and won't be missed.

Jess Good had 12 hitouts today as our backup ruck.
Downie had 6 touches as their #1 ruck.

Moody dominated the ruck with 25.....and placed them wherever she wanted.

Problem with today was that the pies midfield is about the best in the game. The only position we won from that midfield was the ruck position.

The second half we were up and running, but the umps killed the momentum for us on multiple occasions, including with 3 50m penalties resulting in goals.

Make no mistake, Pies will make finals, probably top 4 and would probably be the best vic team in the game. (Crows, Lions, Freo probably the other top 4 with home advantage factored in).

[LP]

We are a small quick side which does not have a AFLW sized KPF.

Our scoring plan was bombing it long from about 50m arc to an undersized F50, with Darcy and Stevens flying against Goode.

[crashlander]

We are a small quick side which does not have a AFLW sized KPF.

Our scoring plan was bombing it long from about 50m arc to an undersized F50, with Darcy and Stevens flying against Goode.

Not quite. We are not that quick where it counts.

[crashlander]

It looks like being a long year.
There were some good signs, but not really enough of them.
[1] Kicking into the forward line:
We normally do well when we can get the fast break and stop teams setting up. But we didn’t manage a single fast break for the entire game. That was bad enough, but the way we delivered the ball into the forward line simply wasn’t up to scratch. Our forwards didn’t get a chance. At times it appeared that we were picking out Collingwood defenders. Certainly, things were not conducive to having Darcy Vescio or Nik Stevens taking marks.

[2] Disposal:
Still not good enough far too often. The number of times our kicking got picked off was horrifying, and nobody but Moody could kick the ball 40 m.
The perfect example was in the third quarter, where we moved the ball down the ground brilliantly: the nearest thing to a fast break we managed all day. But, as we neared goal, our kicks started missing targets, and, in the end, the ball went through for a point because the kick to the square had too much on it.
Another time, we moved the ball across goal, only to kick the ball out on the full. Collingwood capitalized with a great goal.

[3] Centre setup:
With Moody and Good dominating in the ruck, we should have got a lot more centre clearances than we did. However, our mids didn’t make the best of that and didn’t seem to know where Moody was hitting it.
Moody and Good were a great combination, but our mids need to trust them more when they dominate like this.
We have some good players in the middle, but we have very few fast players in the middle. Collingwood spread the ball much better than we did.

[4] New chums:
We had 5 new players today, but only Jess Good and Courtney Jones had much of an impact.
Jess dal Pos is living on past glory and looked past it. Considering that she comes in for Jess Hosking, that is really a bad loss for us. Dal Pos not only had very few positions, but she didn’t put a lot of pressure on and looked very slow. She should not hold her place next week on this performance.
Jess Good, on the other hand started well, both in the ruck and as a tall forward. She won the ball well enough, but her kicking at goal was very poor. That is the area she needs to work on. But she was a real presence, and her ruck work was tidy.
Annie Lee had a shocker and should be dropped. She appears to have some decent attributes, but the occasion got to her. She fumbled when free and couldn’t put pressure on her opponent.
Paige Trudgeon is very much a work in progress. She handled Fredericks well enough, but she didn’t have the game awareness at times. Still, there is something to work with there, as we needed a tall defender.
Courtney Jones was quite reasonable, but even she looked somewhat off the pace. She kept working, however, and she managed to get a few highlights from her first outing.

[5] Injuries:
Our list is simply not as deep at the moment, compared to previous campaigns. We badly missed Charlotte Wilson and Mimi Hill, for example. Then having Egan and McEvoy go off hurt our midfield rotations a lot. Abbie McKay is headed in the right direction.

[kruddler]

@crash...
1+2 kicking forward and disposal...
Yep, disposal was poor today.
When you've got a new kid as your #1 tall, you know all the players are not on the same page.
TBH, i reckon we should've moved Good out and played a smaller quicker forward line and dribbled the ball inside 50.
Collingwoods strengths were their marking/intercept defenders, take them out of the game by not kicking high and long.

Side note, disappointed with Daisy Walkers kicking. Worse than Wilsons? Can't afford turnovers coming out of defence. Trudgeon was a worry in that regard too. We need a taller option to give Harrington and Laloifi a chopout that can actually kick, then we'll be ok down back.

3. centre setups.
Moody dominated and gave our girls the ball on a plate, but we were too fumbly too often. Prespakis is the only one who seems to be able to get the ball and get it to a teammate in traffic. McKay will be a player, and she is better than that, but she needs to improve. We missed Egan here. Pies are the best midfield going IMO though. We do miss the manic pressure of a hosking/loynes in there though.

4. New gals...
Said my piece earlier, i think you were a bit harsh on Jones though. Was one of our best IMO.

5. Injuries...
A byproduct of the expanding AFLW is the smaller list sizes and the way injuries can really hurt. At least 2 down, possibly more, meaning we've probably only got a handful of other players fit enough for a game next week which is a worry and something the AFL need to look at.

[Baggers]

Thank you, K, Captain CRASH and Spotted One for the comments/summaries... much appreciated, especially for those of us not as 'across' the Ws as you cats. Great job.