AFLW-Raising the skill level.

[ElwoodBlues1]

You want the standard raised then let the better skilled ladies train with the men for certain drills.
Seen it happen in Basketball at club level and the improvement was dramatic in the women's game.
Bit like Education where if you put struggling kids in the same class as the star pupils some of the strugglers will be dragged up a level.

Erin Philips was a very good basketballer  and professional athlete who made the switch in codes and along with her father's background in football helping her has showed where the standard can be but every team probably needs a core group of similar standard players to drag the other players up a level.

[LP]

Seen it happen in Basketball at club level and the improvement was dramatic in the women's game.

I can see it working after they get to AFL level or perhaps at least to VFL level, beyond that it was tried in Unders at amateur level a few years back and was an unmitigated disaster. But I can understand it working in basketball or soccer given the lower level of physical contact.

I think the AFLW problem is clearly that the girls need different game styles to the men, before we can see them shine. The NRLW is a good example, girls came out of a long standing touch rugby competitions, and as a result the NRLW tactics were different from the get go and the teams and tactics looked more polished from the start. Slick skills, fast movement, no hesitation, well organised.

As much as I am a booster for AFLW, much of it still looks like U13s footy, packs of players, inability to clear stoppages, low scoring. That game scenario leaves the competition prey to any team that has one or two dominant players, like Erin Philips. Sort of like when a kid like Weitering in U13s would play 1/2 a game for his club then another 1/2 for the opposition!

[DJC]

It’s talent and skills but also a big mental block to be overcome.
AFLW sees some pretty big, hard hits dished out and frankly most women are not mentally ready for it.
The cows, Lions and Dees dish out loads of hard hits that batter and intimidate, they are a step above and ahead of the rest.

Watching a player go off in tears after a decent hit is purely an AFLW phenomenon and I'm not sure that it will change markedly.  Of course women don't tear up when thumped in a martial arts contest but they're there to be hit and hit back (thanks Warren!).  Bing hit is not the primary objective of footy.

When the other Prespakis was cleaned up by friendly fire, our (then) Prespakis stopped to check on her while the play was going on.  Understandable, but not what you'd see from the Curnow brothers.

I think that we are one of the better teams at dealing with heavy knocks.  Our girls rarely stay down for long and I can't recall any tears.  We dish out a fair bit of punishment too, but are way off the pace when it comes to outright thuggery.

AFLW will always suffer from a lack of penetration from kicking and handballing.  Precision may be down but that can improve, the power to kick 50m or handpass without looping the ball won't develop.  That's where an AFLW-specific gamestyle needs to accommodate shorter kicking and slower handpassing.

[LP]

I think that we are one of the better teams at dealing with heavy knocks.  Our girls rarely stay down for long and I can't recall any tears.  We dish out a fair bit of punishment too, but are way off the pace when it comes to outright thuggery.

Funnily, I suspect our stoic team suffers because of this.

We don't stack it on when we get hit like some opponents we just get on with the game, but we get tagged as bullies and get an unfair rub of the green because of it!

Personally, I'd much prefer a team like ours ahead of a team that flops!

[kruddler]

Watching a player go off in tears after a decent hit is purely an AFLW phenomenon

Nick Riewoldt says hi. lol

[DJC]

Nick Riewoldt says hi. lol

Riewoldt and Garry Lyon had serious injuries, not just the after effects of a run of the mill colllision. ?