Afl - w 2024

[josie]

Pritchard is Bont like.

[josie]

The umpiring in this game is IMO appallingly biaised towards Freo. It’s embarrassingly bad.

[ledge]

The umpiring in this game is IMO appallingly biaised towards Freo. It’s embarrassingly bad.

Grigg in the goalsquare so blatant but an iffy one less likely given to Freo for a shot at goal. Also the whack in the head no calls for a report nothing.
We have been hammered by the umpires all year.

[ledge]

Just a post note on the season, we have come a long way since the start of the season. I would say most improved of all clubs.
Another pre season and our kids will be more prepared with the confidence we grew in the last few games.
Seems we are a shadow of the VFL and AFL team as far as forward connection is concerned.

[josie]

Good fighting effort by the girls. They are giving away fewer clumsy free kicks. Cohesion & link play vastly improved. Looking forward to next season. Let’s hope the umpiring improves.

[1eyedog]

The umpiring was atrocious made it unwatchable.

[1eyedog]

Dogs defence holding up well in Q2 after being bombarded. Issa Grant playing much better today. Need to kick some goals with wind advantage in Q3.

Pity Griggs couldn?t sneak that goal on goal line. Clear free to us 10 secs prior in our goal square too.

Our skills are pretty good. Being coached well. Hopefully we don?t slow a blowout Freo?s way in 2nd half.

Really happy Fitzy has come of age. Pritchard, Berry, Smith, Wilcox, Edmonds, Griggs, Gorham, Hartwig, Gutnickt, Kimber?..so many players playing well and with a bit of fire in the belly too. Looks like a bright future. As long as we can hold onto them.

Sad to see good players like Newton in oppo colours.

Buttifant as well. Played a blinder against the Saints and has the hands and ability to be one of the better intercept marks in the comp.

[azabob]

Wrong audience for sure but the umpiring in general is atrocious.

Port Adelaide were gifted the win against gws.

The free kick Kristy Lamb got for a sling tackle which then was part of the match winning play was ridiculously bad.

[mjp]

I went along.

Yes - the umpiring was terrible but both ways. One of the more egregious push-in-the-backs in a marking contest was given away by McFarlane 10m out from goal for Freo...but not paid by any umpire...some of what goes on is absolutely ridiculous and they simply must be operating under instruction...the head high bump in the last q was a clear free kick and should be a report...

There was a decent crowd in - probably 5000 I guess - and Freo had food stalls galore for the crowd...Fremantle Oval isn't a great watching venue (the outer bank WOULD be good except you are looking right into the sun) and the 120 year old grand-stand on the members wing is way back from the ground...I found myself a spot on the 50m line (left of screen) on the fence and watched from there.

I continue to be unbelievably frustrated by the AFLW. The problem is simple - skills. So many options are "off the table" because the players simply cannot kick the footy to their team-mates. They WILL NOT switch the footy - which on a small ground like Fremantle on a day when the wind is blowing (it wasn't too bad but was favouring the far side (Freo Prison side) and left of screen (blowing towards the old Myer carpark now FOMO for people who know the area) it is ESSENTIAL for being able to score. If you just try and kick it down the line through the density you can't score...we kicked 3 for the day and 2 of those came in the first quarter...both following extended periods of Freo dominance/non scoring hence our forward half was open...Freo held an anchor from q-time onwards and basically that meant we could not and would not score.

Does anyone want to have a guess how many kicks to marks IN A ROW we achieved in the 2nd half.

The longest sequence was ONE. At no point after half time did one of our players kick it to team mate who marked it...and then that person kicked it on again to another team-mate who marked it. Not once did we effect two consecutive kick to mark possessions. Think about how remarkable that is. The think is, there are 100% players OPEN and in space...but we get the ball...we look at them...we decide we cant hit it and kick it down the line.

It is SO FRUSTRATING to watch.

To be fair, Freo weren't much better...they DID put together quite a few sequences of 3x kick-to-mark possessions in a row (and one could have been 4 'cos the 4th was a shot on goal) but there was no attempt to systematically take time out of the wind by simply possessing the footy. No attempt to put the pressure on the oppo to come UP to defend...both sides repeatedly went long to a contest.

Late in the last - I mean, the game was probably dead but we were still only 2 scores back - we had open play and were bursting inside 50. The option? Wide to a 2-v-2...I can't tell you who it was but it was such a terrible decision to kick it there - not only did going to a contest play 100% into the defenders hands, but it was also on the non-scoring side...it literally would have taken a miracle to score from that far flank kicking to the right of screen/hospital end...

Game craft? Again - 3rd q, Freo kicking into the breeze. 3x in a row the ball was kicked in towards goal...3x in a row we failed to concede a point, instead faffing around with the footy and knocking it into the post/oob. This killed the clock - WE HAD THE BREEZE - and allowed Freo to lock it in repeatedly with their defenders in good position...so frustrating. Concede a point. It is round 10 and I refuse to accept the girls don't understand the fundamentals of trying to win a game of footy. A point means we get it. OOB means they lock it in. I just don't get how this is so hard to understand and execute...

What's any of this got to do with our team? No idea. The whole thing remains a shambles to me...I continue to watch and my frustration continues to grow. I'm sure something is happening somewhere to try and improve things but I'm not sure where...certainly it isn't happening at the junior clubs near me where it seems to be all about cheering for participation vs encouraging performance but I could say the same about the junior boys as well. At some point being a skilful player used to be a point of pride - it just doesn't seem to be that way and this 'have a go' mentality - whilst admirable - ultimately gets you nowhere. I mean, even Bill and Ted realised at the end that they needed to actually get some guitar lessons and learn how to play.

[Cyberdoggie]

I have to say i agree with you there MJP on the umpiring and the skill, the refusal to switch the play and then the fact that our team were weaker in contested marking meant that we just never got the ball. Only time it went forward was when we had quick ball movement.

One other point i'd like to mention is they talk up Alice Edmonds in the ruck a lot, and granted she has improved a lot, but i can't understand how she keeps giving away silly ruck free kicks, and then she makes it look worse by sticking her arms up in the air after she has infringed as if to say i didn't do anything, but it just draws more attention to it.
Statistically she gave away 3 of these free kicks this week and quite a few last week as well. Problem is they always seem to be inside the opposition scoring 50 when she offends.
To make things worse, her opponent was best on ground with 30 disposals and 400 meters gained, 9 marks and 7 clearances. 166 AF points. That's the game right there.

[Axe Man]

SACKED podcast 2024: Nathan Burke calls for AFLW audit to fix discrepancies between top and bottom clubs

Sacked Western Bulldogs AFLW coach Nathan Burke has called on the AFL to conduct a training audit of clubs amid vast discrepancies between the league’s superpowers and battlers with a series of season nine blowouts.

The ninth AFLW home-and-away season has ended with a two-tiered competition in which three clubs won only a single game while Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Brisbane dropped only one or two games.

Despite the standard of the competition continuing to lift each year a series of one-sided contests took some of the gloss off the drama.

Burke told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast he still sees a future for the AFLW where players are on excellent wages but not officially full-time given many want to continue in part-time jobs or study.

But he says some playing groups are determined to stick to the AFL-mandated training limit, while others start a full pre-season in February and are prepared to go over and above with more sessions to get into elite shape.

Burke called out his playing group for a lack of fitness in his final season in 2023 and had to apologise to the group in a development that hurt his prospects of retaining his job.

The limit on contact hours at clubs this season was 22 per week and will lift to 25 next season.

“There is a group that wants it to be full time football and there is another group who likes playing footy but also loves working at the local cafe and loves going to uni and says, ‘There is a ceiling I am actually going to put on this’, Burke told Sacked.

“So you have a dichotomy of players within your group. Some say why can’t we train every day. Others are saying, ‘Hang on, I can only be here 20 hours a week’. Don’t ask me to be here for 21 hours because I am going to complain’. So you are juggling that and if you have got a really militant AFLPA person (delegate) you have to stick to that.

“And then you look down the road at clubs who don’t have that person and if you are allowed to train 20 hours a week, they are doing 25.

“I hope to goodness someone within the AFL at the end of this season does an audit on what teams are doing.”

AFLW coaches have long paid tribute to clubs like Brisbane which are prepared to do weights on official days off but AFLW players cannot be forced to do more than 22 contact hours of training.

“Some teams have been training full on since February, full on in jumpers, twice a week, weekend, two or three sessions a week,” Burke said.

“And there’s others who have been having non compulsory (sessions). You can roll up until the first of June. We’d love to see you. We encourage you to come, but it’s non compulsory. Just come in, run around in your singlets and shorts and everything in between.

“Which teams are going to take a leap forward and which teams are going to go backwards, and what have they been doing in this off-season? Some have been playing VFL. Some have had none playing VFL. So hopefully somebody in the AFL is going to do an audit on what that looks like, because if they don’t get it right, you’re going to have a disparate season for years to come.”

Burke echoed the thoughts of former Carlton AFLW coach Daniel Harford that the AFL needs to better fund assistant coaches to help fast-track the playing standards of the women’s competition.

“(Senior coaches) are paid between $100,000-$120,000 full time. Depending on what is left in the salary cap assistant coaches get anything from $10,000 to $20,000. $30,000 if you have a really experienced one. So those people have to work. My daughter (Alice) plays at the Saints. They train two days and one night and then on the weekend.

“So those people have to work. But now most clubs might be training twice a week. I know my daughter’s at the Saints. They’re training two days and one night and then a weekend.

“And so if I’m getting $15,000 as an assistant coach and I need to have two days off work and also weekends, it’s not sustainable.

“I had three assistant coaches in five seasons. Every single year I turned over at least two of them, because it’s just not sustainable

“So the AFL Coaches Association and the AFL, they’ve got to come up with an answer to that, because if the players are wanting more, more, more, they want to be taught and you haven’t got the people to do it. So something has got to give.”

[jazzadogs]

He wasn't a good coach, but he makes some interesting points. I don't think the answer is an AFL audit because at the end of the day if some clubs/players want to work harder and see better results then good on them.

If our club has players who only want to do the minimum then we deserve the results we had the last few years.

[Grantysghost]

He wasn't a good coach, but he makes some interesting points. I don't think the answer is an AFL audit because at the end of the day if some clubs/players want to work harder and see better results then good on them.

If our club has players who only want to do the minimum then we deserve the results we had the last few years.

He did well to espouse some politics in that grab too.

Damn rules stopping us getting fitter. How dare we have someone who knows the rules and doesn't want to break them.

I get what he's saying, however inferring someone with an strong voice and understanding of the current rules took away his ability to push the players harder than allowed is a massive cop out.

I assume they're in place to protect the players considering they aren't full time?

Minimum could also be maximum allowed...?

[Hotdog60]

The only way the AFLW will get any better is to invest in the junior programs and have the support and education to improve the skills.
Make the players full time so they can invest in the game and themselves to be the best they can.

[mjp]

The only way the AFLW will get any better is to invest in the junior programs and have the support and education to improve the skills.
Make the players full time so they can invest in the game and themselves to be the best they can.

I would love to know how this would help.

The girls are in a professional training environment.

I simply don't see any evidence from the mens game that being a full-time athlete leads to marked improvements in skill level.

I don't want to start a fight - I think they need to be paid in proportion to the revenue they are generating (which I believe is significant) but I honestly don't get how making them full time would make them better kicks...yes, invest in junior programs...i mean, of course...but again - the junior footy where the help is needed is essentially devoid of coaching in both the boys and girls games (6-12). Some clubs are lucky and have great resources - most have a volunteer coach who has never played and is learning by watching...Once they hit the pathways the state league clubs and state academies are trying their best, but whilst participation remains where it is what do you want from them?

I'm genuinely lost for ideas right now.