RICHMOND midfielder Grace Egan has been ruled out of the Tigers’ Dreamtime in Darwin clash with Essendon, undergoing minor plastic surgery on a lacerated lip earlier this week.
Egan split her lip during the Tigers’ 21-point loss to the Western Bulldogs on Sunday, and the tight turnaround, travel and playing in heat so soon after surgery all counted against her.
She will be replaced in the side by draftee midfielder Sierra Grieves, the first-rounder making her AFLW debut after joining the club from the Western Jets last year.
The Tigers underwent a short, fairly casual captain’s run on Thursday morning at TIO Stadium, with conditions sitting just short of 30 degrees and 80 per cent humidity.
The players worked on ball movement, especially heading into attack after recording zero marks inside 50 last week, as well as completing their own individual skill work.
Paige Scott trained well after a clash of legs and some bruising against the Dogs, working on their leading patterns inside 50 while Laura McClelland sent the ball into attack, while Emilia Yassir and Mon Conti practiced their snaps and set shots.
The Tigers will head out for community visits this afternoon, with Essendon set to train later today after its own visits to local schools and kinders.
I’m not surprised it needed restorative surgery. It was a pretty significant laceration!
RICHMOND
In: S.Grieves, A.Dallaway, C.Wicksteed
Out: R.Miller (injured), G.Egan (lip), L.Beatty (omitted)
ESSENDON
In: J.Verbrugge, A.Gladman
Out: S.Van De Heuvel (PCL), B.Toogood (suspension)
Elsewhere, Casey has been elevated to Melbourne 
Your reminder that Gaylor (and Belloni) are wider across the shoulders than Toogood.
vanDyke, at least, is already up there as an emergency.
Not reflected in the naming, but Murphy to spend more time at FF while Dyke rucks?
Gemma says:
The Tigers came into the season with high hopes, but are now dwelling in 14th spot and without a win. Much of this is a result of a lack of discipline – they gave up a record 38 free kicks in last week’s loss to the Western Bulldogs – and a lack of mid-forward connection. Finding a way to send the ball to the advantage of typically impressive forwards like Katie Brennan and Caitlin Greiser will be crucial should Richmond get off the mark.
Essendon has largely played a kick-mark game this year, averaging 149.5 kicks and 44.5 marks across the opening two games, and this is a style that can really break through Richmond’s defences. The Tigers have been allowing the opposition to control the play through a marking game, giving up 54 each week, and so the Bombers will likely double down on this style despite the slippery conditions Darwin will present. It’s also a big game for young Bomber Amy Gaylor, who took a game-saving mark at the death of this fixture last year, and did similarly in last week’s tight win over the Eagles, while the Tigers will debut their top draft pick of 2024 in Sierra Grieves.
Tip: The Bombers will get it done without Bonnie. Essendon by six point
Game will be played in “feels like” 27º, with the humidity set to rise from 83% to 99% during it.
No rain over the past three days.
Forecast listed below is a bit out of date.
WHEN it comes to Top End footy, preparation is key.
Both Essendon and Richmond have been putting in the work over the past month to help acclimatise to playing in hot and humid conditions, coming out of a Melbourne winter.
Friday’s forecast for the first bounce is 27 degrees, with 73 per cent humidity – not quite as brutal as last year’s October match, which was held in “the build up”, just before the wet season.
Richmond AFLW high performance manager, Eliza Morrison, draws on her own four seasons playing in the NTFL, as well as experienced garnered in last year’s game, when it comes to planning for the match.
Slushies – somewhat vaguely labelled as “Gatorade flavour” – were “practiced” during the captain’s run, right down to the pre and post-session timing of hydration.
“We learned more about in-game, just how important it is for the players to remain calm and conserve energy where they can,” Morrison said.
"Last year, in our minds, it was a little more challenging because it was later in the year, in terms of cumulative fatigue from the season. We’re really excited with it being in round three this year, so hopefully less pre-existing fatigue
"Hydralite is the big one. Even when I played here, we’d play on a Saturday, and from Thursday onwards, all I’d consume is hydralite, with some water on the side.
"Then you’ve also got to think about post-game as well. The benefit of round three is we have much better weather out here, there’s not as much pre-existing fatigue, but we’ve hopefully got 10 more rounds to go.”
For Morrison, the pre-game heat training is a fine balance between a focus on the round three fixture without negatively affecting rounds one and two.
“We started our acclimation about four weeks ago, a combination of passive and active immersion in the heat. We had them in saunas at the club, and also heat bikes as well, which we were able to bring in as part of our recovery,” she said.
"The big rocks are the main thing – if they can still eat, sleep and hydrate really well, it takes it to another level as to what will help them on the ground.”
Essendon’s AFLW head of strength and conditioning, Steve Norman, said the Bombers had employed similar tactics.
“It’s chilly in Melbourne, so it’s finding ways to expose the girls to some warmer climates, whether it’s some bike rooms with the heaters pumping, or the saunas, whatever it may be. Then in terms of prep, once we’re up here, it’s about nailing the hydration in the days coming in. On top of that, it’s giving them resources to cool them down in the breaks, before and after the game,” Norman said.
"We’ve been doing one session a week for the past three weeks, then today (training) is round about the time we’re going to play, just a little bit earlier and warmer, so get out and move in the heat, and hope they get used to it.”
Each interchange bench has an “ice room” directly behind the seating, which players will use during the breaks and even while the game in action, if required.
“We definitely took away from learnings around fatigue and rotation time on the bench, who deals well with it and who doesn’t deal as well with in, and strategies around cooling,” Norman said.
“Even perceptually for them, the ice room is good just to get out of the heat. Even if it doesn’t necessarily cool their core temperature down too much, just getting into the ice room and feeling like the air is a little bit cooler is a mental break.”
We’re getting at least one good ump.
She has apparently retired from playing after perhaps surprisingly not being drafted last year (had at least one bag of 10 goals in the NTFLW seniors).
Would presumably be the youngest person to have umpired AND played against EFC (the latter when our VFLW team played the NTFLW at the start of last year).
No one posted the fluffy family phone calls?
In their own threads, yes.
At least these commentators aren’t saying Gladman (11cm shorter, 66 fewer games) is the obvious one to replace Toogood.
Looks a disappointing crowd? Last year it had a big crowd didn’t it?
It was more last year, but not much bigger than the EFC v NTFLW game.
Come on Donners!
Kirby!
Now get back to Port Melbourne by tomorrow.
I LIKE STARK.
Umpires continue to have zero ■■■■■■■ idea how far 15m is
Good rebound, Paige.