how doomed are we deej?
Freo suck*, but that’s not the point. We should finish with a percentage below 100% from here, so likely need to win at least 4.5 of our last 7 games.
Norf, Casey, and the Bears is now 3 games we need a win/draw from (in addition to needing to beat Freo + Hawks + Swans + Dogs).
*Mim Strom won the final last year on her own versus our ruck-less team
Your optimism is admirable DJR, but I think any chance of playing finals went bye-bye last Sunday
I think injuries have hit a point we aren’t going to win many (and potentially any) more games this year. We are down to the absolute last players on the list now.
But, there are going to be continual upsets this year (outside of NM who probably go undefeated). In theory, it means that impacts of losses like Saturday can be entirely negated somewhere along the line.
One of the stats/modelling sites had us going from 40-45% chance of finals to 30-40% chance to 2% chance before/after the last two weeks, which seems ballpark correct to me.
i.e. we were expected to lose to Geelong but not the Saints, and that tipped us over the cliff edge.
Possibly good news…if you’re not Jess.
They’ve pretty clearly pointed to at least one return:
EDIT: nope. Gough started running.
Out: Gee, Verbrugge, Gladman, Strong
In: Murphy, Brown, Bannister, Brooker (debut)
FREMANTLE
In: Poppy Stockwell (debutant, small forward)
Out: Amy Mulholland (omitted)
Do we have anyone left to debut?
Good to see Daria back.
Brooke Sheridan: this is her third AFLW season and she has 7 VFLW games (none with us) to show for it.
The good news is Brooker has probably tripled her career games of footy as part of this year’s scrimmages (her first and second games were with our VFLW team).
interested to see how they use Murphy and Dyke this week. Presumably Murphy plays key forward when not bench or rucking.
Maybe Matilda is wing/back only this week without any ruck time to avoid any possible Strom v Dyke contests.
Also good to see Brooke Brown back.
Means we can be (or at least I hope we are) a bit more flexible in use of Gamble as a forward target.
The actual named team has Dyke named forward. With the return of Brown, she may not replicate her run in defence last week.
I wouldn’t necessarily read anything into us naming two rucks + Dyke – it’s likely just a reflection that top-up Gladman is all but invisible on-field (fewer fantasy points than half-a-quarter Gee last week), Sheridan hasn’t been seen in 2.5 seasons, and vanDyke is surely high on the chopping list come the end of the year.
One of Murphy or Wales (or Gamble, per the previous post) always deep forward would be a point of difference from our usual line-up. I guess it depends how well Murphy can neutralise Strom, and thus allow Wales to do that.
What I’m not happy about (AGAIN) is that the named forward five are all “talls”, with Gee out and Adams on the bench 
Gameday! At least there will be a proper ruck battle this time as opposed to the destruction last year.
I hope they also have someone to lie on the banner to ensure it survives until the team comes out.
G vs Bowers should be fun. They’re gonna be tired afterwards…
Good to see Daria back.