I may even get to the Geelong game on Oct 9…haven’t been to the renovated Reid Oval yet.
So @theDJR , I will hunt you down.
October 9 is about when I travel back from Crete to Athens.
By @acat493
With high expectations after a strong signing period, Essendon will have eyes all over it in its inaugural AFLW season.
Snapshot:
Essendon comes into its first AFLW season fresh off a maiden VFLW premiership. Five years in the making after making finals last year, the Bombers pulled from the side for a big part of their inaugural list.
10 VFLW Bombers joined the list, buoyed by a heaping of ready-made AFLW talent and leadership across every line.
With top Victorian draftees rounding off the list, the inaugural Essendon AFLW list is tipped by many to be the most immediately impactful expansion side since North Melbourne in 2019.
Regardless of whether the Bombers have fast success or have built a list for future dominance, it’s a group of players that hold endless potential.
What to look forward to:
Essendon supporters can look forward to seeing some of the best proven talent in the AFLW pulling on the sash for the first time.
The obvious headliner is former Blue Maddy Prespakis , who made the move to her childhood club as an expansion signing.
Already holding the Rising Star Award, a league best and fairest, three Carlton club best and fairests and two All-Australian selections at just 21, she’s got a wealth of elite footy ahead of her.
The Bombers have built the forward line around spearhead Bonnie Toogood . Fresh off a 10 goal season, the captain candidate is the top billing of what is set to be a deadly forward group.
Even if they don’t win many games, expect the Bombers to be a high-scoring, fun-to-watch outfit.
Biggest unanswered question:
As with any new team, Essendon’s biggest questions arise around squad cohesion, depth and quality. With a couple of key injuries, there are two main areas for concern.
A VFLW grand final ACL tear to star midfield recruit Georgia Nanscawen leaves the depth of the midfield in question. While the likes of Prespakis, Steph Cain and Georgia Gee undoubtedly bring experience into the mix, there’s a minimal amount of AFLW games in the remainder.
The likes of Amelia Radford, Alana Barba, Joanne Doonan, Jordan Zanchetta , and draftees Amber Clarke and Ash Van Loon will have their skills tested against the best of the best in season seven.
With matches against Melbourne and Brisbane, the Bombers will have to put in the work in the contest.
Similarly, whether the Bombers can lock down the best small forwards in the early part of the season without Eloise Ashley-Cooper will be another big question.
Ashley-Cooper made a name for herself across the past two seasons for her fierce tackling in the defensive 50. She won the Essendon VFLW best and fairest in 2021, ahead of even Nanscawen.
Mia Busch and Olivia Barton , who also have no AFLW experience, will have their hands full.
It’s a big year for…
Jorja Borg proved herself as the best ruck in the VFLW in 2022. She led all comers for hit outs, and was a stand out for the Blues all season long.
Borg performed well against the likes of Collingwood’s Sarah King and Geelong’s Olivia Barber, but was comprehensively beaten by potential AFLW opponents Liz McGrath and Tamara Luke.
She’ll likely have a combination of Luke and Tegan Cunningham to deal with come the Round 1 match-up against the Hawks. It doesn’t get any easier from there.
Breann Moody, Gabby Seymour, Tahlia Hickie and Lauren Pearce all loom as opponents in her debut season. With just draftee Stephanie Wales and chop-out option Dani Marshall for help, it will be a tough introduction to the AFLW for the 21-year-old.
Fixture highlights:
Essendon’s first two weeks are must-watch fixtures, facing off against two traditional rivals in Hawthorn and Carlton.
The Bombers and Hawks were the two best teams in the VFLW all season. Handing the Hawks a week one finals smashing, there’s sure to be plenty of fire in it.
There’s a developing push from players and coaches to move the game to a higher capacity stadium, with North Port Oval currently playing host to both clubs’ inaugural AFLW hit-out.
There was no love lost the last time these two met. (Photo: AFL)
Carlton fans will be treated to seeing Prespakis and Georgia Gee in the sash for the first time in Round 2. With passionate support from one of the competition’s foundation sides, expect another strong crowd for this one.
Round 7 sees the Bombers head regional, with the first AFLW game in Warrnambool. They’ll host Geelong in Victoria’s south-west.
Full fixture:
R1: vs. Hawthorn, August 27 (North Port Oval)
R2: vs. Carlton, September 4 (North Port Oval)
R3: vs. West Coast, September 11 (Mineral Resources Park)
R4: vs. Richmond, September 18 (North Port Oval)
R5: vs. Collingwood, September 23 (AIA Centre)
R6: vs. Brisbane, October 2 (Moreton Bay Central Sports Complex)
R7: vs. Geelong, October 9 (Reid Oval, Warrnambool)
R8: vs. Sydney, October 15 (Ikon Park)
R9: vs. Melbourne, October 23 (Casey Fields)
R10: vs. Port Adelaide, TBC (Alberton Oval)
Inaugural squad:
Sophie Alexander (Collingwood), Eloise Ashley-Cooper (Essendon VFLW), Isabella Ayre (Essendon VFLW), Daria Bannister (North Melbourne), Alana Barba (Essendon VFLW), Olivia Barton (Port Melbourne VFLW), Jorja Borg (Carlton VFLW), Mia Busch (Eastern Ranges), Stephanie Cain (Fremantle), Amber Clarke (Dandenong Stingrays), Joanne Doonan (Essendon VFLW), Federica Frew (Essendon VFLW), Ellyse Gamble (Western Bulldogs), Georgia Gee (Carlton), Danielle Marshall (Essendon VFLW), Georgia Nanscawen* (Essendon VFLW), Catherine Phillips (St Kilda), Madison Prespakis (Carlton), Amelia Radford (Essendon VFLW), Caitlin Sargent (Western Jets), Paige Scott (GWV Rebels), Renee Tierney (Essendon VFLW), Bonnie Toogood (Western Bulldogs), Sophie Van De Heuvel (Geelong), Mia Van Dyk (Geelong Falcons), Ashleigh Van Loon (Geelong Falcons), Jacqui Vogt (St Kilda), Stephanie Wales (Casey Demons VFLW), Jessica Wuetschner (Brisbane), Jordan Zanchetta (Essendon VFLW)
Nanscawen suffered an ACL injury but no replacement player is yet to be named.
Predicted Round 1 line-up:
(Design: Will Cuckson)
Ladder range:
10th-12th
Despite the high expectations, it would be hard to see the Bombers make finals in their inaugural season unless everything goes right for them.
They would be hoping for wins against teams expected to drop down the bottom end of the ladder like Carlton and West Coast, but match-ups against Brisbane and Melbourne away are some of the toughest games in the competition.
Geelong and Richmond are teams expected to rise, while the matches against fellow expansion sides could be anyone’s game.
A generous estimate would see Essendon win four or five games in season seven. We can’t see them catching the very best in Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane, who all kept their grand final lists together for the most part.
Managing fatigue for the VFLW players, who are fresh off a full 14 game plus finals season of their own, will also be important. Expect Essendon’s squad depth to be tested.
While they may not be finalists this season, expect this Bombers list to build very quickly, especially with even more top end talent in 2023.
We have to make the Grand Final for me to be back in the country for it, so I’ve vetoed finals.
They are quite free to tell me to get stuffed, though.
MORCS immediately gains her starting 16 spot.
COMING into their maiden AFLW campaign, Essendon is one of the most intriguing sides coming into Season 7.
As one of four expansion sides coming into the league this season, there are a lot of questions around the Bombers this year and not a whole lot to go off to answer said queries.
They were arguably the most talked about of the expansion teams this season, but will the hype live up to reality? They have the capabilities to make the eight, but the question will be whether they can pull it off.
…
POTENTIAL BEST 21:
B: Danielle Marshall – Mia Busch
HB: Sophie Van De Heuvel – Ellyse Gamble – Alex Morcom
C: Steph Cain – Catherine Phillips – Daria Bannister
HF: Amber Clarke – Bonnie Toogood – Georgia Gee
F: Paige Scott – Sophie Alexander
R: Jorja Borg – Madison Prespakis – Alana Barba
INT: Jacqui Vogt – Renee Tierney – Jess Wuetschner – Frederica Frew – Jordan Zanchetta
EMG: Joanne Doonan – Caitlin Sargent – Isabella Ayre
LEAGUE B&F CONTENDER: Madison Prespakis
It is hard to go past a former League Best and Fairest as a contender to win the award again, especially when it is someone of Prespakis’ calibre.
The only thing that might stand in Prespakis’ way of another win is the strength of her teammates around her, who might pinch votes off her.
BIG YEAR FOR: Sophie Van De Heuvel
A former top three draft pick, Van De Heuvel did not entirely live up to that kind of expectation at Geelong.
However, having established herself in the top flight, she has moved clubs and finds herself in a very different situation in her career.
She has gone from one of the least experienced defenders in her team to the most experienced, so with much of Essendon’s defensive group having no AFLW experience to her name, this season is the perfect chance for Van De Heuvel to step up and prove why she was such a high pick in her draft year.
KEY TALKING POINTS:
How will Essendon counter its defensive experience issues ?
Despite the calibre of much of its list, one weakness Essendon has is the lack of AFLW experience in defence.
When your most experienced top level defender is a 21-year-old (Van De Heuvel), that is a really telling sign of the state of your list.
AFLW experience is not the be all and end all of a good side, but playing at AFLW level is not like playing at any other level, so Essendon’s defenders are going to need to get use to the pace and intensity of AFLW, and fast, if they want to do well this AFLW season.
Can Essendon live up to the preseason hype?
As previously mentioned, there has been a lot of hype surrounding Essendon over the past few months, but as one of the expansion sides it is very hard to gauge where the Bombers will finish this season. Expansion sides have generally struggled in the past, but Essendon certainly have the calibre to make the finals.
How will Essendon’s all conquering VFLW Bombers go at the next level?
Anyone who followed the VFLW this year will know how hard it was for anyone to stop the Bombers, and so unsurprisingly many of the stars of that premiership side now find themselves on Essendon’s AFLW list.
But, AFLW is a whole different kettle of fish, so it will be fascinating to see how these players make the transition up to AFLW. Some, such as Danielle Marshall and Jordan Zanchetta have previous AFLW experience, but most of them do not.
How will their very tall forward line work ?
Normally forward lines have a mixture of heights, but Essendon has gone with a very different strategy in its inaugural season, opting with a generally taller combination in attack. That is certainly going to stretch opposition defenders trying to match them for height, but at the same time a forward line full of so many talls makes it predictable for the opposition, so it will be fascinating to see what the game plan is in that department from the Bombers.
PREDICTION: 8th to 12th
This is the way
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“learnings”
Eek. Severity to be determined.
Equal second-highest score of the “round” so far… and I would NOT say we’ve worked out our forward line yet.
Looks like we’re well ahead of Fark Carlton, too.
Gemma giving Essendon/ex-Essendon players a good run in this series:
(she also kicked our second or third VFLW goal, and was the only player to goal in our first three games)
Welcome to the AFLW. So not HAWT right now.
To be fair, they held Richmond to 1 goal in the last 15 minutes of that first quarter.
Tahlia Fellows kicked a point.
19-1 at half-time, they’d take that margin.
Surely they can get a mark in range from Locke, Tamara, or Perkins at some point? We are going to need some tall backs come round one…
Akec Makur Chuot doing OK vs her old team.
Hawk just piledrived a Tiger, ump OK with that.
Hosking(s) going alright, as is Hawks captain Lucas-Rodd.
Yassir goals to make it 26-1.
Yassir goals again, to make it 45-2 with ~7 minutes left.
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LOL – with a minute left, Hawks are gifted a free then a fifty to goal.
46-8
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PCL – but that could still be 8-10 weeks.
(We don’t play Freo in the H&A).
Snipped out all the padding… and the bit where they state “Charlotte Miller is both the AFLW and VFLW football operations manager at Essendon”. Wasn’t the only factual inaccuracy.
Before the Bulldogs, [Natalie Wood] was over at the Cattery as the head coach of Geelong’s VFLW side and a midfield coach with the AFLW side.
Along with junior team coaching, she has 17 years of playing under her belt at Darebin Falcons and Melbourne University.
…
Biggest strength
Confidence: The side is ready and raring to go after their incredible success during the VFLW season.
Completing an undefeated run with a premiership would leave many of the women on cloud nine, and there is no way they will want to come down.
Add in the fact they have secured multiple big-name AFLW players who have wanted to don the sash all their lives and now finally have the chance to, and you will find they will want to do the club proud.
And after the heartbreak of missing out on an AFLW licence the first time they applied, the Bombers will be extra-keen to prove they are worthy of their position in the competition.
Biggest weakness
There are a lot of players who have never had the chance to play together before.
With a short preseason, the team would not have had the chance to gel as quickly as the established sides, who have only added a couple of players to their list for Season Seven.
While there is a core group of VFLW players who have taken the field together, the step up to the AFLW competition may throw their balance out a touch.
The first few weeks could be a touch rocky, but with the women willing to put in the work, I’m sure we will see the team meld and become a unit that moves as one in no time.
Rising star
The obvious choice is Amber Clarke, the first player to be drafted by the Essendon Football Club with pick four.
Collecting the NAB League Girls best and fairest award this year was the cherry on top of a brilliant season: she kicked 18 goals and averaged 17 disposals per game.
Her lightning speed is her biggest asset, but she is versatile and can play almost any role on the ground.
While she will probably slot in up forward alongside the likes of Toogood, Gee, Bannister, and Alexander, don’t be surprised if she gets midfield minutes.
Prediction for Season 7
While the big names combined with the VFLW success are great ingredients in the recipe Essendon has put together; the proof will be in the pudding.
It is hard to predict just how well the Bombers will go this year.
On paper, their team is highly-skilled and experienced, but whether that can all come together after the short-but-intense preseason is yet to be seen.
The Bombers dominated Port Adelaide in their practice match, but the real barometer will be when they face an already-established AFLW side - that will come in round two against Carlton.
Predicted ladder position: 11th.
A post was merged into an existing topic: AFLW - round 1 vs Hawks @ Docklands, 7:10pm Saturday 27 August 2022
Flip appears to be our ruck coach
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