Not sure if the third season of running our VFLW team was easier or harder than the fourth.
This man speaks for me (apart from inexplicably not mentioning Nanscawen).
by Alex Catalano (click here for more articles by Alex)
Essendonâs VFLW team. (Photo: Essendon VFLW/Facebook)
Essendon is one of the four remaining teams launching a bid for an AFLW license this week.
For this diehard Bombers fan, the top level womenâs team couldnât come any faster.
Iâve been an avid follower of the Essendon VFLW team for over two years now. 2018 was pretty lean on-field, and I was, of my own admission, still behind the eight-ball on womenâs footy.
It was clear to me from the start though, that every woman who pulled on the red and black was doing so with pride.
Fast forward to this weekend, and the Bombers could be just 80 minutes of footy away from qualifying for their first ever womenâs grand final.
Iâve been extremely lucky this year to have experienced the majority of their run towards finals. Iâve attended three games in person (the fourth today), and have watched as many as have been streamed to the VFLâs YouTube channels.
Trekking out to Bill Lawry Oval in Northcote, Box Hill City Oval on a rainy, muddy morning, and out to the hallowed home turf of Windy Hill, has been nothing short of extraordinary.
The Bombers in their return to Windy Hill this year. (Photo: Essendon FC)
I, like many others, found it hard to initially jump on board the AFLW without my team in it.
The inaugural game, the famous lock-out at Ikon Park, was my first and only game for the 2017 season.
Itâs a sentiment that I believe is shared by fans of the four remaining teams: Essendon, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and Sydney. While I have developed a strong affinity for Collingwood and St Kilda in the AFLW, it could never be the same as barracking for my Bombers.
Getting to the VFLW and seeing the women â Essendon women â donning the sash, the passion is there.
I cheer for Alana Barba in the guts the same way I would for Darcy Parish, jump out of my seat for every contested Mia-Rae Clifford grab and goal like I would for Cale Hooker.
When I wear my 21-emblazoned guernsey to Windy Hill, itâs no longer Dyson Heppellâs number, itâs Alex Morcomâs.
Federica Frew bombing a long goal from 45 metres out gives me the same rush as watching Harry Jones take a set shot. Every time Eloise Ashley-Cooper lays a hard tackle or a desperate smother, itâs as bone-crunching and exhilarating as the same from Will Snelling.
I dream up the best 21 we could field upon entry to the top level. âCould we target Georgia Patrikios and Krstel Petrevski?â, I ask myself. âWill Maddy Collier, Hayley Bullas and Lauren Ahrens come back?â
The final five minutes of last weekendâs final against Casey is now one of my favourite moments watching Essendon.
What Iâve learned
Iâve learned a lot through my time attending games and interviewing the players.
It breaks my heart that so many women were denied the chance to play footy when they were young. Being stripped of those opportunities just because of their gender has severely limited what womenâs footy could have already become.
I spoke to Federica Frew just the other day, whoâs only 18 months older than me. She joined Essendon from a soccer background, which she said she only took up playing because she wasnât allowed to play footy.
Speaking to retired players about just this sort of makes sense in my brain, in a way. I know it wasnât an accepted thing in the 80s and 90s, just as unjustly so.
To hear it from a woman of my generation makes it all the more distressing. These are times that I have extremely vivid memories of.
When I was 12, when Federica would have been told she wasnât allowed to play with the boys anymore, I was playing in my primary schoolâs footy team.
I could still run around and pretend I was James Hird or Matthew Lloyd. I had these incredible male role models to look up to, and I could dream about running out in the red and black.
For Federica, her dream nearly would have ended there.
An Essendon AFLW team would mean that young Bombers supporting girls can now pretend to be her when they run inside 50.
They can pretend to be Nat Macdonald, gathering on their right and kicking a snap from an impossible angle to seal the game.
They can be Courtney Ugle working tirelessly in the middle, Cecilia McIntosh dashing off half-back or Ruby Svarc laying a chase-down tackle.
Essendon women now have the stars in their reach. Letâs help them grasp them.
Will they announce the two teams that join next year later this year?
Apparently a few weeks away.
You stated two teams; are you being specific in that, given there were four applications and I donât recall the AFL saying they would introduce any specific number (or any at all).
The only female AFLW coach was sacked to allow a man to have a (to use the Hun articleâs words) âstepping stoneâ to bigger and better things.
(St Kilda came 11th of 14 this year; I canât comment on whether Peta Searle was doing well there this year. I can comment that her coaching resume is a billion times better than Nick Dal Santoâs though!)
I canât attest to this personally but itâs been said that male footballers need to play well to feel accepted, and female footballers need to feel accepted to play well. There are some different skills needed between these roles.
Do you think that the scenario in which a 17 year old school girl had nude photos of him and several of his team mates would have been considered a pro or a con in the decision making process for appointing a womenâs team coach?
To be fair, he has a micro-genital.
There was mention that there were four applications and they would consider adding two in 23 and the other two in 2024.
For the record, our coach has a long history with womenâs teams: Head Coach of the Eastern Devils VFLW side from 2014 to 2017, Strength and Conditioning Coach with the VFLW Academy from 2015 to 2016, and Assistant Coach for Collingwoodâs AFLW side in 2017. Plus lower-level stuff in Canada.
Hopefully they ANNOUNCE it sometime this year.
(sorry for the bump)
Sorry for bumpâŚ
Friswell was the youngest player taken in the draft.
So, an announcement today hopefully meaning we will finally see the mighty Red and Black in the AFLW?
Herald Sun going with 4 new teams next year.
Also, get farked, Ralph.
(photo used is of us)
Announcement just minutes away.