SODAS
Phillips with the early goal already > Harris (game-trailing 3 disposals, with no marks and no score).
Adelaide lead 6-0
Crows lead 5.3.33 to Freo 3.0.18 at three-quarter time.
Freo made a bunch of late attacks but to no avail.
Crows get a lucky high free to fend off a comeback.
6.3.39 leads 4.1.25 with 9:16 left
6.4.40 defeats 4.2.26
So it will be Adelaide hosting Melbourne next week.
Will the Bears take pity on the competition, and not enter Ruby in the Grand Final Sprint?
Bears coach having another cry about how his team was hit so hard by poachings they won the premiership.
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Maybe, just maybe, he is angry cause he expects to lose the Ruby and Cathy Svarc to Bomberland?
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Considering how strong their academy is, he shouldnât be too concerned.
AFLW is not the sport, but whatevs.
Old article:
ANN Rulton is often asked when and where she played football.
âNever kicked a ball in my life,ââ she replies.
And yet this feisty 71-year-old has made a significant contribution to womenâs football in Victoria, helping establish two clubs that are now part of the VFL Womenâs competition.
Beneath the whizzbang promotion of the national womenâs league rests the work of people who with dedication and determination kept the sport going. Now they see it growing, at a head-spinning rate.
Did Ann Rulton attend the first AFL match between Collingwood and Carlton at Princes Park in late February?
âThereâs no show without Punch, isnât that what they say?ââ she said.
âMy favourite players (Carltonâs Brianna Davey and Collingwoodâs Moana Hope) were out there. I wasnât going to miss that.ââ
Davey and Hope both play at St Kilda Sharks, where Rulton was reared â and, in womenâs circles, is now revered â in the game of football.
Her first connection came in 1969, after she arrived in Australia from the UK following the death of her father.
She quickly found a job and a fellow worker asked her which team she supported. âTottenham Hotspurs,ââ she said.
Ann Rulton has been a tireless worker for womenâs football for more than 25 years. Picture: Mark Dadswell
He replied that she had better find an Australian Rules team to follow. He was a St Kilda supporter, so she became a Saint.
She became a truer Saint in 1991, when she joined St Kilda City Football Club.
That year there were only four teams in the Victorian Womenâs Football League: Ballarat Lions, East Brunswick Scorpions, Fairfield Falcons and Fair Park Panthers.
Falcons players got talking to St Kilda City people at a St Kilda Festival, urging them to pull together a womenâs team.
Rulton, Charlie Hope (the first coach) and a few others acted on the encouragement: the St Kilda City Sharks were formed in time for the 1992 season. Melbourne Uni, Northern Roos and Rowville Cobras also took their place in an expanded fixture.
Jo Scott, now the club timekeeper, was the first player to sign for the Sharks. Ten other registrations came in. An ad in the local paper and word of mouth boosted numbers. Twenty-five years later, the Sharks are fielding three sides.
In her capacity as a St Kilda delegate, Rulton was asked by her great friend Sal Rees to help Fairfield, which was âin a bit of strifeââ.
It would mean leaving the Sharks but she felt they were well established and could get by without her, so she made the switch. Intending to stay for one year, she was there for six, serving as treasurer, team manager, running the canteen and bar, even marking the ground.
It was the same thankless work she did at the Sharks. Fairfield became Darebin, the VWFLâs great power, and Rulton became a life member.
âItâs been absolutely brilliant, their success,ââ she said. âNo one could put their chest out and be prouder than us. There was a little group of us and years later weâre still friends because of football.ââ
Carltonâs Brianna Davey is a favourite of Ann Rulton. Picture: Wayne Ludbey
In 2005 Rulton returned âhomeââ to the Sharks. St Kilda City and the VWFL had already awarded her life membership, recognising her role as treasurer in an era of book and pencil. The Sharks gave her the same honour in 2016.
Wherever she has gone, Rulton has employed a straight-to-the-point approach to matters.
She acknowledged she was âknown as Grumpy around a few placesââ.
âThatâs because I speak my mind, whether it may please or offend,ââ she said. âI donât care. I still get grumpy when the AFL say what a wonderful job theyâve done. They forget there was, and is, a dedicated group of women who did it all for nothing, volunteered all the way through.
âI donât want to sound like a smart â â â â â well, I am a smart â â â â â but if you listen to the media Debbie Lee and Daisy Pearce are the only two who ever did anythingâŚ.ââ
But she welcomed the AFL W as âamazing, fantasticââ and the number of under-age girls teams as a remarkable development.
Her favourite, Davey, won Carltonâs best and fairest and attended the league presentation a few weeks ago. Each guest received a gold pin to recognise the first year of the national league. Daveyâs parents could think of only thing to do with it. They presented it to Ann Rulton, who proudly put it on her jacket.
âThe Daveys have adopted me as an old lady,ââ she said.
Family also came to her mind when she discussed a recent stay in hospital. âThe girlsââ from the Sharks were the first people to visit.
Her brother recently looked her up on the internet and was astonished to learn of her role in womenâs football.
âHe said he was proud of me, which was quite a compliment from my brother,ââ she said.
âI suppose I did a good job playing my part.ââ
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Result is not known already, unlike last year.
What a terrible grandfinal thus far. Adelaide are always going to be incredibly dominant due to their demographics.
Hee youâd swing Harris into the ruck or try something different.
Is it teeming down with rain over in Adelaide?
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To be fair these players are absolutely playing with aggression and passion. Their tackling puts our mens team to shame. Just the skills which let them down.
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Currently 27 degrees and barely a cloud in the sky. Perfect day for football
and itâs not even to do with male v female debate.
a bunch of essentially part time footballers (granted itâs the 2 best teams) are going in harder and tackling better than a bunch of supposed âprofessionalâ footballers whoâs main job is to be able to do this â â â â
The pressure is enormous, the intensity, the focus the drive the passion the will the desire all there
Nothing to do with process just mental
that contest right then is harder than anything iâve seen the essendon men produce this year.
Thatâs because they canât move the football and maintain possession via kick/mark. The ball is in dispute about 95% of the time, therefore it just descends into a mass amount of tackling.
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neither can our mens team, hence they should be able to produce what these ladies are, again cos itâs their â â â â â â â job that they are getting paid pretty damn well to do.