General AFLW comments and articles

It is a disaster no amount of lipstick will fix this pig of a situation.

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Peter Holden should be immediately appointed to head Essendonā€™s marketing department.

The Bank Robber has retired.

(health issue?)

Was it a quick getaway? :thinking:

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Weird stat countdown. Ruby!

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Seems like a great club man Philips

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@Catherine_Lio are there any pr-season practice games planned?

Thereā€™s this one - AFLW practice matches locked in, schedule to mirror AFL R22

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Thereā€™s a thread for it :wink:

The bit in the middle where we were told to stop poaching so well, or lose our top two picks, is interesting. The Dawks couldnā€™t even poach enough to lose their third, fourth, or fifth pick!

by Alyce Collett

INAUGURAL Essendon AFLW coach Natalie Wood has one of the harder tasks in AFLW, turning the inaugural Essendon list into a competitive side in a very short window of time.

This is perhaps why such a focus for her during preseason has been building connections between her players, even and especially with the fluctuating numbers she has had on the track due to a number of her players playing out the season with the clubā€™s VFLW side.

ā€œObviously weā€™ve got a number of different players from different clubs and through different systems, like from AFLW, VFLW, also NAB League, so weā€™ve been really focusing on connection. Obviously itā€™s been documented weā€™ve had varying numbers because weā€™ve allowed our VFLW players to walk in both programs for the last month [up to July 7th], which then itā€™s really given people opportunity when weā€™ve had smaller groups to build some good foundations for some strong relationships.ā€

When it came to the strategy surrounding which players they would target to bring into the club and onto their inaugural list, Wood said that variety in experiences was the key.

ā€œWell thereā€™s different rules set in place by the AFL in terms of the number of players that you could get from AFLW lists. So, the cap was 14 players, so with that in mind we set about trying to get as many high calibre AFLW players as possible, just knowing that weā€™d also have quite a contingent from our VFLW and also the draft. So we thought that being able to get a number of established players whoā€™ve had different in clubs would strengthen our program. And then it got a little bit more complex than that, so there were a certain number of points all players were allocated and then if you went over a certain number of points you lost your priority pick, so as I think we got up to eight or nine then we had to be mindful of the type of players that we were bringing in and the potential of losing one of those first two draft picks.ā€

This may be Woodā€™s first go in the hotseat of senior coach, it is not her first time coaching at AFLW level, after having previously held assistant coach roles at the Cats and Bulldogs.

Although it is hard to compare the different experiences, Wood speaks very highly of her time at the Dogs thus far.

ā€œYeah I guess itā€™s difficult to compare at times at Bulldogs because my role was so different. The one thing I probably do feel is that Iā€™ve never felt that Iā€™m in the right place, Iā€™m where I need to be right now and that feels really comforting and makes me feel confident in what Iā€™m doing. My time at Geelong and my time at the Bulldogs have given me really varied experiences and sets me up well for this role, as well as my education work that Iā€™ve done.

ā€œBut you know thereā€™s also a pretty terrific team around me, I can lean in on any of them at any point in time. So thereā€™s a lots of people in there that have been in football 10 or so years at least, so being able to leverage their knowledge and expertise, I donā€™t feel that Iā€™m doing it alone and the other staff that Iā€™ve been able to bring in from a coaching perspective, and you know within AFLW that theyā€™ve got a wide variety of experiences as well.

ā€œSo I feel that weā€™re really well resourced, I feel like weā€™ve got diversity in the way that we think and process and thatā€™s going to allow our players to have a range of different people to lean on for different reasons.ā€

Woodā€™s main objective for the Bombers this season is pretty simple ā€“ to ensure every player improves across the season. Time will tell if that objective becomes a reality.

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well at least we finally have some reasoning as to why the picks were so different between us and the Dawks

Should have come back to us.

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Ex-Bomber Collier is clearly the #1 captain.

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Forgot to mention it earlier, but Gabby Poundā€™s twin sister is lovely. Is a trekking guide, met her on the Larapinta Trail. Didnā€™t object to me mentioning FCFC donating great players to us for free.

P.S. Fark Carlton.

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Only person whoā€™s prediction I rate at this link is Elly Kirlis :wink:

I also rate Madeline Irwin, Brandon Patane, Monique Quercio, Thomas Grattan, and Lachlan Dand. It seems Ashleigh Matosevic is drunk (we are premiers, Toogood is B&F, and ex-Bomber Liz Snell is Rising Star).

Two of them predict ex-Bomber Ally Anderson for the League B&F and two others our Prespakis. Great Scott also gets two picks as Rising Star.

That Catalano guy (@acat493), thoughā€¦ he sucks.

Paige Scott for Rising Star is my biased call DJR :wink:

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