2019’s results, specifically
Round 1: Ess 5.2.32 loses to Casey’s 5.5.35 @ Windy Hill
Eleven players debut and most of them will play all or most of the season: Svarc, Fogas, Stepnell, Wilson, Gogerly, Moreen, Audley, Currenti, Nanscawen, Saundry, and Stassi. Most of those players are in the 24-27 year old band.
Nanscawen, a prominent ex-Hockeyroo new to the game and recently dropped by Norf AFLW, tops our disposals. DeMatteo kicks 3 goals. Casey’s giant Jakobsson kicks two goals and gets her team over the line, but only because of a disgraceful call by the ump with a minute to go in their goal square (this was the day after GoalPostGate, so it stung even more).
Round 2: Ess 5.9.39 loses to Geelong’s 7.2.44 @ Colac
A member of the famous Puruntatameri family debuts for us, as does Brisbane AFLW midfielder Ally Anderson, Eloise Ashley-Cooper, and Lauren Ahrens.
It’s in Colac, so no one here makes the trip. It is broadcast on radio, though, and bad kicking plus a 0-19 first quarter sees us fall agonisingly short. Kate Darby kicks the first three goals but is then largely shut down before ending with 4.1
Moreen is a revelation at full-forward for us but ends the game with a frustrating 2.4
Round 3: Ess 3.5.23 loses to Richmond’s 8.10.58 @ Punt Road
We take on the top-of-the-ladder Richmond and while our forward and back line are arguably superior it doesn’t matter as their midfield (inc Katie Brennan) destroys ours. It’s one of the very few times for the year than Simone Nalder is clearly beaten in the ruck (hitouts went 14-54). Bullass is also taken almost completely out of the game (7 disposals, 7 tackles).
We also get bashed and sniped off the ball a fair bit.
Round 4: Ess 5.2.32 defeats Fark Carlton 2.3.15 @ Windy Hill
We had played Fark Carlton in the final round of 2018 and witnessed the most dominant forward display since Gary Ablett in 1993, with Darcy Vescio kicking the first nine goals of the game. Luckily she was absent on this day, and we throttled Fark Carlton into irrelevance (13 of their 15 points were due to umpire interference).
Stassi and Moreen are also out, and for a moment we think they’ll be returning back to Tiwi never to play again. Veteran defender Saundry is dropped and never re-appears: she was slooooooooow. Zagontinos debuts as a forward pocket.
We have five AFLW players that day (including Shae Audley, who plays for Fark Carlton AFLW) and they have nine, but it doesn’t matter. A dominant game by Bullas (28 disposals, 9 clearances, 8 tackles, and a goal) is the story of the day. Quigley’s goalkicking is once again a big part of this team’s history, with 3 to her name.
Round 6: Ess 3.2.20 loses to Hawthorn 8.8.56 @ Windy Hill
We give up the first 21 points, and narrowly winning the second half of the game is not enough to give us a sniff. Hawthorn had 13 players >172cm in their team and we had 4, and it showed.
Annoyingly we had two Tiwis of that height in the grandstand.
The game does include a goal-of-the-year candidate by Sian Wilson, as she (literally) kicks it through the legs of two players to convert.
Round 7: Ess 1.6.12 loses to NT Thunder 12.4.76 @ Darwin
All three Tiwi women play for us, with Ponter now opposite us kicking 3 goals.
It’s an amazingly high-standard game in the first quarter, with both teams moving the ball fast, kicking long, and taking big marks. Unfortunately that plays to their strengths, and ultimately they start kicking goals, and lots of them. It’s 0-57 at half-time, after which we knuckle down, go one on one, and score 1.6.12 to 3.1.19 in the second half.
Ahrens is our best, and begins her transition from defender to midfielder.
The timekeepers are grossly incompetent, but this allows Moreen to kick our only goal from a mark taken 20:24 into the final 20 minute quarter.
Nanscawen is contrary to the style of the game, with 20 contested possessions (11 more than any other player in the game!) and 8 clearances.
Later we discovered Hayley Bullass (16 disposals) would be out for the year with a knee injury.
Round 8: Ess 6.4.40 defeats Melb Uni 3.9.27 @ Melb Uni
The efficiency of the two team’s forward lines on a boggy slippery ground is absolutely the story of the game: two of Stassi’s goals are Plays of the Week. This was a skill difference, not a luck one; and our team-wide effort cancelled their few key players (including the top possession getter for the game, Jessica “No Longer #1” Trend).
This is the first time Essendon’s three footy teams all win in the same week… and I was probably the only person to attend all three, having arrived here just before halftime after attending the VFL game in Werribee.
Round 9: Ess 3.2.20 loses to Collingwood 6.4.40 @ Windy Hill
Collingwood were top of the ladder at this time, and had won their last two games by 78 and 74 points, but this game was a lot tighter than the final score suggests. The difference between the teams was Collingwood scoring 20 to 0 in the second quarter! They also kicked two goals in the last five minutes to pad the margin; Jamie Lambert had 25 disposals and kicked 3 goals for them.
Nalder has 40 hitouts and moves to equal top in the league for hitouts-to-advantage.
(During our round 10 bye we played an invitational game versus GWS at The Hangar in wind and rain; it was unremarkable apart from the glorious moment when Laan put Mackrill on her back with a perfect hip-and-shoulder down the middle.)
Round 11: Ess 4.10.34 defeats Darebin 4.2.26 @ Windy Hill
This is the first of three games I missed by going to AFL wins in Adelaide, Gold Coast and Perth. Spoiler: the women win all of those weeks too!
Nanscawen (21 disposals and 8 tackles) and Ahrens (20 and 7) stand out.
We lost captain Ugle with a broken leg before this game. Nalder takes over as captain.
Round 12: Ess 7.5.47 defeats Willy 1.2.8 @ Willy
Willy would end up as 2019 wooden spoon winner with one win and a percentage of 30.5%… and across two games we would hold them to 7.2%!
In fact, they didn’t even score in the first half of this game, and Moana Hope kicked 7 of their 8 points. It’s the first big-margin win in our team’s history.
Georgia Patrikios debuts for us as an 18yo from the Calder Cannons with 20 disposals and 7 tackles.
Round 13: Ess 7.2.44 loses to Saints 7.4.46 @ Windy Hill
Another Calder Cannons 17yo, Alana Barba, debuts in the backline.
The Saints are 9-2 on the ladder with a percentage of 203% before this game.
And yet at quarter time we lead 24-3… albeit a decent chunk of that is thanks to Windy Hill wind. And it’s 30-3 early in the second quarter… we lose when C-Bomb has a running shot from twenty out with a minute left, and fails to kick the winning goal.
It’s a brutal loss but it tells us this team can go head-to-head with the best.
Round 14: Ess 0.3.3 loses to Footscray 5.11.47 @ Whitten Oval
The bizarre thing is that I’m going to say this was our best performance against Footscray for the day (the VFL team lost by 94 and the AFL team by 104). Nanscawen (21 and 6 tackles), Patrikios in defence (21 and 11), Heil (21 and 9) and Audley (20 despite being repeatedly sniped by Footscray) are the standouts on this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
Round 15: Ess 7.7.49 defeats Collingwood 3.4.22 @ Victoria Park
No one went, and there was no audio or video coverage, so everyone missed us smashing the team on top of the ladder with the 11 game winning streak. The Pies may have lost a few AFLW players… but suck it up, losers!
In an almost direct switch from the earlier game, we outscored the Pies 22-1 in the second quarter.
Patrikios kicked two goals from the midfield, with DeMatteo getting two more forward.
Round 16: Ess 12.6.78 defeats Willy 0.1.1 @ Windy Hill
Willy didn’t have Moana Hope this time, so there were predictions Willy would score just one point… and they were correct!
I know it was “only” Willy (like it was “only” us last year!) but wow this made the heart sing, and it’s the kind of exclamation mark on a season that might keep people wanting to come to us, even though we can’t offer an AFLW spot for years to come. We need the likes of Patrikios and Barba and Petrevski to be selected by a Melbourne club and want to stay with us for the one true top-level league (because the AFLW will never be that while it’s a short summer diversion).