UNDEFEATED -- the 2022 VFLW season summary

Football Discussion Essendon VFLW
1

Well… this is going to be a different kind of season summary.

15-0-2 at a percentage of 394%… I don’t think I remember anyone picking that at the start of the year. I do distinctly remember many pre-season predictions that went 1) Collingwood to go undefeated and 2) Geelong or Essendon to be the other team in the Grand Final.

The above, of course, was basically saying 2022 would be a clone of 2021. By the end of round one, everyone was backtracking after the Saints rolled the Pies 29-9. They were feeling validated by us (98-0) and Geelong (73-14), though, with the Hawks the other big winner for the round (72-13).

At the time of these predictions we didn’t know AFLW 2022(B) would be brought forward and affect the latter part of the VFLW season. What many should have better considered was how Essendon and Hawthorn were attractive places for players to advocate for a role in the coming expanded AFLW competition.

The VFLW has no draft, no longer has a points system, and the salary cap is so low ($30,000) that no one is selling their club to prospective players based on pay. So the AFLW possibilities, the facilities you can offer (yeah nah, Dawks), and the culture you can sell are huge.

Bits of all that resulted in us adding ex-AFLW players in Danielle Marshall, Joanne Doonan, Jordan Zanchetta, and Bella Ayre. Throw in Alana Barba there if you wish to stretch that comparison a bit, plus a number of missed-on-being-drafted players in Renee Tierney and Bella Clarke (the latter from the Suns Academy). That’s the best part of a third of the team, and I likely don’t need to tell you what impact they had this year. Bella Clarke is the only one not to be upgraded to our AFLW team.

We also pulled out the surprise of the season with 26yo recent-convert-from-soccer Radford from Moonee Ponds in the EDFL. Note that’s Division 1, not Premier League. She would go on to be one of two Essendon players to feature in all games this year (the other being Courtney Ugle).

10 Likes
2

This year’s premiership squad:

Number Full name AGE HEIGHT Games (EFC) 2018 2019 2021 2022 Games (VFLW)
1 Courtney Ugle 25 160 55 13 8 17 17 55
2 Mikaela Trethowan 22 168 - - - - - -
3 Sarah Ford 22 160 4 - - - 4 4
4 Mia-Rae Clifford 35 170 33 - - 17 16 33
5 Georgia Nanscawen 30 162 43 - 13 15 15 43
7 Jessie Davies 26 170 27 - - 17 10 27
8 Eloise Ashley-Cooper 21 165 45 - 13 17 15 45
9 Marianna Anthony 24 168 33 - 3 16 14 33
10 Eleanor Cornish 22 177 18 3 5 2 8 18
11 Kasey Lennox 18 174 7 - - 7 - 7
12 Isabel Currenti 30 167 6 - 6 - - 6
13 Elizabeth Hosking 27 168 34 - 9 14 11 34
14 Danielle Marshall 30 168 16 - - - 16 16
15 Lauren Caruso 22 161 27 14 3 7 3 27
16 Tamsin Crook 19 178 28 - - 13 15 28
17 Federica Frew 26 167 33 - 8 9 16 33
18 Kendra Heil 34 166 57 13 14 17 13 57
19 Nicole Julian 30 168 17 - - 5 12 17
20 Cecilia McIntosh 43 160 39 - 12 15 12 39
21 Alex Morcom 25 166 53 13 7 17 16 53
22 Natalie MacDonald 23 164 43 12 4 17 10 43
23 Amelia Radford 27 168 17 - - - 17 17
24 Renee Tierney 20 166 15 - - - 15 15
26 Joanne Doonan 28 167 14 - - - 14 14
27 Makaylah Appleby 18 172 2 - - - 2 2
28 Alana Barba 20 165 30 - 4 17 9 30
30 Simone Nalder 32 186 58 14 14 15 15 58
31 Eloise Gardner 24 175 10 - - 10 - 10
34 Emily Everist 17 177 2 - - - 2 2
34 Rebecca McDonagh 33 176 - - - - - -
35 Teagan Williams 18 178 2 - - - 2 2
36 Reese Sutton 18 166 - - - - - -
37 Abbey Baillie-McDonald 18 162 - - - - - -
38 Olivia Manfre 18 168 4 - - - 4 4
39 Scarlett Orritt 18 169 2 - - - 2 2
40 Drew Ryan 19 172 2 - - - 2 2
42 Jordan Zanchetta 27 156 15 - - - 15 15
43 Octavia Di Donato 18 172 1 - - - 1 1
44 Grace Dicker 21 166 24 - - 10 14 24
45 Bella Clarke 21 173 9 - - - 9 9
46 Gloria Elarmaly 21 173 5 - - - 5 5
47 Stephanie Asciak 18 165 1 - - - 1 1
? Jayda Richardson 18 174 - - - - - -
? Tahlia Read 18 168 - - - - - -
? Arkie Donnelly 17 171 - - - - - -
? Tia Davidge 17 168 - - - - - -
25 and 48 Bella Ayre 23 176 5 - - - 5 5
4 Likes
3

We’d spent the last three seasons being beat up in the latter stages of the season, when many AFLW players would drop back to their VFLW-linked teams. That reached its peak in the final game of 2021 where Geelong named the maximum allowed 10 AFLW players to ultimately break us in the second half of the Preliminary final.

However, the latter rounds and finals of 2021 were not simply us being bashed up by AFLW reserves teams. We actually only conceded an average of a couple points more in that run home than we had earlier in the season, but when Quigley and then Frew succumbed to injury, we just lost the ability to score. Clifford was basically the last one left standing, and I spent a fair bit of time whinging about us bombing long to little Yassir.

Two big changes happened in 2022.

First, we bulked that forward line up hugely. Clifford defied age to get better. Frew returned and gave up on her forays to the midfield to become a full-time forward freak. CBomb got a surprise shift forward. And we brought in Tierney from that Geelong team who’d beaten us in that Prelim. All four of those players are good leads and marks, and they worked exceptionally well together. Suddenly, if we could get it forward vaguely proficiently, we were going to score, and score big.

(As context, the Pies went 16-0 in 2021 and “only” scored 748 points. In our equivalent 16 games this year, with no Grand Final for either team, we scored 1042 points. That was 16 points shy of what we scored in 2019 and 2021 combined.)

Second, the midfield.

In 2021 the core midfield was Nanscawen, Ugle, Barba, and sometimes Ashley-Cooper.

In 2022 we brought in Ford (remember her, before Sydney came poaching?), Zanchetta, Radford, and (part-time mid/forward) Doonan. Suddenly there was depth. Ugle got sent out to the wing where she could be more damaging. Ashley-Cooper went to the backline, and with Morcom created a wall no small could get over.

The combination of that mature midfield and damaging forward line changed our game this year.

Our defence (actual backs, and across the entire field) has steadily improved over the last four seasons – but our scoring was THE big change. Check it out below:

Year Ave For Ave Against Percentage
2018 21 52 40%
2019 34 36 94%
2021 34 25 136%
2022 64 16 394%
4 Likes
4

None of this is to say we didn’t have changes down back; there was a fair bit of turnover there too.

Full-back Eloise Gardner did the dreaded Lisfrancs late in 2021, and between that, illness, and new injuries never played in 2022.

Kendra Heil left the backline for (mostly) the wing. CBomb switched forward. That’s a big change from what was a pretty stable backline in 2021.

For a team that has traditionally been out-sized, we actually played quite large down back this year: e.g. Crook and a Bella plus Marshall being the core of that.

(Yes, I know Marshall isn’t actually that tall. But you go count the number of contests she lost this year… she bossed the opposition all year, and showed nous in the ruck and even occasionally as a winger.)

1 Like
5

36 players played premiership (literally) games for us this year. I haven’t found a single simple summary of 2022 season data; hopefully RookieMe will put up season stats as they have for previous years. You can see 2021+2022 combined at the below address, though, and I’ve made up a very basic table.

https://vfl.aflwstats.com/team/ess/players

Name Games Goals Ave Disposals
Amelia Radford 17 1 20
Courtney Ugle 17 6 14
Danielle Marshall 16 1 13
Mia-Rae Clifford 16 21 12
Alex Morcom 16 0 12
Federica Frew 16 35 10
Georgia Nanscawen 15 1 25
Jordan Zanchetta 15 1 19
Eloise Ashley-Cooper 15 0 15
Renee Tierney 15 18 14
Simone Nalder 15 1 10
Tamsin Crook 15 0 6
Joanne Doonan 14 10 15
Marianna Anthony 14 0 14
Grace Dicker 14 12 11
Kendra Heil 13 4 12
Nicole Julian 12 0 11
Cecilia Mcintosh 12 18 9
Elizabeth Hosking 11 0 10
Natalie Macdonald 10 10 12
Jessie Davies 10 5 8
Alana Barba 9 1 15
Bella Clarke 9 0 8
Eleanor Cornish 8 2 6
Bella Ayre 5 2 14
Gloria Elarmaly 5 1 10
Sarah Ford 4 0 19
Olivia Manfre 4 4 4
Lauren Caruso 3 0 12
Drew Ryan 2 0 10
Teagan Williams 2 1 6
Makaylah Appleby 2 1 6
Scarlett Orritt 2 0 6
Emily Everist 2 0 2
Stephanie Asciak 1 1 6
Octavia Di Donato 1 0 4
2 Likes
6

Let’s look at the Bombers featuring in the top ten stats for the league. The top ten is based on total stats (apart from goals) but I report them below as averages.

We have of course played three more games than non-finals teams, but most of the below were already top ten at the end of the home and away.

Disposals:
1 - Hannah Stuart (Sts) 22.5
2 - Nanscawen 24.9
3 - Radford 21.2
5 - Zanchetta 19.0

Goals:
1 - Frew 35
2 - Clifford (and three others) 21
6 - CBomb and Tierney 18
10 - Dicker (and at least one other) 12

Marks:
1 - Clifford 4.4
3 - Tierney 4.2
5 - Marshall 3.8
8 - Amelia Radford 3.2

Tackles:
1 - Demi Hallett (Pies) 9.0
2 - Nanscawen 8.7

Kicks:
1 - Hannah Stuart (Sts) 14.1
4 - Radford 12.4
5 - Nanscawen 13.5

Handballs:
1 - Nanscawen 11.5
2 - Zanchetta 11.1
4 - Radford 8.8
10 - Ugle 6.0

Hit-outs:
1 - Nalder 26.9

4 Likes
7

The players on our list who didn’t get a game this year were:

  • Mikaela Trethowan – played in at least one practice game (vs Casey)
  • Kasey Lennox
  • Isabel Currenti – played in at least one practice game (vs Casey)
  • Eloise Gardner – injured and ill until very late in the year
  • Rebecca McDonagh – the new “The Mysterious”
  • Reese Sutton – that time they teased me by running her out with the team… and then not drafted?!?
  • Abbey Baillie-McDonald
  • Jayda Richardson – mid-season NAB League addition to the list
  • Tahlia Read – mid-season NAB League addition to the list
  • Arkie Donnelly – mid-season NAB League addition to the list
  • Tia Davidge – mid-season NAB League addition to the list
8

The players — a very brief summary

A small comment before going into players individually: the balance of the team was quite different to 2021. In 2021 we brought many NAB Leaguers into our team, with the six later drafted to the AFLW regulars towards the end of the season. This year the crop wasn’t as stand-out but moreso we had a large extra set of mature players who they had to displace. For the first time we actually had a little bit of a struggle to actually meet our VFLW requirements to play a certain number of youngsters.

  • 1 – Courtney Ugle – as noted, sent to the wing this year and with us often getting first clearance she got many opportunities to be damaging. The different role this year can be seen in her stats versus 2021: tackles down from 4.6 to 3.3, marks up from 1.9 to 2.9, kicks up and handballs down. In the 2.5 seasons leading up to this, she had kicked a grand total of zero goals – this year she kicked 6, including the draw-maker vs St Kilda and a double down in Geelong. The Grand Final may have been her best game, showing great composure under pressure and making clean disposals.
  • 2 – Mikaela Trethowan – she was alright in the pre-season game vs Casey, with pace and decent size on the wing, but I don’t recall her even making the emergencies in the season proper
  • 3 – Sarah Ford – seems like a million years ago she was poached by the Bin Chickens. Got 4 games in before that, with 16-22 disposals. Maybe not quite as composed as her counterparts, but she did enough to get the call back to NSW.
  • 4 – Mia-Rae Clifford – oh captain my captain! 13 years and now 1 shiny thing. She got support up forward this year, she worked bloody hard on her core and the perils of age to personally improve on last year, and she led in her usual shy and quiet way :sunglasses:. Right up there for the league in marks and goals.
  • 5 – Georgia Nanscawen – oh captain my captain! Had injury to cope with over the pre-season and therefore spent a fair chunk of it improving her kicking… and that made her a much more complete and dangerous player this year. Will competition from the rest of the team deny her back-to-back league B&Fs?
  • 6 - overtly left vacant; after more than a year, Alex Quigley returned from injury in the EDFL. Let’s hope we get more of her next year!
  • 7 – Jessie Davies – started off with 3 goals in the destroyation of the Dogs, but struggled to make it click this year. As the season went on our dominant forward line saw her get tried in other roles (e.g. half-back) and she was dropped for good after round 12.
  • 8 – Eloise Ashley-Cooper – barely got a midfield sniff, but was a rock in defence, enough to get upgraded to the AFLW. A contested beast and regular interceptor and rebounder.
  • 9 – Marianna Anthony – a winger AND one of the busiest tacklers in the league. Kicking was astray at times during the year, but you don’t get many bad games from her.
  • 10 – Eleanor Cornish – the OG kicked her first two goals for EFC in round one, which was ■■■■■■■ awesome.
  • 11 – Kasey Lennox – midget Essendon became less midget, and she didn’t get back to EFC for a game this year. Played forward, back and ruck at Calder during the year (the latter being VERY late pre-season news for her!)
  • 12 – Isabel Currenti – the good news is the club remembered to include her in the team list on the website this year. The bad news is she didn’t play after the second practice game, where she was forward versus Casey.
  • 13 – Libby Hosking – this year she won the ongoing battle between herself and Caruso for that late spot in the team. Showed improved pace early in the season, and @simmo41 would have been very happy with her Grand Final.
  • 14 – Dani Marshall – SIGN MARSHALL ALREADY. Oh wait, we have. An incredible personal story before getting to us, and a dominant VFLW season. She may give up 10cm to some AFLW forwards in the coming months, but I’ll back her in.
  • 15 – Lauren Caruso – all 14 games in our first season, bit parts since (3, 7, and 3 games in the following seasons). Might get more next year. Dominated in her EDFL Grand Final, as a mid and half-back.
  • 16 – Tamsin Crook – unlike Lennox, she maintained that key defence position after last year. Still a light giraffe, but can pick a ball off the ground on the run better than most.
  • 17 – Federica Frew – the turning point last year was her getting injured. She’s an under-sized full-forward and as the year went on the opposition worked harder on exploiting that, but she’s 1) strong 2) creative 3) un-selfish 4) a FREAK. Did so many ridiculous things this year. Her 35 goals in a season is the best VFLW result in the modern competition (i.e. after the AFLW came into existence). CAN GET BETTER.
  • 18 – Kendra Heil – Kenny was always the undersized key defender of our team, but this year switched to the wing (yes, you will note I have named three wingers for the two spots, but in a league with 16 on the field and 5 on the bench, no mid goes too near to 100% on-field). I don’t know that I’d call it an unqualified success [insert Kendra snarl] but I absolutely wouldn’t say it hurt us.
  • 19 – Nicole Julian – we saw moments of class in 2021 (e.g the ANZAC Day match) but his year Julian showed her experience and nous as a defender, before that calf injury at Sandy in round 12 finished her season.
  • 20 – Cecelia McIntosh – forward in 2019, back in 2021, forward in 2022 and a huge part of that revised forward line. In the first half of the year she was as fast and crisp as she has ever been at Essendon, and a contrast to the (mostly) heavyweights at that end of the ground. Four Grand Finals since 2007, and now one premiership.
  • 21 – Alex Morcom – I will never get over the way she frantically waves her arms whenever she approaches the ball… but she’s VERY good.
  • 22 – Natalie MacDonald – like Davies, she started the year with 3 goals in round one. But then she wasn’t seen for six weeks, perhaps squeezed out by CBomb and Dicker. But unlike Jesse, she came back to play 8 of the last 9 games, and play them well.
  • 23 – Amelia Radford – started playing footy at 25yo, and 13 months afterwards she was drafted to the AFLW. May she dance in packs forever more.
  • 24 – Renee Tierney – what a pick-up. Even when she wasn’t having a “big” day, she was up and down the wings taking marks and setting us up to do damage.
  • 25 and 48 – Bella Ayre – the ex-Rising Star of the AFLW returned to footy, and the beast did beastly things. Mostly a key defender, but created havoc in one quarter forward at Tulla. Sat out the finals, on a specific plan to be at her best fitness come the AFLW season.
  • 26 – Joanne Doonan – two ex-AFLW Fark Carltoners in a row. More time in the middle early, and more time forward later (5 goals in the finals). Another year of footy and while she definitely still has an Irish ball drop her kicking is becoming a weapon.
  • 27 – Makaylah Appleby – just two appearances while CBomb recovered from a hamstring; has similarly sharp hair and was a sharp mover with a goal in her first game.
  • 28 – Alana Barba – remember the word “exponential”? That was Alana after she returned from the Gold Coast Suns: started very slow, and then went voom! Now much more willing and able to take the hits inside, best personified by her 18 tackles and 7 clearances in the Grand Final.
  • 29 – vacant
  • 30 – Simone Nalder – teased us with two missed games in the middle of the season before reaching VFLW and EFC game 50, but continues to be “what you see on the tin”. Taller-than-most old-school ruck filling the gap a kick behind the play, a bit unco but also definitely willing to go at ground level. We don’t know when the next VFLW season will be scheduled, but please come back from St Kilda AFLW!
  • 31 – Eloise Gardner – never got out there, but was in full training at the end of the year. Later played through to a agonising Grand Final loss with Coburg.
  • 32 – vacant
  • 33 – vacant
  • 34 – Rebecca McDonagh – sister-in-law of our AFL player, and owner this year of the tag “The Mysterious”. Never named in a team.
  • 35 – Teagan Williams – the Bendigo Pioneer played 2 games for us forward for 1 goal. Very decent size, turning circle of the Titanic.
  • 36 – Reese Sutton – saw her at the Calder/Bendigo game, don’t understand how she 1) didn’t get a game and 2) didn’t get drafted.
  • 37 – Abbey Baille-McDonald – didn’t see her at the Calder/Bendigo game, lots of people smarter than me had her a top prospect, didn’t get drafted.
  • 38 – Liv Manfre – 4 games for 4 goals, a combination of a classic full-forward wearing gum boots and a midfield captain (for Calder). A constant presence throughout the year, even when Keilor duties were on the same day.
  • 39 – Scarlett Orritt – 2 games on the wing. Played more of a defensive (or reactive?) game at VFLW level than at NAB League.
  • 40 – Drew Ryan – big-bodied winger, 2 games
  • 41 – vacant
  • 42 – Jordan Zanchetta – ex-Bears AFLW midfielder wanting (and getting!) a second chance. She’s short but powerful, composed, and a decent mark.
  • 43 – Octavia Di Donato – people smarter than me had her as a first round draft possibility. Played forward (out of position) for us, just the one game at Sandy in round 13. Not drafted.
  • 44 – Grace Dicker – NEVER BORING. Round one with her playing midfield was a stunning performance, but after that she was nominally a forward. Love her aggression, but am often bemused by her kicking.
  • 45 – Bella Clarke – the Suns Academy player missed out on last year’s draft, and came down from the NT to try again with us. She’s played everywhere previously, but was full-back for us, and a very composed one at that.
  • 46 – Gloria Elarmaly – after a couple years of injury, she finally got to play with us, mostly as an under-sized but fiercely competitive ruck. 5 games and 1 iconic goal.
  • 47 – Stephanie Asciak – collected a NAB League premiership and then came to us for a game on the wing.
  • ? – Jayda Richardson
  • ? – Tahlia Read
  • ? – Arkie Donnelly
  • ? – Tia Davidge
3 Likes
9

image

La Presidenta foresaw the slaughter coming, and posted this before the game:

The boys welcomed the goals girls onto the ground:

image
image1164×673 90 KB

The brains of the AFL code monkeys exploded, and placed us sixth on the ladder with 100%.

image
image976×877 91.6 KB

https://twitter.com/OliverGigacz/status/1492382655119511556

https://twitter.com/OliverGigacz/status/1492378009722322952

It took 4 years, but Ugez managed to kick a goal:

image
image760×872 53.9 KB

10

12.7.79 we defeat 2.4.16, putting the foot down hard in the last quarter. The Port midfield worked hard, but forward and back they were out-classed.

IN: Manfre for her debut, and someone called Federica Freakin’ Frew.

Hosking reaches 25 VFLW and EFC games.

@PH_WARFRadio races from Pissy Park after the Fark Carlton game and makes it to The Hangar with 3 minutes to spare.

At this point I was taking it one premiership at a time:

Radford announces herself with 30 disposals (equal with Nanscawen). That includes 26 effective disposals, the equal-most in the VFLW post-2017. Clifford and Tierney each kick three goals.

https://twitter.com/essendonfcw/status/1494872992035532806

Bray Taylor starts taking photos for the EFC, and continues to do so until he gets poached by Melbourne Storm.

11

Frew becomes our first VFLW player to kick 4 goals.

Frew becomes our first VFLW player to kick 5 goals.

Frew becomes our first VFLW player to kick 6 goals.

(The remainder of the weekend I document all EFC VFLW goals, so I can authoritatively provide stats like that.)

We lead 72-7 at the final break, before Sophie Milford has a couple of the very few contested wins versus Marshall for the year.

We win 12.7.79 to 4.3.27

MRP Lotto sees Grace Dicker suspended for two weeks for a non-sling tackle that rattled Brooke Vernon’s brain. A huge sling of Zanchetta twenty minutes later is “play on!”

12

10.5.65 we defeat 2.1.13

IN comes Doonan for her debut, and Caruso for her 25th EFC/VFLW game.

image
image506×870 38.9 KB

Willy were playing defensively.

Simon Madden is a regular VFLW attendee, and is on scoreboard duty with La Presidenta.

13

Coming into this game we had never beaten the Saints… and coming out that was still true. Ford is poached by the Bin Chickens, but we still rest Nanscawen. This lets the Saints have sway for the day in the middle.

This is game 50 for the team, and the 50th VFLW game for Jesse Davies (20 with us). Somehow no one at the club notices the latter…

Julian also reaches 25 games.

It is a VERY windy day and in the first quarter we do not go full defensive when kicking into it.

I find it HILARIOUS that later on the Saints, of all teams, would let Frew run behind the mark to collect and goal from fifty in the Grand Final. See the below:

On the halftime siren we eventually work out the AFL changed the rules re: kicking out of bounds from a kick-out, after the Saint stepped outside the square and therefore make it legal.

We trail 32-46 at the final break… and then THIS happens.

https://twitter.com/essendonfcw/status/1504251581084041216

14

In our first meeting since the 2021 Preliminary Final, we go to Geelong and best them 13.11.89 to 1.5.11…

(You won’t see many clips from now on, as they stop being posted in YouTube.)

Bella Clarke debuts. Cornish is dropped, and we start using Marshall as ruck back-up.

This is the 50th VFLW game for Heil, and the 150th VFLW/VWFL game for CBomb.

image
image554×872 50.2 KB

image
image1007×1005 131 KB

Elsewhere, Casey defeat the Saints 97-8. Bizarro world.

15

I get COVID at the Midnight Oil concert, and so my sole insightful contribution to this game comes when perusing photos later:

Going in, North are the sole remaining team who has beaten us every time… but we win 13.10.88 to 2.2.14 despite “interesting” umpiring and a looooong sequence when we repeatedly fail to properly convert scoring shots.

Nalder is a late withdrawal, so I don’t miss her 50th VFLW/EFC game. Morcom does play, and reaches 50 games (44 with us and 6 with Diamond Creek).

Bella Ayre debuts for us.

The injury list reveals two un-announced players have joined our squad; Appleby and Ryan will play for us down the track.

For the third time, an EFC VFLW player kicks four goals in a game (all three were Frew). But in the literal closing seconds CBomb joins her.

1 Like
16

7.19.61 defeats 2.3.15

Appleby and G.L.O.R.I.A. debut (Nalder misses a second chance to get to 50 games). COVID and other illnesses start rushing us, with Marshall the most notable OUT.

Clifford gives an on-ground eulogy for women’s footy pioneer Ann Rulton before the game, and after one of her goals.

image
image689×871 42.2 KB

image
image847×1008 45.9 KB

At halftime we lead 2.10.22 to 0.1.1, and I am annoyed. Appleby has a debut goal early in the second half, thankfully.

image
image1204×782 47.1 KB

At three-quarter time I’m going back to “our” end and this happens:

(At the time CBomb was on 13.2 for the year, so it was a fair question.)

Ayre is thrown forward in the last quarter.

The AFL photographer gives me caption material for the rest of the year:

17

14.10.94 (our second-highest score ever) destroys 3.3.21

Notable INs: Orritt (debut), Nalder (50 games), Barba

Federica hits 25 games.

Davies hits 25 games for us, 55 overall, and gets retrospectively chaired off at the end of the game with Nalder.

Unlike some teams (i.e. Fark Carlton), the Pies are still stacking their team with AFLW players (10).

Frew kicks 4 goals again.

18

7.7.49 defeats 0.2.2

We arrogantly rest Clifford, and the team falls apart (the score lies). Debuting are Teagan Williams (playing back, oddly) and Stephanie Asciak (wing).

Marshall racks up 25 VFLW games.

19

9.10.64 defeats 1.2.8 – most of that coming in the second half.

Drew Ryan (left) debuts alongside fellow Pioneer Williams. That’s part of 8 changes, mostly due to the “spicy cough”.

Ex-Bomber Emma Mackay plays her 100th VWFL/VFLW game for Fark Northern.

image
image538×870 62.3 KB

1 Like
20

After 12 rounds of dodging the other two top teams, we finally meet Hawthorn.

4.7.31 draws 4.7.31, and percentage matters again.

Perhaps learning from the Davies tale, someone whose initials were definitely not C.U. asks if C.U. is playing her 50th game. She is!

For TV reasons, it is an early start…

image
image629×873 52.7 KB

Her partner-in-crime, Barba, reaches 25 games.

La Presidenta and quite a few others succumb to COVID and the Hangar Hangover.

First Name: Surname: Injury / Unavailable Weeks Out:
Renee Tierney AFL Health and Safety Protocols 1 Week
Jordan Zanchetta AFL Health and Safety Protocols 1 Week
Bella Clarke AFL Health and Safety Protocols 1 Week
Eloise Gardner AFL Health and Safety Protocols 1 Week
Octavia Di Donato AFL Health and Safety Protocols 1 Week
Abby McDonald AFL Health and Safety Protocols 1 Week
Steph Asciak Illness 1 Week
Tia Davidge Illness 1 Week
Emily Everist Illness 1 Week
Scarlett Orritt Illness 1 Week
Kendra Heil Unavailable 1 Week
Jayda Richardson Unavailable 1 Week
Caitlin Sargent Unavailable TBC
Cecilia McIntosh Hamstring TBC
Maykaylah Appleby Concussion 1 Week

We dominate most of the day, but the Hawks rush us at the end. Below, the shot by Drew Ryan after the final siren:

image
image1205×405 51.6 KB