It turns out I’m not mad and bad-of-hearing* after all!
Bailey Hunt confirmed!
*I am bad of hearing.
1 Like
The proof is in the playing… but we might have done alright this off-season.
Sarah Perkins is newly listed on the team Hudl page, as are the two most-recently noted above.
Lily den Houting, an ex-Pioneer, is also newly listed. About to be 22yo mid (?) who was named on the wing in the 2023 Central Victoria Football League’s Team of the Year.
I’m going a tad early, but here’s a photo cheat sheet of our 18 new players (ordered by numbers where known, then alphabetically).
Bailey Hunt #79
Sarah Perkins #55
Cheat sheet above has been updated with three more players, minor fixes, and newly-known numbers.
Phone training:
MFord Manfre Grace SFord Tracey Tracey Tracey nope KylaTracey MadGray Krystal Ryan JaydaRichardson Huta Prpic HartAluni JamieeLee Chaston Jordan LilyBateman McNeice Gallagher Orrit Shaw Molan Scoullar TiaDavidge Mahony Robinson Crabtree Crabtree Crabtree Crabtree Crabtree Crabtree DaniMarshall Porter Porter IsabellePorter IsabellePorter IsabellePorter IsabellePorter AshMelnikas CarrissBrett BaileyHunt BaileyHunt BaileyHunt Huggard Murdoch Tassiopoulos Tassiopoulos Tassiopoulos Tassiopoulos Perkins Bernadi Bernadi Bernadi Bernadi Bernadi bernaNOPE CBernadi CBernadi CBernadi CBernadi don’t come back CBomb denHouting denHouting denHouting denHouting
This is close to the final answer: there remain 6 slots to place 4 (?) players in.
| # | Name |
|---|---|
| 41 | Amy Carris-Brett |
| 42 | Maddison Ford |
| 43 | Olivia Manfre |
| 44 | Grace Dicker |
| 45 | Sarah Ford |
| 46 | Kyla Tracey |
| 47 | Christina Bernardi |
| 48 | Madison Gray |
| 49 | Emily Tassiopoulos |
| 50 | Krystal Russell |
| 51 | Drew Ryan |
| 52 | Jayda Richardson |
| 53 | - |
| 54 | Kalani Scoullar |
| 55 | Sarah Perkins |
| 56 | Manaia Huta |
| 57 | Tayla Crabtree |
| 58 | Chloe Prpic |
| 59 | Tayla Hart-Aluni |
| 60 | Jaimee-Lee Morrow |
| 61 | Eloise Chaston |
| 62 | Ava Jordan |
| 63 | Lily Bateman |
| 64 | - |
| 65 | Karly McNeice |
| 66 | Emily Gallagher |
| 67 | - |
| 68 | Scarlett Orritt |
| 69 | - |
| 70 | - |
| 71 | Maddison Shaw |
| 72 | Ruby Murdoch |
| 73 | Sophie Molan |
| 74 | - |
| 75 | - |
| 76 | Danielle Marshall |
| 77 | Tia Davidge |
| 78 | Ruby Mahony |
| 79 | Bailey Hunt |
| 80 | Marnie Robinson |
| - | Isabelle Porter |
| - | Ashlea Melnikas |
| - | Ellie Huggard |
| - | Lily den Houting |
VFLM article out. VFLW equivalent presumably very soon.
Photos of every (?) player at:
Gallagher looks a fair bit taller than Molan (175).
Huggard is #75
It’s not everyone:
Porter and Melnikas are not shown (we know everyone else’s number, including Lily den Houting getting #71).
You can work out who the “late departure” is from that photo… she’s also gone from the Hudl listing (but not showing anywhere else).
EDIT: but she is listed in the article below! So I dunno.
And here we go:
Maddi Shaw played in #71, but apparently has got #67.
Aaaaaaaand… they’ve fixed the article.
… to …
OK, let’s see where that leaves us.
Here’s a possible Best 21:
| B | Maddison Ford | Karly McNeice |
| Marnie Robinson | Danielle Marshall | Bailey Hunt |
| Isabelle Porter | Eloise Chaston | Sarah Ford |
| Kyla Tracey | Olivia Manfre | Tayla Hart-Aluni |
| F | Sarah Perkins | Christina Bernardi |
| Krystal Russell | Ruby Mahony | Sophie Molan |
| INT | Jaimee-Lee Morrow | Maddison Shaw |
| Chloe Prpic | Tia Davidge | Manaia Huta |
In doubt for round one:
- Maddison Ford
- Tayla Hart-Aluni
- Bailey Hunt
- Isabelle Porter
- Christina Bernadi
The first two are in rehab right now, but both were demonstrating progress this past Saturday and I suspect they may be available for the first real game in 11 days.
The other three are less plausible, especially Porter.
The wings are shaky “best 22 generic mid” namings, especially Porter (tagger? back pocket?). Huta is on the bench and other players who generally play wing (e.g Ryan) are available.
You would assume Melnikas will get a run when available – she starts this year only second to McNeice for VFLW games played, and was previously in the Norf leadership group. Catch is I’m not sure she replaces anyone in that named back line (and is also behind sixth defender Shaw, listed on the bench).
We lost a bunch of our most experienced players this year. And you will recall my analysis showing the 2023 players we put out there was by far our youngest ever.
But I think we’re done a reasonably close like-for-like replacement – see the table below.
| Role | Out | In |
|---|---|---|
| Key forward | Mia-Rae Clifford | Sarah Perkins |
| Key back | Tamsin Crook | Dani Marshall |
| Key back | Bella Clarke | Marnie Robinson |
| Mid | Grace Dicker | Ruby Mahony |
| Mid | Reese Sutton | Sarah Ford |
| Ute | Courtney Ugle | Bailey Hunt |
| Forward | Meg Ryan | Christina Bernadi |
| Medium back | Zoe Hurrell | TBC who is best, but numerous options |
Note that the table has omitted the likes of Ashley-Cooper and Sargent, because they played no significant part in our 2023 team. If some of those INs do similarly non-event, then the balance shifts.
There’s considerable experience forward, back, and mid in that squad. We’ll probably still skew younger than most VFLW teams, though.
Three of the youngest five start the year at 18-19yo in key roles (Robinson, mFord, and Russell). The first two are surrounded by oodles of experience and I think they will be guns regardless.
I’ve selected the least-experienced Russell as our first ruck. I’d say it is up for grabs, though. Morrow showing she can be a credible key defender puts an extra wrinkle in selection.
19yo Prpic and Davidge got default spots on the bench ahead of many other young’uns, given they played more games than anyone else for us last year (OK, Molan also played 14 to tie Prpic).
Assess the claimed heights in the back row:
- Marshall 168 (stop hiding at the back left every time!)
- Morrow 177
- Gallagher TBC
- Scoullar 190
- Russell 180
- Huggard 166 (slightly forward)
- Perkins 173
- Hunt 171 (slightly forward)
- Richardson 174
- Molan 175
We don’t have evidence for everyone’s shoes, but 
Yeah, well, there are a few annoying supporters out there who won’t leave her alone.
I’m expecting the restraining order in the post by the end of the week.
It has been pointed out that today is the Breaking News day on Blitz, so to follow @Paul_Cousins lead in the VFL signings thread, I should probably also let the good people who have followed the VFLW know that I have also stepped down from my role in the VFLW.
It’s been a wild ride and I have loved (almost) every second of it. I’ve made lifelong friends both on this website and IRL, and got to tick a couple of bucket list items off including drinking champagne from a premiership cup and attending (a pretty tame) Mad Monday.
Thank you all for getting around the girls - and please keep doing so. You don’t know how much they appreciate having people cheer their names at games. I’m so proud that in our most celebratory times, the leaders of the VFLW opened their arms and welcomed so many of us diehards in.
I’m backing into a bush like Homer, but I have memories and a tattoo to remind me of the amazing times with EFC and the VFLW.
Probably means more Ziggy butts being televised at VFLW games moving forward…
8 Likes