Good mole!
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Ummmmm… wait a sec.
There’s a 175cm Sam Johnston who just finished her third year with the Bendigo Pioneers…
… and Hudl confirms it is her, not the VFLW/AFLW veteran.
Eva Harris career stats… two of those bags in the NTFLW were against the woeful Wanderers, so… meh, even if it was against adults. There was a big gap between second-last and very-very-very-last.
But she kicked all four of her team’s goals vs Tiwi in round three!
https://www.playhq.com/public/profile/ae01d358-bbfa-4d6c-97b2-509adea20b8d/statistics?tenant=afl
Here’s a quick summary, based on last year’s numbers and available heights (guesses for the height of Molly and Freya, and age of Molly).
| # | Name | Age | Height | Games (VFLW) | Games (EFC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | Molly Heymanson | 19 | 180 | - | - |
| - | Eva Harris | 18 | 179 | - | - |
| - | Freya Hibberd | 22 | 177.5 | - | - |
| - | Sam Johnston | 19 | 175 | - | - |
| 73 | Sophie Molan | 23 | 175 | 37 | 26 |
| 42 | Maddison Ford | 20 | 174 | 24 | 24 |
| 52 | Jayda Richardson | 21 | 174 | 16 | 16 |
| 80 | Marnie Robinson | 19 | 173 | 12 | 12 |
| 49 | Emily Tassiopoulos | 20 | 172 | 9 | 9 |
| - | Maggie O’Connell | 21 | 171 | - | - |
| - | Eva Downie | 18 | 170 | - | - |
| 58 | Chloe Prpic | 20 | 169 | 20 | 20 |
| 61 | El Chaston | 23 | 169 | 34 | 28 |
| 63 | Lily Bateman | 20 | 169 | 14 | 14 |
| 68 | Scarlett Orritt | 20 | 169 | 19 | 19 |
| - | Madison Ibrahim | 18 | 169 | - | - |
| - | Lucy Thompson | 18 | 169 | - | - |
| 64 | Ashlea Melnikas | 30 | 168 | 73 | 15 |
| 77 | Tia Davidge | 20 | 168 | 31 | 31 |
| 47 | Christina Bernardi | 34 | 167 | 12 | 4 |
| 70 | Isabelle Porter | 27 | 167 | 30 | 12 |
| - | Sophie McIntosh | 18 | 167 | 1 | - |
| - | Bella Page | 19 | 167 | - | - |
| - | Meg Harrison | 18 | 166 | - | - |
| 59 | Tayla Hart-Aluni | 23 | 165 | 17 | 12 |
| - | Brooke Plummer | 20 | 165 | 16 | - |
| - | Marli Klaumanns-Moller | 24 | 164 | 19 | - |
| - | Megan Mifsud | 19 | 164 | 1 | - |
| - | Layla Prince | 21 | 164 | 11 | - |
| - | Grace Azzopardi | 18 | 163 | - | - |
| - | Kayla Peake | 29 | 163 | 12 | - |
| - | Ella Brown | 18 | 162 | - | - |
| - | Abbey McDonald | 21 | 162 | 14 | - |
| 45 | Sarah Ford | 28 | 160 | 18 | 18 |
| - | Maddison Albrecht | 18 | 160 | - | - |
| - | Mikalee Maroney | 18 | 158 | 1 | - |
| 62 | Ava Jordan | 19 | 150 | 9 | 8 |
I am really hoping some of those players are both zippy and skilled, because the Best 21 I initially want to list is too tall.
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Casey’s captain was Sam JOHNSON if I recall correctly, not Johnston.
There are multiple footy players for both names! And Google happily ignores what you write when giving results…
(and Johnstone)
More numbers incoming?
(Not the clearest whether Tassiopoulos still has 49… best guess that is Ibrahim in 75)
EDIT: nope, it’s Marli Klaumanns-Moller
The Messiah is injured/unavailable, again.
By Peter Williams
SHARING the head coach role with Ross Smith in 2025, Nicola Tenabel has stepped up from the assistant position and is excited about what the new season holds for the Calder Cannons. We caught up with Tenabel at the recent Preseason Testing Day to hear how the club is shaping up ahead of Round 1.
PRESEASON
“Preseason’s been really good actually. We’ve had a lot of work in terms of connection and unity. That’s really been able to push some of the players so we’ve had a big focus once you feel really trusted, it’s now them pushing each other so that’s how we’ve really kicked off the season this season and the results are showing a little bit which is good.”
TOP-AGE VIC METRO HUB MEMBERS
Chloe Baker-West
Utility | 165cm | 02/02/2007
“She’s currently getting through our final bits of rehab. She has been an absolute leader and just been announced as our co-vice-captain with two other players and she’s just such a dedicated player to her football. But she’s also really helping the team out as well, we’re looking forward to getting her. We obviously want her to be peaking for Metro so we’re really excited about that.”
Jade McLay
Tall Utility | 178cm | 01/02/2007
“Jade has been announced as our captain. She’s been a real voice of the team, she’s been great in terms of rallying the players around and in terms of the athletes pushing each other. We’re ready to see her on the field. Like Chloe she’s got a very high schedule going so we just need to make sure we maintain those, but we’re ready to see her hit the field, she’s pretty excited.”
OTHERS TO WATCH
“One of our key defenders, Taylah Gilcrist. Really great intercept marker, we’re really hoping to see how she goes this year. She’s one definitely to watch in our backline. She did captain the Under 17 Metro squad last year, rotated into a bit of forward too, so we’ll see how she goes. Then we’ve got Eden Grant, she’s great, a big tall ruck. Really fit and great repeat efforts and so it will be good to see her out on the field.”
STYLE OF PLAY
“The big thing we’re talking about is joining in and staying connected. Hopefully you’ll see that on the footy field. You’ll see where players won’t just go and dispose and stop and watch, it’s about what’s next, how do I help each other out. We’re looking forward to seeing that flow through on the footy field and see how we go.”
SEASON FOCUS
“I think for us the regular season we’ll continue on the focus of pushing each other to develop. Ultimately we want to get as many girls drafted as possible. We’ll utilise days like this to have a look at how we’re doing in terms of some of our high performance and then what we can incorporate into our training to have them fully ready and rock and roll in Round 1. It’s exciting, it’s just around the corner.”
By Peter Williams
BOASTING three first round AFL Women’s draft selections last year, Bendigo Pioneers are on a high ahead the 2025 Coates Talent League Girls season. With three top-age Vic Country summer hub representatives and some others to watch, we caught up with coach Whitney Kennedy about her side this year.
PRESEASON
“The whole playing group has been looking really good. I think our training standards and the intensity they have been training with has been really positive. Holistically, really good.”
TOP-AGE VIC COUNTRY HUB MEMBERS
Ava Bibby
Key Forward | 186cm | 09/05/2007
“She’s one of our taller players so she’ll spend a bit of time probably between the ruck and forward. She’s really, really good aerially, she’s got a really brilliant kick. Developing more of her running ability and capacity so it should be pretty exciting season for her.”
Ella Jeffrey
Midfielder/Defender | 167cm | 09/08/2007
“We’ve played her largely off half-back last year but we’ll look to roll her through some inside mid work and potentially push her forward through this year. Beautiful kick of the footy, really tough at the contest, strong, powerful. Looking forward to seeing what she can do.”
Olivia Lacy
General Utility | 169cm | 15/06/2007
“Olivia will hopefully spend a bit of time across all three lines this year. Her running ability is really good, she’s got a fantastic work rate and her general skill level is really quite positive which is exciting to see. Her tackling is also her weapon, she’s a really good pressure player.”
OTHERS TO WATCH
“Issy Boulton is a smaller forward, pretty electric type player. She’s shown some great improvement in her running ability and speed throughout preseason. She’s been super exciting and she’s just someone who looks pretty dangerous and lively when we get the ball inside 50. Hopefully we can see some really good things from her.”
“I think Lacey Nihill is travelling along really well [with] her professionalism and her will to want to get better. She’s becoming a real competitor. Beth Morris is similar, she falls into that category of she’s got an outstanding work rate. She’s been given some feedback about her running and she’s made massive improvements. She’s just a competitor, really good in the contest and so reliable for us. They’re two keys and then I think Georgia Garlick as well.”
RETURNING OVER-AGERS
“We’ve got Sasha Pearce who’s a development player at Fark Carlton VFLW. She’ll spend a bit of time down at Fark Carlton and with us as well which is really exciting. She’s our key over-ager that is coming back.”
STYLE OF PLAY
“We want to be a team that looks to use the open side of the ground on transition. With transition from the half-back line into offence, really aggressively and really quickly and with high support of each other. We’ll look to play that way and we want to try and be able to move the ball down the ground of the line and through different angles and just allow the girls to also showcase their strengths as well. We want to be able to put them into roles and positions where they’ve got the opportunity to shine so that’s probably our biggest thing.”
Christina knows to go for the expensive stuff!
Yes, I make this post, or a variant of it, every year!
57 Plummer
72 Hibberd
Both previously listed as 174cm. I don’t think Richo has heels THAT big on!
Regardless of actual height difference, she’s much bigger than VFLW-team-of-the-year-CHB Ford.
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OK, here is almost all of the numbers!
“Almost” because no Hart-Aluni or Sophie Macintosh*, and a few annoyingly unreadable.
Stitched together because that is apparently impossible in “modern” social media…
*fifth from left front row is either her or (I think more likely) Megan Mifsud
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You may conclude from positioning that leadership goes Chaston, then Melnikas/Page, then Bernadi/Porter.
If so, whoah from Bella Page!
Looking at the joint VFL/VFLW photo:
- the missing player was Sophie McIntosh, and she is #78.
- Madison Ibrahim is #41.
- Eva Harris is #76
- Kayla Peake is #71 (you can see the 7 in the VFLW photo, and what can not be a 9 in the joint photo).
- And therefore Sam Johnston must be #79
So that should make it:
| # | Name |
|---|---|
| 41 | Madison Ibrahim |
| 42 | Maddison Ford |
| 44 | Layla Prince |
| 45 | Sarah Ford |
| 46 | Megan Mifsud |
| 47 | Christina Bernardi |
| 48 | Maddison Albrecht |
| 49 | Emily Tassiopoulos |
| 50 | Eva Downie |
| 51 | Drew Ryan |
| 52 | Jayda Richardson |
| 53 | Abbey McDonald |
| 54 | Meg Harrison |
| 55 | Mikalee Maroney |
| 56 | Maggie O’Connell |
| 57 | Brooke Plummer |
| 58 | Chloe Prpic |
| 59 | Tayla Hart-Aluni |
| 60 | Bella Page |
| 61 | El Chaston |
| 62 | Ava Jordan |
| 63 | Lily Bateman |
| 64 | Ashlea Melnikas |
| 65 | Ella Brown |
| 66 | Molly Heymanson |
| 67 | Grace Azzopardi |
| 68 | Scarlett Orritt |
| 70 | Isabelle Porter |
| 71 | Kayla Peake |
| 72 | Freya Hibberd |
| 73 | Sophie Molan |
| 74 | Lucy Thompson |
| 75 | Marli Klaumanns-Moller |
| 76 | Eva Harris |
| 77 | Tia Davidge |
| 78 | Sophie McIntosh |
| 79 | Sam Johnston |
| 80 | Marnie Robinson |
(We haven’t seen Tay, but every other player from last year has retained their number, so reasonable to assume she is #59.)
Free numbers: 43 (for The Messiah?), 69 (for the LOLz)
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