VFLW - Elimination Final vs Hawks @ Box Hill City Oval, 11am Sat 8 July 2023

[theDJR]

2022 QUALIFYING FINAL

Three weeks later, we’re back at Windy Hill for the first final. The Hawks pull most but not all of their AFLW-listed players out, and lose two more to West Coast and Gold Coast the day before. We pull “Fresh Princess” Bella Ayre out for dedicated training; sadly, she would have a series of injuries and never play an AFLW game for us.

@6_monfries_and_coke

Is that number 31 for the hawks that channel 7 boundary rider girl???

Boundary Rider Girl eventually tops their disposal tally, with 17.

We strangle them to half-time, but waste our chances: 2.8.20 leads 0.0.0

The Hawks come out hard in the second half, and score the first seven points. And then things get interesting…

@theDJR

NatMac on the left follows my advice to kick the goal before the ump found a new free.

Frew got charged and decked from behind, Barba saw it coming and responded, and it was ON. NatMac had just kicked her second goal, and the ump gave her another free and hence her third goal.

@theDJR

How did Dicker get out of this without the blood of her enemies on her hands?

We know the script when the Hawks go sniping and give us a double goal: they go from a team with momentum to a remaining game score of 0-40. Ashley-Cooper kicks another goal, and then CBomb, and then Fede slots one from forty out, and Courtney’s rundown tackle becomes a goal too.

We win 8.12.60 to 1.1.7

@theDJR

I got a hug from Courtney, and all of you didn’t.

[theDJR]

Here’s Khoury being dumb. Note how CBomb tells NatMac (who is sooooo not a fighter) to kick the goal, and then goes back in as peacemaker (first thing she does is extract Dicker).

[theDJR]

VFLW season catch up | Travis Cloke

[theDJR]

2023 ROUND 1

@theDJR

This gets unfurled before the game.

Dicker is also playing her 25th game. 13 of our 21 players are debutants.

Remember when I didn’t love Meg so much?

@theDJR

And from this you can see the AFL’s third attempt in two days to tell us who was in each VFLW team was also wrong: Meg Ryan lives!

Mind you, her as first ruck is a bit scary.

Hawks are playing 14 current or ex-AFLW players. We… are not. Their average age is 3 years more than ours.

@theDJR

Hurrell’s first AFLW goal was in her first game, against us.

Hurrell’s first VFLW goal was in her first game, with us.

We lead 20-8 after 1.5 quarters… the Hawks then dominate the next 1.5 quarters, making it 20-19 come the final break.

Unfortunately, Nino is in the thread.

Jayda Richardson bumps Aine McDonagh all the way to round 8.

Maddie Boyd is being annoyingly good. She has 18 disposals and kicks all 3 of the Hawk goals.

@theDJR

The single most important thing we need to do before April 4th is to…

… draft Maddie Boyd. Will lock in back-to-back VFLW premierships, and might help the AFLW team too

Somehow we don’t manage to rush a behind in the closing seconds, and…

@theDJR

I can’t believe The Front Bar hadn’t heard the draw song before this week.

It's a Draw! - YouTube

We scored 4.3.27, and the Hawks went back to their favourite 3.9.27

[theDJR]

2023 ROUND 8

@theDJR

Today’s coverage will suck as I forgot my binoculars…

Hawks are dominating, but doing nothing with it. We make it look hard, but convert our chances to lead 3.1.19 to 1.3.9 at halftime. Radford has 19 disposals and a goal already!

@theDJR

Wilson (“Willo”) comes off… and heads to the wrong bench.

@theDJR

Willo is embarrassed she ran to the wrong bench. Luckily no one documented that

Great Scott extends our lead to 26-11 at the final break.

Just the one goal in the last quarter, and we win 5.2.32 to 1.9.15.

@theDJR

@theDJR

Scoring accuracy this year by the two teams is nuts: Hawks have saved their worst for us, and we’ve saved our best for them.

Games	EFC	BHH
Against each other	9.5	4.18
Against other teams	18.41	31.38
TOTAL	27.46	35.56

Guess what? In 2021 we played the Hawks twice, and they scored a total of… 4.18!

It was the exact same scores too: 1.9 and 3.9. I remembered the 1.9 instantly: that was a Rumble in the Jungle-style match in endless rain at Box Hill where we were 1.3 after three quarters. And then we went BANG and kicked three goals in the last, to run out winners 29-15.

There’s a reason I keep imploring the Hawks to keep wasting their chances…

Manfre kicks 2 goals in a game for the first time with us.

@theDJR

Marshall 14 disposals and 6 marks
Boyd 7 and 2, and zero score

Good work, Dani!

[theDJR]

Looking like we might fit the game between showers. Big question is whether the strong wind will be going due south (to the goals right of screen) or whether it will have turned around to be wing-to-wing come game time.

If it is switching from the former to the latter during the game… I’d like to win the toss, please.

[Blummers32]

Looking forward to the game.
Not sure I’m looking forward to the car parking around there.
I’m almost tempted to try the train.

[theDJR]

Brendan Rhodes’ preview (pre-teams). He also picks Pies to beat Port, and Willy to beat FCFC.

Yes, he got the April 2021 score wrong. A lot of sources did.

PREVIEW: rebel VFLW Week One Finals

SECOND ELIMINATION FINAL:

BOX HILL HAWKS vs ESSENDON

Saturday July 8, 11:00am, Box Hill City Oval
Head-to-head: Essendon 4-3-2. At Box Hill City Oval: Essendon 2-1-1. Streak: Essendon 4 and 2 draws from past six meetings

THIS SEASON

Round 1 at NEC Hangar
ESSENDON 1.1, 3.2, 3.2, 4.3 (27)
BOX HILL HAWKS 1.1, 1.3, 2.7, 3.9 (27)

Goals: ESSENDON: Z. Hurrell, C. Sargent, R. Tierney, M. Wilson. BOX HILL HAWKS: M. Boyd 3.
Disposals: ESSENDON: R. Tierney 21, C. Ugle 18, B. Clarke 17, T. Crook, Z. Hurrell, A. Morcom, R. Sutton 14. BOX HILL HAWKS: N. Garner, J. Mifsud 23, M. Boyd, C. Hammans, G. McRae 17.
Coaches Votes: ESSENDON: C. Ugle 6, B. Clarke 3, R. Tierney 2, T. Crook 1. BOX HILL HAWKS: M. Boyd 9, J. Mifsud 6, N. Garner 3.

Round 8 at Box Hill City Oval
BOX HILL HAWKS 1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 1.9 (15)
ESSENDON 2.0, 3.2, 4.3, 5.3 (33)

Goals: ESSENDON: O. Manfre 2, M. Clifford, A. Radford, P. Scott. BOX HILL HAWKS: A. Pisano.
Disposals: ESSENDON: A. Radford 29, G. Clarke 19, S. Wales 17, S. Molan, S. van de Heuvel 16. BOX HILL HAWKS: J. Mifsud 22, L. Stone, M. van Berkel 17, G. McRae 14, A. McDonagh 13.
Coaches Votes: ESSENDON: A. Radford 10, S. Wales 6, S. van de Heuvel 1. BOX HILL HAWKS: J. Mifsud, M. van Berkel 4, L. Stone 3, G. McRae 2.

PREVIOUS FIVE HEAD-TO-HEAD

June 11, 2022: Essendon 8.12 60 def Hawthorn 1.1 7 (Qualifying Final, Windy Hill)
May 15, 2022: Hawthorn 4.7 31 drew Essendon 4.7 31 (Box Hill City Oval)
April 10, 2021: Essendon 4.5 29 def Hawthorn 1.10 16 (Box Hill City Oval)
March 13, 2021: Essendon 8.7 55 def Hawthorn 3.9 27 (NEC Hangar)
June 15, 2019: Hawthorn 8.8 56 def Essendon 3.2 20 (Windy Hill)

PAST FIVE MATCHES - BOX HILL HAWKS

R14: 3.3 21 def Southern Saints 0.4 4 (Box Hill City Oval)
R13: 6.6 42 def Casey Demons 2.3 15 (Casey Fields)
R12: 3.9 27 drew Geelong 4.3 27 (Deakin University)
R11: 3.8 26 lost to Williamstown 4.5 29 (Box Hill City Oval)
R10: 5.3 33 def North Melbourne 1.5 11 (Arden St)

PAST FIVE MATCHES - ESSENDON

R14: 6.5 41 def Western Bulldogs 4.4 28 (Windy Hill)
R13: 3.1 19 lost to Port Melbourne 3.4 22 (ETU Stadium)
R12: 4.6 30 def Casey Demons 3.7 25 (Casey Fields)
R11: 5.7 37 lost to North Melbourne 6.9 45 (NEC Hangar)
R10: 6.6 42 def Darebin 1.2 8 (La Trobe University)

SUMMARY

These two teams have put on some terrific contests in the past couple of years and have probably been the best two on paper. However, the Hawks’ wastefulness in attack has been a factor in them not beating the Bombers in their past six meetings (3.9, 1.9, 1.1, 4.7, 1.10, 3.9). It also cost them six premiership points in Rounds 11 and 12 and the double chance. It doesn’t make pretty reading and if they repeat that profligacy they won’t be playing in the semi-finals. The Bombers have been unconvincing in the past month, including needing a late rally to overcome the Bulldogs to secure their finals spot last week. They will also need to play better to keep their premiership defence alive. It’s anybody’s game.

EARLY PREDICTION

Essendon by 4

[theDJR]

The club got the team up first!

I like the IN for pace.

I hate hate hate the OUT.

VFLW: Elimination final team v Box Hill

Essendon has named one change ahead of Saturday’s elimination final against Box Hill.

Maddy Gray will return to the side, while Tamsin Crook will miss through injury.

Coming off a season-defining win against the Bulldogs last week at Windy Hill, the Bombers now have the opportunity to make a charge through finals in the hopes of repeating last year’s feat to again raise the Premiership cup.

First bounce is at 11am at Box Hill City Oval.

B	B. Clarke (45)	M. Ford (42)
HB	M. Pearson (64)	S. Molan (73)	Z. Hurrell (53)
C	K. Heil (78)	R. Sutton (72)	C. Ugle (41)
HF	T. Davidge (77)	M. Ryan (76)	O. Manfre (43)
F	M. Wilson (66)	M. Clifford (47)
R	J. Morrow (60)	E. Chaston (61)	G. Dicker (44)
INT	M. Gray (48)	M. Huta (56)	C. Prpic (58)
	S. Orritt (68)	J. Richardson (52)
EMG	L. Spargo (51)	K. Russell (50)	L. Bateman (63)
	E. Cornish (55)
IN	M. Gray
OUT	T. Crook (injured)

[theDJR]

Tamsin is out after 21 consecutive games. My bad:

@theDJR

Crook bashed up (kick to calf, blow to the head) but will be good to go.

[theDJR]

Grace is on 26 uninterrupted games. Courtney is on 48!

Meg is the only other player to have played all games this year.

[theDJR]

Hawks remain fragile. Trend is in-out-in-out…

VFLW Elimination Final Team: Experienced defender returns - Box Hill Hawks

Box Hill has made two changes for its Elimination Final battle with Essendon on Saturday morning at Box Hill City Oval.

Both changes are in the backline, with the experience of Chantella Perera set to combine with the youth of Chloe Bailey.

Unfortunately, Jess Trend and Akayla Peterson come out of the side injured.

[Blummers32]

Damn.
Tamsin and Bella work well as a duo in the backline.

[PH_WARFRadio]

Both teams on one post

[theDJR]

One day you will select a cell off-screen before screen-shotting.

[theDJR]

Our changes since the round 8 win at Box Hill City Oval are:

IN	OUT	Comment
Bella Clarke	Tamsin Crook	key defender
Jaimee-Lee Morrow	Krystal Russell	ruck
Madison Gray	Melanie Bateman	half-back (ish)
Manaia Huta	Sarah Grunden	mid for a forward

I’m a little bit relieved to see we’re nominally breaking even at full-back. And the Hawks losing Maddie Boyd is hugely relevant.

[theDJR]

Hawks have had much more drastic changes since that game. There is serious quality both in and out.

OUT:
Baird
Boyd
McDonagh
McLaughlin
Peterson
Pisano
Ryan
Stone
Trend

IN:
Bailey
Collingwood
Gray
Holmes
Perera
Simpson
Tessari
von Bertouch
Wise

[theDJR]

It’s interesting they’ve named Grace Matser at full back (she rucked in the previous game against us – it was a great contest). It will take all of Mia’s rat cunning to beat that 186cm of aggression.

Their first ruck (Bella Gray) was labelled their player of the week last week. Some video of that below:

https://twitter.com/boxhillvflw/status/1676856692422868993

[theDJR]

GAME DAY.

BOM are saying that at the opening bounce and for the rest of the game there will be >50km/h gusts of winds to the SE (from the camera to the goals on the right).

[theDJR]