That’s the American, Danielle Marshall
Women’s football is a different vibe, huh.
Gillard here but didn’t play. No apparent injury.
42 looks like ex Lions AFLW player Jordan Zanchetta
And loving it going by the look on it’s face!
She’s not 156cm, then! Phew.
And a cameo from Matty Dea!
The view from Bullant Hill: note that it appears that plebs can climb those new external stairs to watch from the top balcony.
Soooo… that was a demolition of a team that was basically tied with us all last year (and today included 7 AFLW players). And I definitely wouldn’t say that was peak us.
This review will be a bit light-on in the absence of stats and learning a stack of new players. As a sample of one, hard to say how much Casey suck and/or we should be credited.
Last year, after Quigley Renton got injured, I went on and on and on and oooooooooon about us needing another key forward. And 14 Daniel Marshall was fantastic for us today, and that meant Clifford was hugely freed up – Mia-Rae set up a LOT of our scores today. Both look lumbering but lead and mark well, work hard at ground level, and were a huge part of our big score today. I don’t think they ever got in each other’s way, either.
We conceded the ruck (Gloria is 173cm, FFS, and Cornish and mystery #25 not that much bigger) but won the bulk of clearances regardless. #42 Jordan Zanchetta from the Bears AFLW probably had the greatest amount of midfield time for us, and doesn’t look shorter than Ugle while being much more solid.
Nanscawen missed last week’s game so just easing in. Probably not much more than 20 disposals. The bit where she had the ball and her head low and somehow managed to sway entirely out of the way of an oncoming train was awesome.
Nattie Macdonald played mid all day, which is new to her. To be honest I didn’t notice her much; not sure how much bench time was in that.
Elarmaly… argh, I think I’ll just write Gloria most times… may not be a key ruck but had some nice cameos as the extra midfielder in the third and spent time forward in the last and looked decent there. Was better than Cornish, who is OK at neutralising real rucks but not much more.
Davies continues her growth from the second half of last year. Another tidy three goals. Her last goal had the benefit of being in the wind shade of the Hangar but was still a very impressive banana from the boundary.
Marianna Anthony was one of those watching on today. Frew played last week and La Presidenta says she kicked another ridiculous goal. Clifford/Marshall/Davies/Frew is a decent base for a forward line: all of them can kick bags.
Currenti quiet forward till the last quarter where she got involved in lead-mark chains. #24 Renee Tierney from Geelong Falcons/VFLW is a solid 19yo who chipped in with two goals from individual brilliance.
Heil played on the wing (in so far as that is a position in a 16-player arrangement). Was regularly sneaking off on her own. Still a defender at heart as a couple times she sagged back to cut off rebound attempts by Casey. In fact that was one of the most notable things today: while a lot of the time the ground was compressed, Casey had zero successful forays over the top (and by successful I include ANY score, not just the non-existent goals).
We had a very same-y backline with no big talls and usual small CBomb quiet up forward. Presumably we wouldn’t get away with that against some other line-ups. Gardner, Crook, and Lennox are some of the options to bring in when more size is needed. Julian and Ashley-Cooper were key parts of the composed wall rebuffing attacks.
The tackling and team pressure was the highlight and how we squeezed Casey into irrelevance.
And fark Helmet Head ump. He was atrocious.
Goals: Davies 3, Marshall 2, Tierney 2, Clifford 1, Heil 1
No match next week.
The VFLW season is set to start on the long announced date (Feb 12). We might squeeze in the team announcement and jumper presentations before then 
I’ve had a glance at an early sketch of the fixture, and although I can’t say much until it’s official release, I can say it will be like last year with some teams front loading home games, while others who have to deal with cricket on their ground, being back loaded.
And we’re going to bloody Geelong again 
