McNeice gets a finger to the next attack.
4-31
Scoullar came back on, by the way.
Stupid bounce sees them running into goal… and almost failing to kick the ball. In the end it was a forward-rolling drop kick.
4-37
McNeice just enough pressure to force the next shot out on the full.
P.S. it wasn’t Patterson who went off for them earlier. I know that as she is currently trying to convince herself she’s stronger and meaner than Robinson.
Hint: she isn’t. And Marnie is enjoying demonstrating that.
Final score 0.4.4 loses to 5.8.38
I’m not too unhappy with that, as I can see marked improvement is possible and some of these new players can be significant for us.
Mind you, the reigning premiers can add Fede Bella et al…
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Retrospectively, here’s the team. You can be reasonably satisfied that these numbers are the real deal – no returning players have changed numbers, and all new players are in numbers whose previous owner has departed.
| Number | Full name |
|---|---|
| 43 | Olivia Manfre |
| 45 | Sarah Ford |
| 46 | Kyla Tracey |
| 50 | Krystal Russell |
| 51 | Drew Ryan |
| 52 | Jayda Richardson |
| 56 | Manaia Huta |
| 58 | Chloe Prpic |
| 60 | Jaimee-Lee Morrow |
| 61 | Eloise Chaston |
| 62 | Ava Jordan |
| 63 | Lily Bateman |
| 65 | Karly McNeice |
| 66 | Emily Gallagher |
| 68 | Scarlett Orritt |
| 71 | Maddison Shaw |
| 73 | Sophie Molan |
| 74 | Kalani Scoullar |
| 77 | Tia Davidge |
| 78 | Ruby Mahony |
| 80 | Marnie Robinson |
Despite what the score may indicated the team performance was better than the sum of its parts. Some of the key individual performances were:
- Morrow – wow! At Essendon she has only ever played ruck or forward. Today she played as a key defender, and I expected her to be caught out for speed/agility. Nope, this was a great contested lock-down performance. You can see at the link below that Footscray originally had her as a defender but over time named her forward, back, centre (twice!), and ruck once.
https://vfl.aflwstats.com/player/Jaimee-Lee_Morrow
- Chaston was by far our most dangerous mid. Ford got plenty but disposal was poor, and Mahony was in between.
- Gallagher is a very decent athlete but it is yet to be determined if she will be a good footballer.
- McNeice, Shaw, and Davidge all had good contested games (the first two in defence). Tracey got plenty of the ball, too.
- Marnie Robinson is a very very good pick-up.
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This may sound ridiculous given the departure of Crook and Clarke, but our key defender setup might be better this year. Robinson is a similar size and aggro to Clarke, Ford is now bigger and demonstrated in Darwin that she is taking a step up, and we have Marshall all season rather than just cameos.
Plus Morrow, which I did not have on my bingo card.
But that just helps us avoid getting smashed; it doesn’t help us win games as I suggested above. So where can the difference come from?
- We have Ford and Marshall to return. At the very least that releases Molan to play further up the ground. If Morrow stays back, maybe one of them goes forward to provide a legitimate key forward?
- Molan is a distinct point of difference from our mostly small mids, both getting the ball and kicking it long forward.
- Add Dicker and, to a lesser extent, Porter to the mid group.
- Perkins as FF demands attention from opposition defenders, plural. If Manfre is lucky enough to become the “third” forward she is smart enough to be kicking goals.
We made a prelim last year despite being awful at scoring, and both that lack of forward delivery/recipients and our all-ground pressure was on display today. Yes, we are minus Sutton in the midfield, but I think we have more depth there this year.
Do I think we’ll beat Port in round one? Probably not, but I don’t think it is impossible.
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Port Melbourne have some social media presence, unlike EFC. Photos below from them.
Gallagher rucking:
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Sorry if I seem out of the loop, is Sarah Perkins who we are talking about here?
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Yep!
Was training on Thursday (quite possibly earlier sessions as well, but that was the first session I was at for some time).
Said training session is further detailed in the Squad thread.
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Would be a very good pick up is she does play for us in 2024 that’s for sure!!
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who won?
Learn to read?
There is footage of this game; a few minutes turned up on Orritt’s Hudl page. Appears to be from an auto-tracking camera mounted high on The Hangar (not on a balcony)… where it is hard to clean its lens!
Surely you could make your way to the airport, hire a plane and parachute 
on to the Hangar roof?…….I’ll provide a soft cloth!! 
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