VFLW - Round 1 vs Saints @ The Hangar, 10:30am Sunday 28 February 2021 - free entry

This is a Radio 3DJR exclusive game.

(@PH_WARFRadio is doing the dog doodoo match instead.)

Fans will be able to attend the game free, but will need to follow the COVID-19 protocols in place below.

Please note that the match will be played on the MCG Oval at the NEC Hangar (ground closest to the building). Free street parking will be available on Melrose Drive, while public toilets will be set up for general public use.

COVID-19 PROTOCOLS:

  • All spectators must sign in to the QR code available all around the ground.
  • Building access is strictly not allowed for all spectators, including family and friends of players.
  • Spectators must view the game from ground level on the far side of the black fence away from the building and interchange benches.
  • No spectators are permitted on to the ground or into the football facilities.
  • Masks must be worn in the event you are not able to socially distance.

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I’m on day shift, you better be reporting from the ground (hopefully inside) but from the fence if needed.

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Get your filthy hands off that cup, it’s ours.

(The Saints had the highest percentage in the league back in 2019, before they crashed out in the Prelim final.)

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LAST TIME WE MET:

Essendon 7.2.44 lost to Southern 7.4.46

Mind you, we GIFTED them the win: cued below is what the most experienced player in the league (who ended up ranked third in the league B&F that year) did in the final minute. Fark me!

I’d forgotten that one.

However, it was absolutely us as a team announcing we can beat anyone: the other teams we don’t fear. Two weeks later we smashed top-of-the-ladder Kollingwood.

(We don’t talk about those three-games-in-a-day-versus-Footscray in between. They were the best of our three teams that day, though.)

Alana Barba debuted in that game, criminally hasn’t been drafted to AFLW level since then, and is still with us.

1-2-3 Bombers!

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Radio 3DJR will be live and reporting. You’ll get accurate wind descriptions. Currently looking like a warm day with a northerly – so it would suck if the play was on the far wing of the second ground!

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Excellent, don’t forget your binoculars.

Look at the last paragraph. Faaaaaark.

Great article otherwise; sad it wasn’t on our site.


February 21, 2021
by Michael Alvaro

ESSENDON’S Victorian Football League (VFL) Women’s side is now bearing the fruits of extended work over a tough 2020, according to VFLW operations manager, Charlotte Miller . The tight-knit team is set to maintain much of its core despite last year’s lost season, with plenty of hard work during the most recent off-season seeing the Bombers gel together nicely heading into Round 1.

Miller says the Bombers have built “a feeling of continuity” with so many players recommitting, while some fresh faces and exciting young talent prepare to add another dimension to the building standalone squad.

“It’s a pretty similar squad to 2020 with just a few new faces added in and not too many losses, so there’s a feeling of continuity from then,” Miller said. “We had Ruby Svarc picked up in the AFLW so we’ve lost her, but a lot of the players who were intending to play for us in 2020 are still here and we’ve picked up a few new players.

“It’s starting to feel like we’ve had a squad that maybe was a bit inexperienced in 2019 but even without a lot of games in between now and then, they’ve had that time and training together to connect really well as a team, there’s a really good energy amongst the group. “I think that’s really going to pay off for us.”

Essendon’s 2019 best and fairest Georgia Nanscawen was announced as captain earlier this month and will head a five-player leadership group ahead of former skipper, Courtney Ugle . Along with the handful of players officially at the helm, Miller outlined an extended core of leaders which will work to drive the Bombers forward in 2021.

“(Nanscawen) joined us in 2019 as she was delisted from the North Melbourne AFLW team, but was previously a Hockeyroo with 200-plus games for Australia,” she said. “She’s a quiet leader but she’s super professional. “She’s been playing professional sport since she was 16 and she knows how to manage herself on the ground, she knows how to prepare, she knows how to speak to people and how to get through games without letting things get to her.

“So she’s a really cool head out there which I think is going to be a great thing for the team. (Ugle) has been voted in as vice-captain. “They’ve very different people, very different players, very different ages, and (from) very different backgrounds, but they’re a really nice combination.

“In the rest of the leadership group, there’s Mia-Rae Clifford who’s been around in AFLW teams for a long time; she’s played at Freo, Geelong, and Melbourne in her time. “She’s come back into the VFLW with us this year and is a huge voice out on the field, she really gets the girls going and keeps them moving.

“Then we’ve got Kendra Heil who’s our Canadian player who was our runner-up best and fairest in 2019 as well, and Eloise Ashley-Cooper who’s an up-and-coming leader. “She was our young player of 2019, she came through the Murray Bushrangers NAB League program.

“‘C-Bomb’ Cecilia McIntosh is still around as well as Simone Nalder our ruck, who was in our leadership group in 2019. “She didn’t run for leadership this year because she has a few other things going on, but she’s always an outstanding leader whether she’s in that group or not.”

Along with the established stars of the squad comes a new batch of talent ready to take the competition by storm. With ties to a particularly strong talent region in the Calder Cannons, Essendon will have access to some of the finest young talent in the country through different points of the season.

While under 18 prospects are yet to enter the Bombers’ program as the NAB League season continues, top-age 19-year-olds have been training at The Hangar and will feature even more prominently throughout the VFLW competition. Among the most prominent words Miller used to assess such talent was “exciting”, and AFLW recruiters would arguably agree with that sentiment.

“We’ve signed quite a few from the 18th and 19th-year Calder group and a couple of Bendigo Pioneers players,” Miller said. “ Georgie Prespakis from Calder Cannons, that’s a pretty exciting one there. “She’ll come through as the NAB League finishes up for the rest of the season and I imagine she’ll go pretty high in the AFLW Draft this year.

“Also from Calder, Emelia Yassir is a pretty exciting little player and Tahlia Gillard we’re quite excited about as well, so we’ll see a few of them start to flow through as we can across the season – we’ve had the top-age 19-year-old flow come through, not the 18s yet.

“We’ve got two girls from Bendigo who have been training with us quite a lot as well, Elizabeth Snell and Jemma Finning , they’re both 19th-year players with Bendigo. “They’re playing in the NAB League season but we’re going to try and get them in games down here as soon as we can. “They’ve been training really well, their attitude is great and they’re bringing everything they can to the sessions.”

While the Bombers have come away from preseason with a relatively clean slate on the injury front, Miller says a couple of promising returnees could also make an impact shortly into the early rounds.

“We haven’t really had any significant injuries during our preseason,” she said. “We’ve had a few concussions and niggles here and there for different players, but overall everyone is pretty fit and ready to go.

“We’ve potentially got Gloria Elarmaly coming through, she played at Calder a couple of years ago and I think pretty much in her last game she (suffered) a really severe foot injury – it was a Lisfranc (foot injury) but she also dislocated all her toes. “She was told she’d never run again, never play football again but it looks like we’ll have her back out there by about Round 4, we’re pretty keen to see her out there.

Nicole Julian as well just started with us, she was at North Melbourne previously but comes from more of a kickboxing background. She came over and in one of her very first training sessions with us she did a knee injury, so she’s kind of been in rehab since the start of November but we’ve been working through that with her and we’re hoping she’ll be ready by about Round 2.”

With a mountain of off-season work under their belts and team cohesion backed by a bed of experience, the Bombers are set to “play fast” in 2021 and impress with their pressure game. There may only be one practice game to go off thus far, but Miller says she “saw a lot of good things” from the 28 players trialled in their 60-point win over Darebin on Thursday night.

“What we’ve been working really hard on is to get that ball movement happening,” she said. “I think in 2019 we had players who could play really well but they were rushing and maybe making decisions too quickly and they weren’t coming off. What we saw last (Thursday) night was a much calmer frame of mind, girls who were able to take that pause before making a decision and keep moving.

“They’re not doing anything they couldn’t do a while ago, but they’re just executing it much better now. We’re going for a fast game, lots of pressure, we’re a tackling team and we’re hoping our fitness is actually going to pull us through and give us the edge this year.”

Plenty is happening at The Hangar with new women’s facilities finally finished ahead of season proper and an AFLW license for 2022 in the Bombers’ sights. Miller wished to shoutout the work of head coach Brendan Major , as well as the physio and high performance staff who stuck with the team purely out of care during last year. With the fruits of that work now coming to the fore, it is fair to say the commitment is paying off.

No official fixture has been released, but the Bombers are set to commence their VFLW campaign next weekend and play out of The Hangar until April due to ongoing developments at Windy Hill.

As mentioned in the above article, the below is a year old but relevant. The 2021 NAB League is up to round 4 this week.

In round one, Prepakis had 21 disposals and 11 tackles and was named on the bench of the League Team of the Week. Yassir was named in the centre, and Gillard was named at CHB. Gillard also plays ruck and forward.

BRING THEM IN.

Calder Cannons young gun Georgie Prespakis took out the NAB League Girls best and fairest award overnight, 12 months after her sister Madison achieved the same feat.

Prespakis polled a total of 20 votes in seven of her eight matches in 2019 – six times being judged best-afield.

The 16-year-old averaged 22.8 disposals, 2.4 marks, 5.6 tackles and 1.3 goals – including one seven-goal haul – this season.

“It’s a fantastic achievement, and something that’s really well deserved,” Female Talent Coordinator Russell Humphrey said.

“Georgie had a wonderful season and we were really pleased with the development she showed across her eight matches.

“It’s another great feather in her cap after winning our club’s Meg McArthur Medal as the side’s best player.”

It also becomes the third-straight season a Cannon has taken out the award, with current Collingwood player Chloe Molloy earning the honour in the maiden NAB League Girls – the then-known TAC Cup – 2017 season.

Madison Prespakis was drafted by Carlton in last year’s AFL Women’s draft, however Georgie will continue to develop in the NAB League for a further two season before being eligible to be selected by an AFLW club.

“It’s brilliant to have had all three winners come from our club,” Humphrey said.

“It comes down to our players’ willingness to listen to coaches and to transform that into game day performance.”

Vice-captain Felicity Theodore (six votes), captain Georgia Patrikios and Alana Barba (four each), Zali Friswell and Georgia Sampson (two each) and Gloria Elarmaly, Krstel Petrevski and Laura Cocomello (one each) also polled on the night.

“It’s great that we had nine different players acknowledged by the umpires throughout the yer,” Humphrey said.

“A number of those players are bottom-agers and we look forward to their continual development in 2020.”

Prespakis was also named on a half-back flank in the 2019 NAB League Girls Team of the Year, along with Theodore and Patrikios.

Meanwhile, state combine-bound Brodie Newman was named in a back pocket in the NAB League Boys Team of the Year after a stellar season averaging 19.4 touches and 6.3 marks per game.

Ned Gentile can also hold his head high after finishing third in the Morrish Medal with 13 votes.

The small forward has averaged nearly 20 disposals, four marks and 4.1 inside 50s this NAB League season.

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Urgh…

From the Kollingwood site:

  • we will play them on ANZAC Day (weekend).
  • crowds will be permitted at all matches in Round One unless otherwise advised but limited crowd capacity will be enforced at all venues
  • matches will be streamed through the VFLW digital channels
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Scrambling around for info; annoyingly Google is placing the threads here reasonably high in searches. Tell me something I don’t know!

In their practice match two weeks ago, the Saints comfortably beat Norf.

https://www.sandringhamfc.com.au/latest-news/vflw-practice-match-v-north-melbourne-match-report

From the Norf site: teams will field 16 players per side, with five on the bench. AFLW-aligned VFLW Clubs must select a minimum of five under 22 players in all matches, while non-aligned VFLW Clubs (Essendon, Darebin, Hawthorn & Williamstown) must select a minimum of three under 22 players in all matches.

Ooh, we put something up:

The NEC Hangar will be open to fans.

ROUND OPPONENT TIME/DATE VENUE
1 Southern Saints (H) 10:30am, Sunday, February 28 NEC Hangar
2 Casey Demons (A) TBC Casey Fields
3 Hawthorn (H) 11am, Saturday, March 13 NEC Hangar
4 Darebin (H) 10:30am, Sunday, March 21 NEC Hangar
5 Port Melbourne (H) 10:30am, Sunday, March 28 NEC Hangar
6 Hawthorn (A) 10:30am, Saturday, April 10 Box Hill City Oval
7 Williamstown (H) 11am, Saturday, April 17 NEC Hangar/Windy Hill TBC

And we know from above that round 8 will be vs Kollingwood.

I’m Big Kev-ed. And you know that hasn’t been the case for the last 18 months, Big Sammy Draper aside…

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I haven’t checked all the other NAB League teams, but Calder have their single bye the week our VFLW team has their first bye. If that doesn’t apply to all linked teams, GTFO.

Now for the VFL draw…

The Saints AFLW team plays from 1pm on Sunday in Adelaide, so their VFLW team will likely be be down a couple of their better players.

I note they’ve otherwise done a bit of sensible scheduling to our dis-benefit: 5 of those first 7 weeks are against non-AFLW teams. Collingwood have started well and may or may not be at the pointy end of AFLW finals when we meet them on/near ANZAC Day.

Pretty sure that’s due to Premier Cricket finals. Running until mid-April this year due to the later start thanks to COVID…

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Yep, and it’s a shame that in the first 7 rounds we have 5 home games at the Hangar.

Just means we will have heaps of away games in the rest of the season.

Fans will be able to attend the game free, but will need to follow the COVID-19 protocols in place below.

Please note that the match will be played on the MCG Oval at the NEC Hangar (ground closest to the building). Free street parking will be available on Melrose Drive, while public toilets will be set up for general public use.

COVID-19 PROTOCOLS:

  • All spectators must sign in to the QR code available all around the ground.
  • Building access is strictly not allowed for all spectators, including family and friends of players.
  • Spectators must view the game from ground level on the far side of the black fence away from the building and interchange benches.
  • No spectators are permitted on to the ground or into the football facilities.
  • Masks must be worn in the event you are not able to socially distance.

@nackers, where’s the training report?

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Some extra training photos are on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/EssendonFCW/photos/pcb.1157994044661216/1157993444661276