VFLW - Round 10 vs Port Melb @ North Port Oval, 1pm Saturday 25th May 2024

Football Discussion Essendon VFLW
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I have soooooooo much more to say this week!

QUARTER ONE

  • Special comments from Trev and Sam in the box: they don’t think Hartog looks like a Child of the Corn anymore. I disagree.

  • 3:30 Caruso couldn’t get a regular game in 2022… and she’s a ■■■■■■■ gun.

  • By 4:55 we are behind 0-12 and I might have been a bit worried at that time… score from now onwards will be 39-15 our way!

  • Stoppage from 9:25 for the classy collect and kick from Chaston, and zippy little Manfre goaling. In the end she was front-and-centring Huta vs two defenders, and that made it easy once they failed to mark it. I think Huta forward is a bit of a bizarre move, but it somehow worked here.

  • Ava Jordan is Mini Ashley-Cooper (and playing on her).

  • 13:50 we’ve missed the raw pace of Caris-Brett, running down Ashley-Cooper here. Tay also helps on that side of things in this game.

  • 14:30 second well-timed tackle by Prpic — didn’t over-commit, and took Bella down.

  • We had a pretty all-star set of assistants today, including Perkins as connection from the coach on the bench to the elevated box, and G&P with the mids. Perkins can be seen being manifestly demonstrative towards the ump at 17:45

  • 19:00 Molan marked/intercepted so many of Port’s kicks down the line. Here she sells candy, and pumps it deep for some Manfre Magic.

  • For the second week in a row, the camera fails to capture some yobbo embarrassing himself. The stairs from the stand are steep and not that grippy, and I bounced down half-a-dozen steps on my way to the huddle… somehow I managed to throw my armpit over the railing and so stayed vertical during my rapid descent!

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QUARTER TWO

  • Listed-as-168cm Davidge is 100% our leading CHF in this game so far. 175cm AFLW veteran Gabby Seymour is not keeping up!

  • Commentary keeps thinking Jordan is sFord.

  • 3:20 Melnikas totally should be saying “I meant that” :rofl:

  • 5:15 example of Gallagher’s approach to rucking: just hit it as far towards our goals as possible! Watch through to 5:33 when she just bulldozes the Port player out of the way.

  • And to be legitimately fair, her secondary tap at 6:00 is really quite targeted, and running down Caruso at 6:15 is pretty damn impressive. It’s a hell of a minute for her.

  • 9:15, ha, now Ford is being called Ryan. You win some, you lose some.

  • 10:30 that tackle by Chaston!

  • A lot of contested scrambling in this quarter.

  • 12:15 biggest push-in-the-back ever NOT paid against MFord :rofl:

  • 15:50 that spin by Hart-Aluni and her feed out to the player coming through was :100:

  • 16:40 great tackle by Ryan

  • 17:15 Ford (correctly) gets the credit for the delivery to Manfre for her third goal. AND WE LEAD.

  • Gallagher gets her first centre “bounce” attendance: smashes it forward, chases it, pushes a Port player aside. Can you tell I liked her game, unco as it occasionally was, a lot more than I thought I would?

  • 20:01 BULLSHIT. Even on the far side of the ground Bella doesn’t complete that mark before the siren. Ump is several times closer to the loudspeakers than the camera is.

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QUARTER THREE

  • 1:30 Lily Bateman had a less obvious game this week, but you gotta give credit for marks like this backing intro trouble.

  • Davidge still playing a huge role leading up from CHF to mark in the middle of the ground.

  • Drew Ryan loves the little chip kick. They’re slow and high… and almost never intercepted. She knows what she is doing; a fair bit of these chips working is she sees the opportunities very quickly. A fairly extreme example (and some nice movement and pressure by us) can be seen in the sequence starting at 4:40.

  • This sequence finishes with Caris-Brett just running straight past sFord and everyone else to be the first to the ball, and to goal. Onya, RedRibbon.

  • You know Port are worried about their inability to score when they move both Clarke and Barton forward (on top of Harley).

  • Just LOL at the ruck “contest” at 13:50. That was brutal. They’d identified what Gallagher was doing, but not the solution :rofl: You know someone is hurting when they run away from their free kick. My chest feels caved in, too.

  • While we wait for Gallagher to be replaced… in the background, it’s obvious how Bella Clarke is a big girl compared to MFord. With Marshall absent most of the year, we’ve done alright with our two junior key defenders.

  • 15:30 C2C after Bateman marks in front of a potentially-rampaging Harley. Some hard running and classy stuff by Hart-Aluni to set up the Davidge goal.

  • 17:40 THAT is the push you pay? LOL

  • Thanks for the misses, Harley.

  • Jordan doesn’t end up with many disposals for someone mostly playing mid (6) but there are 7 tackles that go with that, and she lost few one-on-one contests.

  • 19:35 is when Ryan hyper-extends her knee. Looked horrendous and she was in bad pain, but she does come back onto the ground in the last quarter. Good work by the ump to stop play for her safety.

  • Vice-captain and captain (and vice-captain again) masterfully running down the clock.

  • 22:30 Tay go ZOOM! What a tackle!

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QUARTER FOUR

  • 2:15 just watch Gallagher come in and throw the opponent aside, including after stripping the ball off her. Good stuff.

  • 5:45 Morrow smother. She did well at ground level in this game.

  • 6:25 I’m assuming just cramp for Tassiopoulos — it was a potentially ugly tackle on her.

  • Immediately after that we scrap so hard to get the reply handy point. If the Port player hadn’t managed to complete that try over the goal line, Tay was getting the tackle free.

  • Watch our final goal from 8:00 — the kick to the middle was risky but MFord pumped it deep and Tay deserved that goal.

  • Thankfully Port back over the line for a handy point shortly afterwards (margin to 19), and we all feel a bit more relaxed.

  • 11:35 Yeah… that’s not in the back. Just keeping the game interesting.

  • 16:30 Lily’s contested work saves us from a Harley goal.

  • 18:35 Ryan telling the ump what the decision is to be.

  • 19:30 what a finish to the game for their Beth Wilson: head collision with Mahony, then while she is laying stunned her teammate Bromage knees her in the head, and then Bromage also kicks her studs into her shoulder. Bloody hell.

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Our bests (or maybe “most important”): Molan, Chaston, Manfre, Davidge, and the gestalt ruck Jamiee-Em.

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I think it’s a bit funny that in Round 1 Port converted at 100% (9.0) and we went at 0% (0.7) and then this game flicked the switch to 67% for us (6.3) and 25% (3.9) for them.

Neither “bad-kicking” team got easy shots at goal.

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The tidier ladder:

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  • We play the Hawks and Willy.
  • So does Port; you need to step up for both of us, Premiers!
  • Footscray’s only challenging match is versus DAREBIN, which is why they are favourite to finish top.
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THEY ONLY SING WHEN WE’RE WINNING. We get an article this week.

Sadly, header photo is again not timely. Sadlier, that’s partially because Gallivant went to the overlapping VFLM match instead.

Essendon VFLW have bounced back with a crunch 12-point away win against Port Melbourne on Saturday.

After suffering a heavy loss to the Kangaroos a week prior, the Bombers made amends against last year’s preliminary final opponents, matching the Borough early before pushing away in the second half to lock away the result.

Despite losing the clearance and inside 50 counts, the Bombers were the more composed and efficient side on the day - taking 45 marks to Port’s 27, their ability to dictate play came to the fore late in the contest.

The star of the afternoon was forward Olivia Manfre, whose clinical three-goal effort helped the Bombers break away from a competitive Port Melbourne outfit and secure a huge four points in the context of the season.

Sophie Molan led from the front with 22 touches, while Ruby Mahony, Ash Melnikas and El Chaston combined for 18 clearances in the midfield.

A classy late snap from the returning Tayla Hart-Aluni effectively iced the game for the Bombers.

Having lost to Port Melbourne by 47 points earlier in the season, Saturday showcased the improvement of Essendon’s young core, especially without the presence their AFLW-listed contingent as they return for pre-season.

With four rounds remaining, the Bombers are half-a-game clear in fourth spot, looking to solidify their finals credentials as they reach the business end of the campaign.

Essendon VFLW next take on Box Hill at Windy Hill on Saturday afternoon.

PORT MELBOURNE 2.1 2.4 2.7 3.9 (27)
ESSENDON 2.0 3.1 5.1 6.3 (39)

GOALS
Manfre 3, Davidge, Hart-Aluni, Cariss-Brett

BEST
Manfre, Molan, Mahony, Melnikas, Chaston

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From Port twitter:

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Sam and Trev are lazy. And it was too hot for red leather sleeves.

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No reports from any VFLW game this week.

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Forgot the C”B”As:

Player Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total
Chaston 4 1 3 3 11
Morrow 4 1 3 1 9
Jordan 4 1 2 2 9
Mahony 2 2 3 2 9
Melnikas 2 1 1 2 6
Gallagher 1 2 3
Ford 1 1
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The Coach Votes “go silent” for the next four weeks.

Ava ruins the flow of our game’s list of vote-getters.

Port Melbourne 3.9 (27) def by Essendon 6.3 (39)
10 Sophie Molan (ESS)
7 Eloise Ashley-Cooper (PM)
4 Ashlea Melnikas (ESS)
3 El Chaston (ESS)
3 Ava Seton (PM)
2 Ruby Mahony (ESS)
1 Maddison Ford (ESS)

LEADERBOARD

72 Ange Gogos (DF) ← +10 vs Casey
56 Keeley Hardingham (WB)
48 Ava Seton (PM)
41 Dominque Carbone (WB)
41 Montana Ham (SYD)
35 Madeleine Di Cosmo (NM)
33 Abbey McDonald (GEE)
32 Meg Macdonald (CD)
31 Tamara Luke (BHH)
30 Caitlin Bunker (DF)