Nice smoking ceremony before the game; though the ump forgot to blow his whistle to end it!
The ump was really reaching to find a free when he paid the first of the “high contact” frees vs Nalder in the ruck. Ditto the one 6 minutes later against Marshall.
“The umpires are rewarding tackles”… well, some of them.
Frew didn’t kick a goal but she did her usual creative stuff, including this side-of-the-boot tap to Nanscawen’s advantage.
I was surprised they left Doonan forward all day, rather than try something different in the middle.
Geez, that Nanscawen tackle 15 minutes in not being paid. Incomprehensible.
Gillard shaking her head ruefully, after being burst around for the first goal:
Casey bombed to their forward line waaaaaay too much. That allowed the Bellas, Crook and Marshall to take lots of marks. Bella Ayre is often scary, but she’s fun to watch exploiting her sheer size. Crook had a particularly good game, winning or killing aerial contests, showing her agility for a tall, and some nice kicks to advantage.
This game is TackleLotto, missing many frees but inventing replacements.
Radford denied Goal of the Year by the boundary ump just before halftime.
Nanscawen hit with a swinging arm in the last quarter, and pinged for it. She drops the ball rather than return it, informs the ump where she was hit, and is arms-ly demonstrative.
Ump knows he got it wrong, and applies “common sense” rather than grant Casey fifty and a guaranteed goal.
I missed who kicked our last point at the time, but given it was from 35m out hard on the boundary being run down while facing away from goal, and very almost was Goal of the Year, you get one guess who it was.
Hint to the commentator: it wasn’t a “Frederica”.
