4.5.29 defeats 1.9.15
LOL Hawks.
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Thanks DJR
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Rain stopped for the last quarter and we ran all over them (it helped that the umps evened it up a tad).
Nattie ran wild. Frew set up lots of scores. Stepnell and Nalder went to full forward and did enough to keep it down there. Barba had a stack through the middle. Gardner killed all their attacks.
Hell yeah.
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And it’s raining again. Stupid places south of the Yarra.
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Well done ladies and well done DJR, thank you for the updates and for being there.
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Good contingent of supporters there today - we were bloody loud!
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Beating Hawthorn…just so good.
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Our percentage went up a little bit to 158.6%
Geelong and Casey play from 3pm: their percentages are 158.7% and 158.8%, and we’re guaranteed to pass at least one of them. That game is at Casey and I imagine will be miserable with the chance of a blow-out.
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I don’t know why my brain continually messes up Hosking and Cornish (the non-playing latter which the team insisted get in on the song at the end, and who steps over fences with ease on the way back to the car afterwards).
In the video above, Georgia (in the beanie) appears to have two intact legs? 
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Hawthorn have kicked 4.18 against us this year… we’ve kicked 12.12.
It hasn’t just been bad luck — their way into their forward fifty just hasn’t set up enough reliably-convertible chances. Gardner and Lennox (replacing Crook) were solid today down back, and Julian admirably replaced AshleyCooper in the scrap to stop them converting. CBomb may not have won every single one-on-one contest today but geez she makes it hard for the opposition.
In the middle there wasn’t much in it. We lost THE league’s disposal machine and perfect-for-the-conditions player early on and we really struggled for most of the game to get it forward in any way that would create a score. The Hawks had monster backup to their monster Dudley in the ruck, but Nalder swung the dual a tad her way compared to the game four weeks ago. Simone had some ol’ unco moments today (not alone, given how wet it was) but scrapped hard. Her hard fast lead from full forward early in that last quarter that led to the Frew goal was everything we’d missed all day. Despite the wet conditions we kept both a ruck (mostly Stepnell) and Clifford forward for the second half to keep the bench free for midfield rotation.
When we threw Frew into the middle upon Nanscawen’s departure she had an immediate impact: but we rolled the die and left her forward in the last, because she is sooooo good at creating opportunities. It paid off – Barba getting off the leash in the last was a big part of that.
We struggled forward. Like the Port Melbourne game, that was a mix of poor delivery and the forwards themselves. Friswell isn’t a CHF, and early on she trailed to many balls but then applied the required pressure to at least draw the contest. As the game went on she stepped up and was a play creator. We’d dropped a “tall” in Quigley (she’s not that tall, but she’s powerful and clunks marks) – Clifford scrapped a couple goals but not by being a KPP. Nattie was invisible in the first three quarters, and then cut loose.
Frew… she’s a freak. One day everything will come right and she’ll kick 6+ goals (and probably hand that many off as well).
It was a hard day; the upgraded Hawks were probably a tiny bit better for the first three quarters, but we blew it apart in the last. Huge win; the type that gets you into, and hopefully through, finals.
The grandstand was mostly Essendon and we got LOUD in the last quarter and a bit.
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Tough match. Great win.
Alternate angle:
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Quarter-by-quarter scores:
1.1.7 beats 0.4.4
0.1.1 trails 1.1.7
0.1.1 trails 0.3.3
3.2.20 blows the sheißenhausen out of 0.1.1
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Hopefully nothing to serious for G - calf didn’t feel right.
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Alex Catalano with another good report.
Also comments live on our games on Twitter. I approve of this comment regarding Frew:
A half-time injury scare to Essendon captain Georgia Nanscawen was every chance to break the Saturday morning clash with the Hawks wide open at Box Hill City Oval.
The score line read Hawthorn’s 1.5.11 to Essendon’s 1.2.8, with miserly conditions keeping the ball slippery.
Nanscawen didn’t rejoin her team for the second half warm up, making her way to the bench as vice-captain Courtney Ugle riled her side up.
Coach Brendan Major said keeping the skipper off was in the interest of playing it safe.
“It’s a lower leg, pretty precautionary to keep her off,” he told The Inner Sanctum .
“She was raring to go on the bench and really keen to get back out there.”
A goalless third quarter was played out under torrential rainfall, both sides combining for five behinds.
The Bombers would steamroll their way to victory, kicking three final quarter goals.
Federica Frew and Mia-Rae Clifford converted close to goal, while Nat MacDonald snapped a miracle banana from the tightest of boundary line angles.
Major put most of the scoring and ball fumbling woes down to the wet conditions.
“We liked a lot of what we saw in the first half, but we couldn’t be clean,” he said.
“We always had good faith that they would respond.”
Calder Cannons duo Zali Friswell and Kasey Lennox made their debuts in Bombers colours as a part of the partnership between the two sides.
Friswell was one of the players who flipped a switch in the second half.
“She [Friswell] probably is a perfect example of how the game went for us,” Major said.
“In the first half, she wasn’t as clean, couldn’t get a good grab at the ball. Her defensive efforts were good, she didn’t drop her head.
“When the game was on the line, she really got us going.
“We’re trying to create a culture of not overthinking the game, taking the game on, and showing an exciting brand of football.
“Players like Lizzy Hosking, Alex Morcom, [Marianna] Anthony, [Grace] Dicker, Nat MacDonald, Alana Barba, get the ball on the outside and just go.”
The Hawks had the likes of Isabelle Khoury and Eloise Chaston from the Eastern Ranges, making for exciting viewing for AFLW recruiters.
Chaston managed 1.3 from plenty of opportunities forward, demonstrating her pace and leading out of the 50 metre arc.
Her inaccuracy was telling of the Hawks as a whole, who finished with one goal and 10 behinds.
With more AFLW players beginning to return into the VFLW, Major is excited for what the rest of the season holds.
“We’re not sure how many AFL players will come to us just yet,” he said.
“The big thing for me is that it’s exciting.
“Alana Barba has shown that against VFL players, she can be a stand out. We’re a development club, we need to get people drafted.
“It gives us an opportunity. They get to go up against good AFLW players.
“There’s no replacement for experience.”
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