Collingwood players celebrate a goal at Victoria Park during their win over the Western Bulldogs on Sunday. Photo: AFL MEDIA
It wouldn’t take a skilled detective to deduce a distinctively finals-like atmosphere in this week’s matches involving the AFLW’s top six sides, and two others trying to barge their way into that group.
Adelaide soared to top spot on the ladder, while Melbourne won its 12th straight game on its swirly home deck to move to second.
Reigning premier Brisbane set the new AFLW record for most points scored in a match (98), fattening its percentage enough to ascend to fourth, while victorious Collingwood played with an intensity befitting its knowledge that a loss would’ve cost it sixth spot with two games remaining.
The Pies beat the Western Bulldogs, their closest pursuers, who have effectively been rendered also-rans along with Gold Coast who lost to St Kilda.
Meanwhile, no team had a more schizophrenic five-day swing than the Saints — after suffering a demoralising, after-the-siren loss on Wednesday, they redeemed themselves by the skin of their teeth to beat the Suns by three points on Sunday.
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY 6.5 (41) d ST KILDA 5.9 (39)
Thirty seconds away from what surely appeared like the Saints’ first victory of the season, TV cameras captured senior coach Nick Dal Santo beaming like a proud dad. Viewers would be left only imagine his countenance a few moments later as his club once again marched off the ground winless. A St Kilda 50-metre penalty in the dying seconds helped the Giants’ Cat Smith make AFLW history by kicking the league’s first ever after-the-siren match-winner. St Kilda’s excruciating pain was preceded by rapturous joy: Tarni White (17 touches) booted a set shot bomb with three minutes remaining, giving her side the lead. Incredibly, as time wound down, White had two additional opportunities to seal the match from set shots from almost identical spots near the 50-metre arc, but missed both. Giant Cora Staunton made no such errors, as the Irish goalkicker booted a bag of three. As they so often do, Staunton’s ball-winning teammates Alicia Eva (22 touches and 10 tackles) and Alyce Parker (21 disposals) ensured the Giants always were either ahead or in striking distance in what turned out to be a thriller.
ADELAIDE 3.7 (25) d FREMANTLE 2.4 (16)
On enemy territory, the stronger Crows firmly scratched their talons into the ladder’s top rung. Despite missing injured stars Erin Phillips and captain Chelsea Randall, Adelaide’s dynamic duo of Ebony Marinoff (30 disposals, six tackles and five clearances) and Anne Hatchard (30 disposals) led a midfield that out-hustled, out-fought, and ultimately, outlasted Fremantle’s on-ball brigade. Outside of kicking a captain’s goal in the third term, the Dockers’ Hayley Miller — in strong contention for the AFLW Coaches Association Player of the Year award — was noticeably quiet, with her team sorely missing injured superstar Kiara Bowers. Although Adelaide’s wasteful 2.5 second-half scoreline didn’t reflect its dominance, its 24-4 advantage in forward entries during that span did. Dangerous Crows small forward Danielle Ponter, a Top End woman of Tiwi and Maranuggu heritage, celebrated Indigenous Round in style by kicking two goals, while her teammate Ash Woodland kicked her 15th major, good enough for her move to equal first on the league’s goalkicking ladder and be one short of the AFLW single-season record.
GEELONG 5.3 (33) d RICHMOND 1.4 (10)
The Cats turned in what easily amounted to their best effort this season, playing as if they were truly sick of amassing honourable losses. Amy McDonald (26 touches and a goal), Rebecca Webster (20 touches and a goal), and Phoebe McWilliams (two goals) all starred for Geelong, which effectively put the game on ice by half-time with a 22-point lead. Even the Cats’ anaemic three-point second half was more than Richmond’s two-point effort. Mon Conti shouldered the Tigers’ possession load, collecting 21, while Katie Brennan stayed among the league leaders in goals, adding a major.
MELBOURNE 4.3 (27) d NORTH MELBOURNE 2.5 (17)
It all came down to accuracy in front of the sticks for these two relatively evenly-matched top sides. They both enjoyed the same number of scoring shots, but the Dees made the most of their chances. Melbourne’s perennial All-Australian midfielder Karen Paxman met the moment with 28 disposals, while Tayla Harris continued to be a menace up forward, taking marks, winning frees, and kicking two goals to match the Crows’ Ash Woodland on top of the league’s goalkicking table. But Harris wasn’t the only Dees recruit to shine: ex-Cat Olivia Purcell, playing in her second game with her new club, led her side with eight tackles, to go with 15 possessions. The Roos’ Jasmine Garner (19 touches and a goal) and AFLW Coaches Association Player of the Year candidate Ash Riddell kept their side well and truly in the contest, but North will lament its two-point first term and its scoreless third.
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ST KILDA 5.4 (34) d GOLD COAST 4.7 (31)
With this result, the Saints have exited an emotional rollercoaster that at the start of the round hurtled downward into heartbreak, then on Sunday vaulted upward into jubilation. St Kilda dodged a bullet in the dying seconds to win its first match for the season and likely thwart the Suns’ finals aspirations. But, as St Kilda’s Kate McCarthy deadpanned in a post-match TV interview, “We did our best to lose the game right at the end.” Enter Gold Coast’s Sarah Perkins, the former Adelaide premiership power forward, who took two strong marks deep in her side’s forward end, but twice missed gettable set shots — the last one in the dying seconds — that would’ve won the match. Gold Coast’s Tara Bohanna kicked two of her three majors in the final term and the Suns looked on track to complete the biggest comeback in AFLW history from 24 points down. Instead, St Kilda’s Tilly Lucas-Rodd again starred with 21 possessions and nine tackles, while five individual goalkickers helped deliver the Saints their elusive victory.
COLLINGWOOD 10.6 (66) d WESTERN BULLDOGS 6.5 (41)
Whoever those women were masquerading as a milquetoast Magpies outfit in important matches earlier in the season have been rubbished. On Sunday, they were replaced by a determined group that not only sensed, and played with, urgency but also took the game on as they did last year. With only two points separating the two sides heading into the game, the Bulldogs were Collingwood’s closest rival for its coveted sixth spot on the ladder, and the Magpies responded to the threat in kind by kicking their highest-ever score in smashing the Doggies. But the win came at a high price as the Pies may very well have lost All-Australian midfielder Britt Bonnici for the remainder of 2022 with a suspected ACL tear in the first term while Alicia Newman was concussed in the second quarter after incidental high contact with a Bulldogs defender. In keeping with the league’s protocols, Newman will likely miss the last two home-and-away matches. Sabrina Frederick, who to this point had been having a nightmare season, set the tone in the first period, reverting to her 2017-18 All-Australian form she showed as a Lion, opening the scoring with her first major as a Magpie. Chloe Molloy, who also has struggled this year to recapture her best form, almost immediately followed Frederick on the goalkickers’ list. Frederick would add another, but the match truly belonged to Pies’ midfielder — and inaugural Bulldog — Jaimee Lambert, who in the third term tore the match apart, kicking three goals and gathering nine of her 22 possessions. For the Dogs, Kirsty Lamb had yet another blinder, collecting 21 disposals and kicking a goal, while Ellie Blackburn (19 touches and two goals) produced a sensational performance but appeared to tweak her hamstring. Collingwood’s Steph Chiocci (13 touches and a goal) made a welcome return from an Achilles injury.
BRISBANE 15.8 (98) d WEST COAST 4.0 (24)
Clearly, something about playing out west in Indigenous Round agrees with the Lions. In last year’s corresponding game at Fremantle Oval, Brisbane started its premiership run by ending the Dockers’ 11-game winning streak. On Sunday, the Lions so severely mauled the Eagles at Mineral Resources Park, they boosted their percentage high enough to overtake North Melbourne in fourth spot on the ladder. Brisbane effectively settled matters by quarter-time, ambushing the Eagles and kicking four goals while holding the hosts scoreless. In this lopsided slaughter, the Eagles didn’t register an inside 50 until midway through the second term, and the Lions had nine different goalkickers. Multiple goalscorers Jess Wardlaw (three), Sophie Conway (three), Greta Bodey (two) and Courtney Hodder (two) all impacted the scoreboard. Though she didn’t join in the goal frenzy, Brisbane’s Emily Bates was damaging in many other ways with 31 disposals, seven clearances and six tackles. Though getting belted by 74 points surely wasn’t how Eagles captain Emma Swanson wanted to spend her 27th birthday, she did lead her side with 22 possessions.
CARLTON 7.9 (51) d GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY 5.3 (33)
After the two sides spent the first half locked in an arm wrestle, with the Blues holding a slim two-point lead, Carlton stormed home in the second half to win its second consecutive match. Game-changing Blue Darcy Vescio roared to life in the third term, after being held to one touch over the course of the first half. She booted two majors, including her 50th for her career — a total no other AFLW player has yet reached. Carlton superstar Maddy Prespakis racked up 20 possessions, as did young gun Gabriella Pound. Mimi Hill got 16 touches and Abbie McKay booted a career-high two goals. For the Giants, their leading goalkicker Cora Staunton kicked two majors, while Alyce Parker led her side with 19 possessions.
