Collingwood’s Joanna Lin and Adelaide’s Abbie Ballard slide over the boundary line in the big wet. Photo: AFL MEDIA
FIRST SEMI-FINAL
NORTH MELBOURNE 11.8 (74) d RICHMOND 6.2 (38)
If North Melbourne’s Jekyll side last week struggled to move the ball, let alone kick straight in a two-point elimination final victory, then its semi-final win over Richmond was Ms Hyde, the Roos running roughshod over the Tigers, smashing them by 36 points. The win puts North in its first AFLW preliminary final, against Melbourne.
This uncharacteristic shootout was a 180-degree turn from the drawn, low-scoring contest the two sides played just two weeks ago, and in this one, the Roos played all match with a need to exceed.
Last week, the Roos mustered only 18 inside 50s against a tough Geelong side. This time, they had that many by half-time. Against the Cats, the Roos kicked two goals for the match. By quarter time in this affair, they’d kicked three. North Melbourne’s highest score this season had been 67 points, surpassed with 74 points in this win.
AFL Coaches Association Most Valuable Player Jasmine Garner propelled the Roos’ attack, breaking three different Tigers’ tags to rule the midfield. Two weeks ago, Richmond’s Meg McDonald tagged Garner out of the match, holding her to just 13 touches. By the major break in this contest, Garner had 15 of her 22 on the day, and had drilled two goals.
A second term knock to the knee forced McDonald to the bench, forcing Sarah Hosking to assume the run-with role on Garner, but neither she nor another Tiger, Eilish Sheerin, could stop the Roos’ star, who also laid seven tackles and had 17 contested possessions. North Melbourne’s Ash Riddell also proved a major headache for the Tigers, leading all comers with 30 touches and seven clearances of her own.
The Tigers matched it with North Melbourne for the first quarter, but their own superstar, Mon Conti, touched the ball just twice. But when she did, Conti made an immediate impact — sidestepping the Roos’ Jenna Bruton, then hitting forward Courtney Wakefield lace-out in the goal square to set up an important goal.
North Melbourne’s Sophie Abbatangelo booted two majors in the first term, and the Roos made the second theirs with five goals to two. Garner kicked two, including her career 50th, and Isabella Eddey and Ellie Gavalas one each.
Richmond played the second half in a fighting mood, with captain Katie Brennan kicking two goals and Conti (22 disposals) one, but each time, the Roos answered, thanks to tall forward Tahlia Randall, Eddey and Alice O’Loughlin.
In a bittersweet moment after the final siren, The Tigers chaired the 35-year-old Wakefield off the ground, the club later confirming that she had announced her retirement after 30 games in four seasons.
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SECOND SEMI-FINAL
ADELAIDE 3.5 (23) d COLLINGWOOD 1.5 (11)
Mother nature, it seems, is quite the storyteller. Her lightning strikes that delayed the start of this match by 30 minutes were clever foreshadowing in telling the tale of this semi-final — from the host Adelaide’s perspective.
Crows small forward Eloise Jones struck with lightning quick speed, punishing the Magpies just 17 seconds after the start, snapping a goal from teammate Ash Woodland’s tap. Jones’s major bested by two seconds the fastest goal from an opening bounce, kick-starting reigning premier’s booking of a spot in a preliminary final next week against minor premier Brisbane.
By the first term’s dying seconds, a full-on thunderstorm with black skies, more crackling lightning, booming thunder, and pouring rain deluged the ground, leading to the league extending the quarter time break from six minutes to nearly an hour.
The Pies kept Anne Hatchard quiet in the opening term, but late in the second she bobbed up, getting no more than bootlace to ball to dribble home a major with just under four minutes remaining before the major break, giving the home side a 19-point advantage.
Hatchard finished as the game’s leading ball-winner with 24 possessions, to go with six tackles, and three clearances. Madison Newman was an unlikely ball magnet for the Crows, collecting 19 touches, while ruck Caitlin Gould dominated in the ruck with 28 hit-outs and seven clearances.
On the rain-soaked turf, Collingwood literally struggled to get any traction and its hands on the football, with Adelaide dominating in possession and territory, launching frequent forays into its attacking 50. Jaimee Lambert battled admirably, leading the Pies with 23 touches and six clearances in the difficult conditions, and Eliza James, who starred for Collingwood in last week’s elimination final with a bag of four goals, booted the Pies’ only major in the third term.
