A distressed Collingwood star Bri Davey is helped from the field after injuring her knee on Sunday. Photo: AFL MEDIA
Falling stars was the sombre theme of the opening to the new AFLW season.
Both the AFLW’s 2021 co-best-and-fairest and the best player from its 2021 grand final appear to have suffered serious injuries which could possibly rule them out for the remainder of this season.
Brianna Davey, Collingwood’s co-captain, All-Australian midfielder and joint best-and-fairest last year, was the latest victim of a knee injury, coming late in the final term of her side’s victory over Carlton on Sunday.
Only hours earlier, star Brisbane defender Kate Lutkins, best afield in the Lions’ grand final win last April, also was felled by a serious yet innocuous-looking knee injury, coming early in the first term of her team’s loss.
And that pair weren’t the only high-profile players to go down. On Saturday night, Western Bulldogs’ star forward Isabel Huntington, who in previous years has had reconstructive surgeries on both knees and a broken leg, suffered another serious knee injury.
And Lutkins’ 2021 premiership teammate, Dakota Davidson, one of AFLW’s leading goalkickers last season, required two trainers to assist her from the ground and later needed crutches to cope with what the club is calling a severe ankle strain.
In the round’s last match, GWS star midfield recruit Chloe Dalton was forced out of her club debut in the second quarter with a serious shoulder injury.
With North Melbourne’s All-Australian Emma Kearney sidelined after testing positive for COVID-19, it leaves these five clubs and their fans sweating more over health reports than match results.
RICHMOND 10.1 (61) d ST KILDA 3.5 (23)
Even with their highest-ever scoring output in their three years of existence, it’s still too early to pencil the Tigers in for their first finals berth, but they loudly announced themselves as the competition’s biggest improvers. Some exquisite, attacking handball chains epitomised Richmond’s new-found, but hard-won confidence in connectivity and trust. Mon Conti was everywhere, vacuuming up 29 possessions and darting through traffic like a race car driver, to set up play — and in the process, earning a complimentary tweet from her newest fanboy, Geelong men’s superstar, Patrick Dangerfield. The Tigers also were deadly accurate in front of goal, with captain Katie Brennan, Courtney Wakefield, Christina Bernardi and Meagan Kiely all booting two goals each. Imagine how more improved they’ll be the sooner they get midfield jet Ellie McKenzie back from injury.
NORTH MELBOURNE 4.2 (26) d GEELONG 2.6 (18)
In the end, even without their All-Australian captain, midfielder Kearney — inactive on the COVID-19 list — the Roos took care of business at Arden Street, as Ashleigh Riddell (a career-high 35 touches) and Kaitlyn Ashmore (18 touches and a goal which proved the sealer) more than picked up the slack. Acting captain Emma King’s expert ruck work in the final term, giving her teammates first use of the ball, eventually helped the Roos get over the line. But the Cats, who last year won just one match, have nothing to hang their heads about. They held a two-point advantage at three-quarter time, and if not for a scoreless first term and just two behinds in the second, might have pulled off a big upset. The Cats’ No. 2 draft pick Georgie Prespakis had an impressive debut, with her clearance work and bursts from the centre square seeing her gather an equal high 20 possessions.
MELBOURNE 6.10 (46) d WESTERN BULLDOGS 3.4 (22)
If you looked only at the stats and saw the Dees’ All-Australian midfielder Karen Paxman had just eight touches, you’d be forgiven for assuming that had resulted in a Melbourne loss. Enter Demon Eden Zanker. She coolly earned 20 possessions to go with a first quarter goal in helping her side win by four majors. Kate Hore was her typically dangerous self around the goals, kicking two. While stalwart Daisy Pearce’s radar was a bit off, as she kicked 0.3 on the night, big-name recruit Tayla Harris, who crossed from Carlton during the off-season to bolster the Dees’ forward line, kicked the goal of the match with a brilliant, banana snap. The Doggies’ captain Ellie Blackburn paced her side’s attack with 21 touches and a goal, but all eyes will be on the right knee of star Huntington, who in the second term crumpled to the turf, appearing seriously injured, only a minute after kicking a goal. While Dogs fans await news on the extent of her injury, watching Richelle Cranston go down late in the match with an ankle injury must have been adding insult to injury, as the club already is dealing with a raft of ailments.
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FREMANTLE 6.7 (43) d WEST COAST 2.3 (15)
Troubles with goalless first quarters? Forward line uncertainty? No worries. Fremantle winger Ebony Antonio single-handedly answered both questions about her team, bookending three electrifying snaps — a running, early goal of the year contender late in the first term, and a rabbit-out-of-her-hat one from a standing start late in the fourth — to help the Dockers defeat their arch-rivals in the Western Derby. With Antonio working her magic, it was easy to overlook 2021 AFLW co-best-and-fairest Kiara Bowers’ characteristic 24-touch, 14-tackle performance. Livewire Gabby O’Sullivan ran riot, collecting 17 possessions and a final term goal — a 48-metre bomb — that put the Dockers’ lead out of reach. Emma Swanson paced the Eagles with 23 touches and a third-term goal that, coupled with a major by Aimee Schmidt, brought their side within five points. But as the “Fremantle Doctor” winds cooled the ground, the Dockers caught fire in the final term, salting away the match with a 3.5 haul and holding the Eagles scoreless.
ADELAIDE 6.3 (39) d BRISBANE 1.3 (9)
Revenge was sweet for last season’s runners-up. As if the Crows needed more motivation to start their 2022 campaign than a grand final loss on home soil, a late fixture change delivered them a date with the nemesis which had defeated them. The Lions roared into their attacking 50 early and often in the first term, but by half-time, the Crows were dominating on the scoreboard as the Lions licked their wounds, with All-Australian defender Lutkins carried off the ground after a knee injury, and star forward Davidson following her to the bench in the next term after a severe ankle strain. Adelaide’s Anne Hatchard (26 touches), Ash Woodland (four goals from five kicks), and Ebony Marinoff (23 touches) stole the show, handing Brisbane the first Round 1 loss of its history. The Lions’ squandered first-term opportunities cost them dearly and they endured their longest goal drought in a single match until late in the third term, when Greta Bodey kicked her side’s only major.
COLLINGWOOD 6.8 (44) d CARLTON 3.7 (25)
It’s a good thing Carlton coach Daniel Harford is bald — if he had hair, he’d likely have torn it right off his scalp while watching his charges gift the Pies four goals in a 19-point loss on their home deck. After a goalless first term, in the second and third Collingwood’s Ruby Schleicher, Alison Downie, and Aishling Sheridan all converted sodas off the backs of 50-metre penalties conceded by the Blues. A Carlton skill error — a kick out-of-bounds on-the-full from deep in their defensive 50 — set up a Jordyn Allen goal. Jaimee Lambert (22 touches) and co-captain Steph Chiocci (15 touches) ran the engine room well, but with Davey (15 possessions) walking off the ground in tears, with a suspected serious knee injury, this victory, which levels the all-time match tally between the two sides at three apiece, can only be viewed as bittersweet.
GWS 5.6 (36) d GOLD COAST 3.3 (21)
Like the finest wine, Giants Irishwoman Cora Staunton continues to improve with age. In her club’s match against the Suns, the former Gaelic footballer-turned prolific AFLW goalkicker was in vintage form, booting majors in both the third and fourth terms, propelling the Giants to pull away, en route to a 15-point win. Captain Alicia Eva and Alyce Parker, GWS’s leading ball winners from last year, picked up right where they left off, amassing 22 and 21 touches respectively. Dalton was important early, collecting eight possessions before leaving with her shoulder issue. Suns prized draft pick Charlie Rowbottom had 11 touches in her debut, and talented ruck Lauren Bella registered 27 hitouts, but their side’s scoreless second half reflected their collective inability to get their hands on the ball and how far they have to go to register a win, after losing all nine of their matches last season.
