West Coast is jubilant after breaking through for a first victory in the 2022 AFLW season. Photo: AFL MEDIA
No club can be happier after this round than West Coast, which after winning its first match of the season, finally departed Victoria for Perth, having outlasted St Kilda at Sandringham. It was a big win for the Eagles after some near-misses.
Their crosstown rival, Fremantle, was not so fortunate when the Dockers flew home from Hobart two days ago after dropping their match to North Melbourne, allowing red-hot Adelaide to reclaim top spot on the AFLW ladder.
And with half the home-and-away season now in the books — despite COVID frequently disrupting the fixture — the top six is firming. North Melbourne extended its unbeaten record in Tasmania to seven matches, outlasting the previously undefeated Dockers by 10 points. Melbourne extended its own home winning streak to 10, staving off Gold Coast at Casey Fields.
And last year’s grand finalists, Brisbane, and Adelaide, meanwhile, demonstrated their might by winning big in their contests, putting their respective opponents, Collingwood, and Carlton, to the sword.
WEST COAST 2.10 (22) d ST KILDA 2.8 (20)
After nearly a month away from home, alternating between playing and pandemic-forced isolation, West Coast will be flying high back to Perth after winning its first match of the season from five, winning a war of attrition against St Kilda at Sandringham, defeating the Saints by two points. West Coast stalwarts Dana Hooker and Emma Swanson steeled their club’s nerves, winning 20 and 19 possessions respectively, with Aimee Schmidt and Kellie Gibson kicking their side’s only goals, both in the second quarter. The Eagles also held fast down back against Jessica Matin, who last year kicked three goals against them and in this match, peppered the goals with four shots, but managed just one major. Saints captain Hannah Priest starred with a game-high 23 possessions and Caitlin Greiser kicked a second-quarter goal but might have had two set shots had the umpire paid her marks from kicks she appeared to possess long enough to have earned.
GEELONG 4.3 (27) d WEST COAST 3.6 (24)
After a thrilling final term arm-wrestle at GMHBA Stadium on Friday night, the contented Cats were purring, while the Eagles, playing yet another game away from their nest, again were left broken-hearted. Aimee Schmidt’s goal in the dying minutes appeared — momentarily — to be the sealer. But in what West Coast may see as a cruel flashback to an earlier round when a late goal appeared to have been enough to get them over the line against the Suns, the Cats snatched their first victory of the season. With 90 seconds left in the match, massive Geelong forward pressure forced a hurried West Coast handball, which hard-running midfielder Darcy Moloney — who appeared to materialize from nowhere — pounced on, sprinting into an open goal, and booting the match-winner. Moloney had 14 possessions in all and mightily contributed to her side’s tackle count, laying eight. While Amy McDonald (24 disposals and seven tackles) and Rebecca Webster (20 touches, 11 tackles and a goal) helped the Cats win every quarter and weather an Eagles’ fightback, Phoebe McWilliams got serious bang for her buck, kicking two majors from three possessions. West Coast captain Emma Swanson made a gallant return from a one-match suspension with a match-high 27 disposals, but in this three-point loss, she, like Schmidt, who kicked three behinds, may also rue her one missed shot at goal.
BRISBANE 5.5 (35) d COLLINGWOOD 1.5 (11)
The rest of the AFLW competition is hearing the Lions’ collective mighty roar, and vice-captain Emily Bates’ may be the loudest. With her 22-possession, five-tackle, one-goal performance, Bates continues loudly announcing herself as a deserving All-Australian. Consider this: Bates has lifted her disposal average from 16 per match last year to 22 in 2022, and with three majors this year, she has trebled her highest season total. Brisbane has also let loose teenager Zimmi Farquharson, a potent weapon as a tall marking target and goalkicker. She booted two in a pivotal second term that saw the Lions effectively mount an insurmountable 20-point lead at the major break. While the Pies’ engine room continues humming, with Jaimee Lambert and Britt Bonnici accounting for a respectable 19 and 16 touches respectively, their forward line is badly malfunctioning and underperforming. After scoring their lowest-ever total in their previous match, kicking just 1.1 against Fremantle, the Pies managed just four more points this week, and have now kicked only two goals in their last eight quarters of football. Just 20 inside 50s against the Lions and 10 the previous week is a bad sign for a club with finals expectations and and flag aspirations. Another damning stat? More than 40 per cent of the Collingwood women’s goals have come via free kicks. Depending on Greater Western Sydney’s run home, if the Pies don’t tidy up their forward structure, they could be in danger of falling out of the top six and missing finals entirely.
MELBOURNE 5.8 (38) d GOLD COAST 4.2 (26)
The Dees returned to their Casey fortress — and perhaps to their old selves — one week after being humiliated by the Crows, to stave off an ever-improving Suns team. Ruck Lauren Pearce continued channelling her inner Corey McKernan in his prime, with a game-high 20 disposals, and outduelling the Suns’ Lauren Bella, her formidable opponent, with 20 hit-outs to 14. Like the Lions’ Bates, Pearce, too, is making a strong case for All-Australian selection. Eden Zanker was also back to being a ball magnet with 18 touches. Dees’ power forward Tayla Harris was the prime beneficiary of her side’s clearance work, as she kicked important goals in the third and fourth quarters. Still, with Gold Coast kicking with the infamous, bedeviling winds behind them, the Suns put a scare into Melbourne until the dying minutes of the last term. The Suns charged 10 times into their forward end to the Dees’ five, and Jamie Stanton (16 possessions) and Kalinda Howarth kicked goals to put a dent in a three-quarter time 19-point deficit. In addition to the honourable loss, however, defender Lauren Ahrens strained a hamstring.
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WESTERN BULLDOGS 4.6 (30) d RICHMOND 1.7 (13)
It took half the home-and-away season, through a pandemic-pinged fixture that saw their schedule expanded and compressed like an accordion, but finally, the Doggies are on the winner’s list, riding stellar performances by Kirsty Lamb (27 touches) and captain Ellie Blackburn (19 touches and a goal). While the Dogs have been wracked with health issues to key players, such as contested marker and goalkicker Izzy Huntington, the Tigers have been missing key forward Courtney Wakefield and defender Harriet Cordner, and in this match lost both Laura McClelland to an ankle injury in the second term and Hannah Burchell to a knee mishap in the third. While Blackburn and the Tigers’ Mon Conti (23 disposals) and Katie Brennan are their respective clubs’ most visible stars, the Dogs got the most between the two sides, from their supporting cast. Nell Morris-Dalton, Bonnie Toogood, and Celine Moody all contributed one goal apiece. Collectively, the Doggies applied the pressure that starved the Tigers of opportunities in their end. Richmond mustered only 21 inside 50s, never more than the seven they amassed in the second quarter. The return of Tiger Ellie McKenzie — voted the 2020-21 AFLW’s Best First Year Player — from a calf injury and seeing her hit Brennan lace out in the pocket in the second quarter to set up her side’s only major, then in the third, speedily take off on a three-bounce romp, proved the only Richmond bright spot on the day.
ADELAIDE 7.9 (51) d CARLTON 1.6 (12)
Despite the lopsided score, this result nonetheless epitomises scoreboard flattery. If not for a combination of wastefulness in front of goal, unkind bounces, and skilled defensive play in the goalsquare, Adelaide likely would have clobbered Carlton by half time, instead of going into the major break kicking 2.7. The Crows’ wayward kicking allowed the Blues to hang around through the third term, but they tore the match apart in the fourth. While Adelaide was led by its powerful triumvirate of Ebony Marinoff (31 touches and 10 tackles) Anne Hatchard (25 touches), and Erin Phillips (19 disposals), it was understudies Ailish Considine kicking two majors and Caitlin Gould, Danielle Ponter, Lisa Whiteley, and Eloise Jones with one major each, all hitting the scoreboard. Phillips, the superstar, had quite the eventful afternoon. Senior coach Matthew Clarke first deployed Phillips to the middle to mind Blues’ star midfielder Maddie Prespakis. Then, when Phillips didn’t help in defence and went forward to pinch-hit in the ruck and be a goalkicking threat, she kicked four behinds, including a spectacular attempt at a standing bicycle kick. The Blues, who were playing without last week’s Rising Star nominee Keeley Sherar (broken hand), got an astounding performance from Mimi Hill (25 possessions) who returned from a punctured lung and rib injuries she sustained in Round 1 and Prespakis collected 23 possessions. But after they were limited to single digits in possessions for the second straight match, Carlton still must be wondering when its own real superstar, Darcy Vescio, will show up.
NORTH MELBOURNE 3.8 (26) d FREMANTLE 2.4 (16)
This match had all the trappings of a heavyweight title fight and in the end, it was the Roos’ rope-a-dope in the final term which carried them over the line, to end Fremantle’s five-game unbeaten streak. For the Roos’ Sophie Abbatangelo, this contest was a return to her hometown, Hobart, and she delighted family members and friends in attendance by kicking the first goal of the match. Her first term snap would prove vital. North then kicked eight straight behinds until late in the third term, when Isabella Eddey broke the duck with a snap of her own. For once this season, Ash Riddell didn’t win the most possessions for North, though she broke a tag by Fremantle’s Jessica Low and collected 24. That honour went to Jasmine Garner, who amassed 28 touches — though she was one of the wayward goalkicking culprits, registering three behinds. The Dockers were buoyed by bellwether Ebony Antonio’s snap for goal with just 21 seconds before the three-quarter-time siren and early in the final term, trailing by just one kick, appeared to be carrying the momentum that might lift them to victory. Fremantle dominated play through most of the quarter, keeping the ball in its attacking half, but it could muster just two behinds. And North’s Tahlia Randall sealed the result after out-marking two Fremantle defenders at the top of the goalsquare, then converting a set shot. While the Dockers missed suspended midfielder Kiara Bowers’s hardness at the contest, they were hurt more by the Roos limiting Antonio to just one possession in the first half, and only nine in the second.
