Midfielder Ash Riddell has been in outstanding form for North Melbourne over the first two rounds. Photo: AFL MEDIA

Not even this weekend’s AFLW Pride Round, the league’s annual celebration and honouring of Australia’s LGBTQIA+ community, could escape COVID-19’s lingering, dark shadow.

For the second week in a row, due to the league’s health and safety protocols requiring 21 fit players, the Western Bulldogs won’t play. Nor will Gold Coast.

Saturday’s scheduled Q clash between the Suns and Brisbane, and Sunday’s Bulldogs-Carlton game have been postponed. Instead, Brisbane will host Carlton on Tuesday night at Metricon Stadium.

Meanwhile, intra-state Victorian clashes remain on the menu, with Melbourne and St Kilda and Collingwood and Geelong paired against each other.

West Coast — the only club this round which won’t wear a specially-designed jumper commemorating Pride Round — again hosts a “home” match at Punt Road, this time against searing-hot Adelaide.

While the league is left to sort the continuing mess, it at least deserves credit for being nimble when there’s a constant spanner in the works.

GEELONG (0-2) v COLLINGWOOD (2-0) (Friday 7.10 pm, GMHBA Stadium)
The Pies make the trip down the highway to start the round in this prime-time battle having won their first two matches and being the beneficiaries of opponents’ gifts in the form of undisciplined acts and clangers. They’re also surviving the loss of 2021 AFLW co-best-and-fairest, Bri Davey, and last week also played without co-captain Steph Chiocci. So, while Collingwood is cashing in on opportunities, players are stepping up to cover the club’s significant outs, with Jaimee Lambert and Britt Bonnici lifting in the coalface to help the cause. Geelong has had two honourable losses, and with its collective inexperience, it’s difficult to see the club pulling off an upset this round. But keep your eyes on the Cats’ exciting, first-year jet Georgie Prespakis and Pies’ big-name recruit Sabrina Frederick, who has yet to fire in front of goal, but is eager to get on the scoreboard.
GIL TIPS: Collingwood

WEST COAST (0-2) v ADELAIDE (2-0) (Saturday 12.40 pm, Punt Road)
Late in the final quarter last weekend, the Eagles appeared to have locked away their first win, Maddy Collier’s snap putting them 16 points ahead of Gold Coast. Instead, the Suns scorched the Eagles to win by 13. Taking nothing away from the Suns’ inspired fightback, the combination of a cross-country flight and fatigue might have cost the Eagles in the end. This week, they’re in the Crows’ crosshairs — a place few opponents would want to be. Adelaide, two-time AFLW premier, is both star-studded and ruthlessly and relentlessly physical. Through two rounds, only North Melbourne’s Ashleigh Riddell has more touches than the Crows’ Anne Hatchard, while Adelaide’s Ashleigh Woodland has exploded for eight goals from just 19 touches. And the developing Eagles’ already slim chances of a big upset this week got even slimmer after the league suspended captain Emma Swanson for one match because of a dangerous tackle on a Suns’ opponent. Feathers will be painfully plucked — but they won’t be Adelaide’s.
GIL TIPS: Adelaide

MELBOURNE (2-0) v ST KILDA (0-2) (Saturday 3.10 pm, Casey Fields)
On paper, this match-up has “smashing” written all over it. First, you’d have to go all the way back to 2019 Round 4 to find the last time the in-form Dees lost at Casey Fields, where bedeviling winds and Melbourne’s magic have made that ground miserable for rivals. The Dees rock up there this week for the first time this year, against a Saints’ side which has copped two straight beltings, and is desperately missing its two biggest stars: two-time best-and-fairest Georgia Patrikios, who is on the COVID-19 inactive list and is taking time away from the club, and 2021 best-and-fairest runner-up Tyanna Smith. Whoever masqueraded as the Dees’ Karen Paxman in Round 1 disappeared last week, as the midfield superstar returned to her ball-winning best, defender Eliza McNamara made an impressive season debut, and goalkickers Kate Hore and last week’s co-Rising Star Nominee Alyssa Bannan repeatedly hit the scoreboard. The Demons are on a mission and the Saints are marching into hell.
GIL TIPS: Melbourne

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RICHMOND (1-1) v FREMANTLE (2-0) (Saturday 5.10 pm, Punt Road)
The upstart Tigers, who carried their 2021 momentum into Round 1 to rout St Kilda, looked every bit as strong last week against Melbourne — until the second term, when the Dees overran them. After the Richmond women’s first big test of the year, it gets no easier with the Dockers on the doorstep. After Fremantle’s Dana East last week racked up 11 touches, eight tackles, and a goal in 32-point win over GWS, some observers already are calling her “Turbo 2.0,” a reference to the nickname of 2021 AFLW co-best-and-fairest, Kiara Bowers, a prolific ball-winner and the league’s most tenacious tackler. A tantalizing, one-one-one matchup of All-Australians Bowers against the Tigers’ electrifying Mon Conti is entirely possible. Richmond captain Katie Brennan has been regularly hitting the scoreboard, but the club still is missing Ellie McKenzie, out with a calf injury. For Fremantle, Ebony Antonio and Gemma Houghton both were dangerous in front of the sticks last week. The Dockers will be tested, but with a win, can continue building confidence playing away from home.
GIL TIPS: Fremantle

NORTH MELBOURNE (1-1) V GWS (1-1) (Sunday 1.10 pm Arden Street)
The Roos got dangerously close enough late in last week’s match — with the help of the umpire questionably not paying a mark to an opposition defender — to put a bit of a scare into the Crows, but they missed a crucial set shot which could have cut the deficit to single digits. Ash Riddell has been in blazing hot form, equalling an all-time league-best 35 disposals in Round 1, and tacking on 27 more last week, to lead her club. Emma Kearney was a welcome return for North last week, contributing 23 possessions. The Roos have one of the competition’s deepest midfields, which will spell trouble for the Giants, despite boasting their own stars Alyce Parker and Alicia Eva. While North has several routes to goal in forwards Sophie Abbatangelo, Daisy Bateman, and Ellie Gavalas, the Giants have long had only one, Cora Staunton. That could well be the difference in the match, which should see North run out big winners on its home deck.
GIL TIPS: North Melbourne

BRISBANE (0-1) V CARLTON (1-1) (Tuesday 7:10 pm, Metricon Stadium)
Maybe a week’s unplanned layoff — due to COVID-19 health protocols — was just the tonic the sore Lions needed, after the reigning premier was dealt the double blow of losing 2021 grand final best-on-ground defender Kate Lutkins for the entire season, and dangerous goalkicking forward Dakota Davidson for at least a significant chunk of it, both to leg injuries. Carlton, meanwhile, when the Blues get out of their own way, is dangerous. Undisciplined acts and a clanger cost them in Round 1, and against Geelong last week, they did just enough to get home by 14 points. The Blues are still looking to make an emphatic statement, and this match will truly test them. Maddie Prespakis was at her characteristic best last week, racking up 29 touches, and Kerryn Harrington added 23. It’s only a matter of time before Darcy Vescio, quiet in their first two matches, dons the superhero cape and tears apart a match with heroics all over the ground, as they’ve done before. It would be a fitting end to Pride Round for Vescio, last year’s AFLW goalkicking champion and who this year followed Gold Coast’s Tori Groves-Little in coming out as non-binary, to have a blinder — and they very well might — but the Lions have too many potent weapons for Carlton to handle.
GIL TIPS: Brisbane