AFLW: Daisy Pearce’s return inspires Melbourne to upset win over flag favourites North Melbourne
Melbourne has marked Daisy Pearce’s AFLW comeback with a gutsy victory over premiership favourites North Melbourne. Earlier, GWS won a hard-fought slog against Gold Coast.
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Melbourne provided captain Daisy Pearce with a dream AFLW return with a thrilling two-point win over highly-rated North Mebourne at a windswept Casey Fields.
In Pearce’s first game in almost 700 days – and a year and a week since the birth of her twins Sylvie and Roy – the Demons weathered an early Kangaroos storm.
Pearce, 31, took on a new position at halfback and provided a cool head with 12 disposals, with coach Mick Stinear saying she is likely to remain in defence for most of 2020.
“It was awesome, just good to be back with a pretty gritty win on a tough day, with some challenges throughout our pre-season,” Pearce said.
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She celebrated the win with her teammates – with the twins in her arms – after the match.
“I’ve had a lot to learn learning a new position,” Pearce said.
“I hope Mick (Stinear) tells me I was standing in the right spot most of the time and if that’s the case, then I will be happy.”
Stinear said Pearce brought a steady hand to the defence and hoped she would play that role for most of the season.
“She is a great stoppages player and she obviously has a lot of runs on the board through the midfield,” he said. “It is something we can look at, but we are quite happy with the depth we have got through (the midfield).”
CASEY WINDMILLS?
Strong winds meant play favoured the city end, with North Melbourne coach Scott Gowans joking Casey might be a place to build a few windmills.
A collective 6.5 was kicked at the city end, with one behind at the other end.
Gowans conceded the conditions were tough for both sides, but admitted it hindered the Kangaroos’ ball movement style.
“I reckon they should put those windmill things (at Casey Fields) and make power, it was unbelievably blustery,” Gowans said.
“If you look at the possessions count, it was way down. Most of the stats were. There were a lot of ground balls.”
He said the loss puts early pressure on the Kangaroos, but was buoyed by the return of Ashleigh Riddell, whom he described as “a superstar.”
Pearce said: “We love Casey, (but) it throws up some changes. “We prepare for most things, but the wind is always a factor.”
QUICK COMEBACK
Eden Zanker’s game – and potentially her season – looked in serious doubt when she was on the end of a heavy tackle early in the second term.
As the Melbourne forward came from the ground, her arm was wobbling about in the breeze, with fears it might have been a serious injury.
Within minutes she was back on the field and back into action. Her angle kick for goal at the city end found the arms of the dangerous Kate Hore, who kicked her second goal of the term, giving the Demons a narrow lead at the long break.
COSTLY FIFTIES
Fifty metre penalties can be crushing in the all-important AFLW territory game, which is why Demons’ coach Mick Stinear would have been wringing his hands in frustration at what happened in a matter of minutes during the first term.
Three came late in the term – one that produced a North Melbourne goal and one that almost did.
The first was when a Melbourne player slipped through the protected zone when North Melbourne’s Daisy Bateman in attack.
The subsequent penalty gifted Bateman the goal, which gave the Kangaroos a two-goal break.
Then came a “double 50” which saw Tahlia Randall’s deep defensive mark suddenly turn into a shot at goal that she couldn’t quite convert.
LIONS MAKE STATEMENT WITH ROUND 1 BOILOVER
Greg Davis
Brisbane mauled reigning premier Adelaide and took a significant step down the road to AFLW redemption with a 13-point victory in the season opener at Hickey Park on Saturday.
Brisbane kept Adelaide scoreless in both the first and third quarters and made the most of their attacking opportunities to put the Crows to the sword in front of 3002 spectators.
Midfielder Anne Hatchard set a new AFLW record for the most disposals in a match with 34 touches to beat the 33-disposal mark set by Crows teammate Ebony Marinoff last season but it was not enough to stop a wholehearted team effort from the home side in the 5.4 (34) to 3.3. (21) victory.
After missing last year’s finals following two-straight grand finals, Brisbane had so many quality contributors led by key defender Kate Lutkins, skipper Emma Zielke, halfback Sophie Conway, and midfielders Emily Bates, Ally Anderson along with the versatile Jess Wuetschner.
Brisbane absorbed early pressure from the Crows in the third quarter then rebounded through goals to Jesse Wardlaw and Lauren Arnell to kick 25 points clear at the last change.
Adelaide kicked goals through Nikki Gore and Angela Foley in the final quarter but it was too little, too late for the Crows, who had 33 more possessions and 13 more inside-50 entries.
Brisbane got off to a lightning start with forward Jess Wuetschner having an unsuccessful shot on goal inside the first two minutes and the Sherrin rarely ventured into Adelaide’s attacking half of the ground with inside 50s favouring the home side 10-4 in the first quarter.
With Dakota Davidson providing a physical presence up forward, Brisbane kicked the first major of the match through former soccer player Greta Bodey who kicked the ball off the ground after a clever tap by Wuetschner.
Irishwoman Orla O’Dwyer kicked a goal with her first touch with a left foot snap after an impressive build-up through the middle of the ground by Brisbane.
The Lions played on quickly whenever possible and moved the ball nicely before the rain hit Hickey Park late in the first term with Brisbane holding a 14-point buffer.
The Lions took a 2.2 (14) to 0.0 (0) buffer into quarter-time and extended that lead to 20 points after Arnell kicked truly after receiving a free kick in front of the posts.
Adelaide kicked their first goal of the match halfway through the second term when Courtney Gum pounced on loose ball in the goalsquare and toed it through after the Crows enjoyed the better of the territory after quarter-time as they closed the margin to 13 points at the main break.
Lions senior coach Craig Starcevich said it was significant that his senior players stood tall in among the seven debutants given the amount of talent that had been lured away from Brisbane in the past two off-seasons.
“We’ve got experience in every line even though we’ve endured what we’ve endured in the last couple of years. They showed up,’’ he said.
“Adelaide have been a high scoring team for the last couple of years, last year in particular. They are down a bit personnel wise, but you can only play what’s out there. Happy that our crew were able to defend like that.
“(Making the competition sit up and take notice) is not the motivation in Round 1 … winning any game gives you some validation and a bit of reward for effort. Our defensive pressure early in the game was super.’’
Adelaide senior coach Matthew Clarke said being below full strength was no excuse for the Crows.
“Overall, injuries had very little to do with that outcome. They just played a really good game, particularly played the conditions really well. We were second to the ball at times,’’ he said.
“All credit to Brisbane really.’’
Clarke paid tribute to Hatchard’s record-breaking 34-disposal haul.
“Anne’s effort was outstanding. Cleary she’s worked incredibly hard over not only last off-season but the off-season before and she’s put herself in the condition where she’s able to play big minutes around the ball. She knows how to find it,’’ he said.
GIANTS PREVAIL IN WET WEATHER SLOG
Eliza Reilly
Heavy rain has dampened the Suns inaugural AFLW parade as the league’s latest expansion side fell by one point to the GWS Giants in Sydney on Saturday.
The 9-8 triumph saw the Giants finally win their first game of an AFLW season after failing to claim victory in their other three starts in what was a tight and contested battle at Blacktown International Sports Park.
Giants head coach Allan McConnell admitted that his side had ‘a lot of work to do’ after conjuring a great escape on the back of Aimee Schmidt’s sole goal in the third quarter.
“When you’re playing your first game, you know they’re going to bring heat,” he said.
“There’s a bit of unknown in terms of what the opposition is going to bring but outside of that, it’s good to get a result in round one which is new for us.
“The girls are affording me a lot of firsts in my career, one of them being today by winning a game and only kicking one goal.
“The nature of Round 1 and the conditions hijacked us a bit.”
In their league debut, it was the Suns who quickly gained respect in new-found surroundings after controlling the first quarter and drawing first blood.
Ex-Giant Brittany Perry had a fond return to Sydney, calmly gathering a ground ball in the forward half before steadying to convert on the run from 25m out.
While the weather held off, the Suns impressed with their overlap run and structure behind the ball to restrict the Giants to two points.
Former Carlton key forward Rebecca Privitelli, who has spent the last year working in the Giants front office, impressed with her contested marking prowess but could only manage one behind for her efforts after pushing her sole set shot wide.
Suns ruck Lauren Bella competed well against two prong Giants dup Jessica Allen and Erin McKinnon as the new kids took a six-point lead into the first break.
The anticipated rain started to fall early at the start of the second quarter as the Suns structure behind the ball continued to ward of Giants attacks.
Suns debutant Jade Pregelj had tugged a shot on goal left while Giants enforcer Tanya Hetherington was strong behind the ball.
The Suns took a six-point lead into halftime but it was the Giants who dominated the third quarter.
The inside midfield combination of Alyce Parker and Alicia Eva started to gain the ascendancy at the coalface as the Giants won the territory battle, locking the ball inside 50 without much reward.
As the intensity lifted, it was fourth year player Aimee Schmidt who rose to the occasion.
Marking 30m out from goal, she steered the kick home as rain continued to tumble at Blacktown.
Trailing 9-8 at the last break, Suns coach David Lake sent full forward and captain Leah Kaslar into the middle for the centre bounce.
The move nearly paid off as a fearless Kaslar threw her weight around throughout the quarter as the Suns made one last tilt at their maiden win.
A quarter played largely between the arcs in front of a crowd of 1540, the Suns pushed forward in the closing minutes of the quarter but were unable to generate any clean inside 50 entries as the siren sounded with the expansion club caught one point shy of a historic win.
Parker, Eva, Privitelli and McKinnon were all impressive in the Giants 9-8 win while experienced AFLW duo Sam Virgo, Leah Kaslar and Jamie Stanton led the charge for the Suns.
Originally published as AFLW: Daisy Pearce’s return inspires Melbourne to upset win over flag favourites North Melbourne