A note to all AFLW naysayers: I’m happy to report that we’re kicking lots of goals
Courtney Cramey delivers a message to all the naysayers of the AFLW: check the scoreboards, we’re starting to kick the goals.
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WHAT a weekend of footy in AFLW. There may not have been any nailbiters, but there were five high-scoring, quality games with the average winning margin in round three being 32-points.
In the 2017 and 2018 seasons of AFLW, there were only two games in each season, including finals, where there were 10-plus goals kicked in any given game.
So far this year, we are only three rounds into AFLW season three and for all the naysayers out there, I’m happy to inform we have had three teams kick 10-plus goals in AFLW matches already!
What does this mean? Well, my selfish mind turns to the fact we are playing longer quarters because after every goal there is some time on, which means we are playing more footy. But what it really means though, is the spectacle of AFLW is becoming a lot more entertaining.
Quick play, improved fitness and skill, girls are kicking bags of goals and the likes of Erin Phillips are still jagging them from the pocket and first year AFLW players like Chloe Scheer are consistently hitting the scoreboard.
It was a very hot Sunday afternoon at Norwood Oval, coming up against Geelong, one of the new teams in the competition. They were bolstered by the return of their captain Melissa Hickey in her first game back from an ACL and one of their key inside midfielders in Richelle Cranston who was coming off the back of a two-game suspension she copped in a trial match. The contest was tight early and to Geelong’s credit, they kept coming all day. Ebony Marinoff set a new AFLW record with the most disposals in any AFLW match racking up a lazy 33 possessions. For a game that is played across four, fifteen-minute quarters with time on, that’s a fair effort from any footballer. We got our second win on the board for the season, 10.6 (66) to the Cats 6.1 (37).
Sunday’s heat at Norwood puts us in good stead as we head up to our second home, the Northern Territory, to take on a hot Fremantle Dockers side that is yet to drop a game. We met them in a trial earlier in the year at TIO Stadium and walked away with the win, but this is now the real deal playing for premiership points.
We will go in as underdogs, but that’s a tag we don’t mind. The last time we met in round six of the 2018 season at the same stadium, we got across the line by four points and in the first season we knocked them off on their home turf.
We will be looking to continue the winning tally against them and expect a strong Territory crowd behind us on Saturday night.
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