Katie Brennan’s reputation does not match her performance, writes Mark Robinson

When AFLW hit the scene, there were few names bigger than Katie Brennan. But four years and a new club later, the one-time face of the competition has suffered a dramatic fall from grace, writes Mark Robinson.

Katie Brennan has struggled at the Tigers to start the AFLW season. Picture: Getty Images

What to do with a problem like Katie Brennan?

The one-time face of AFLW and still a poster girl for TV promotion, Brennan’s standing as one of the competition’s best players is under siege.

Arguably, she’s not in the competition’s best 30 players.

In fact, if you want to examine the acceleration in fitness, skill and athleticism in the women’s competition this season, Brennan is a symbolic case study.

Small sample, but 275 players have played in the two matches this season.

Brennan, the one-time Bulldog who is now the captain of Richmond, is ranked No.100. Her kicking efficiency is 37 per cent; the league average is 52 per cent.

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Bluntly, her reputation does not match her performance.

Brennan captained the Bulldogs from 2017-19 before being enticed to the Tigers.

A commitment from the Tigers to play her in the midfield — one the Bulldogs coaches would not make — is said to be a major reason Brennan switched clubs.

In Richmond’s two losses, Brennan has played in the middle, albeit in a first-year team.

At the weekend, with the Tigers trailing a motivated Gold Coast by two goals at three-quarter time, Brennan managed just two disposals in the final quarter.

Katie Brennan is hit with a crunching tackle by Katie Loynes during a poor Round 1 performance. Picture: Getty Images

She is remembered from that match for swiping at the injured arm of opponent Jamie Stanton.

Stanton was crunched running back with the flight of the ball and left the field cradling her injured arm.

She returned after halftime, only to have Brennan target her injured shoulder.

Stanton’s courage to fly for the ball and her commitment to the team to return to the field was countered by a spiritless and pathetic show of “toughness” by Brennan.

Stanton is a 166cm inside midfielder and slight. Brennan is 174cm and has a powerful physique.

Brennan’s leadership, which has helped enable her to receive a high-end contract, was poor.

The more pressing issue is where to play Brennan.

A wannabe Erin Phillips, Brennan endured ankle injuries at the Bulldogs but at the same time believed she had the capacity, like the brilliant Phillips, to play as an explosive midfielder and impact forward. It’s not working.

A league best-and-fairest winner at Darebin in the VFLW as a midfielder, Brennan arrived for the first season of AFLW in 2017 as a crafty, classy powerhouse forward and one of the fittest players in the competition.

She could lead strongly, mark and kick a goal, and given space she was electric — and the AFL PR machine loved her.

Katie Brennan has struggled at the Tigers to start the AFLW season. Picture: Getty Images

Four seasons on, a swag of other players can lead, mark and kick goals.

And in the midfield, Brennan looks slow and sometimes lost compared to the new generation of quick, fit and skilled mids.

There are still “veteran” stars such as Daisy Pearce, Karen Paxman, Kate Lutkins, Jasmine Garner, Kara and Ebony Antonio, Emma Kearney, Ellie Blackburn, Jaimee Lambert and Kiara Bowers.

But the young ones are also showstoppers.

Like St Kilda’s Georgia Patrikios, Carlton’s Maddy Prespakis and Grace Egan, Collingwood’s Chloe Molloy, Fremantle’s Roxy Roux and Brisbane’s Sophie Conway, Lily Postlethwaite and Orla O’Dwyer. There’s Tyla Hanks at Melbourne, Jacqui Yorston and Serene Watson at the Gold Coast, Nina Morrison, Millie Brown and Olivia Purcell and half the powerful Fremantle team.

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And let’s not forget Adelaide’s Ebony Marinoff, still 22.

Good judges say season 2017 is almost unrecognisable now compared to season 2020, and having watched nine and a half games of the 14 played this season, it’s not an absurd assessment.

Back in 2017, Brennan was a big fish in a small pond, and so was her new teammate Sabrina Frederick, formerly of the Lions.

Today the pond is a lake and the fish are plentiful.

Even Darcy Vescio, the livewire small forward at Carlton, is finding footy tough among this new generation.

Maybe Vescio needs to get out of attack and Brennan needs to get back there.

Originally published as Katie Brennan’s reputation does not match her performance, writes Mark Robinson