AFLW semi-finals: North Melbourne defeats Richmond after Punt Road home final push
Richmond’s controversial decision to effectively lock fans out of AFLW finals by hosting its semi-final at Punt Road has come back to haunt the Tigers, who were sent packing in straight sets.
North Melbourne fired a warning shot not just at Melbourne, who they take on in what shapes as a tantalising preliminary final next weekend, but at the remaining finalists with a 36-point win against Richmond.
The Roos got there in the highest quality game of AFLW this season, in which 17 goals were kicked at a buzzing Swinburne Centre.
After ploughing through some eyesore games with the introduction of four new teams this season, onlookers were treated to a fierce contest with slick ball movement and crisp finishing.
Demand was high for footy in Melbourne as fans watched on through the fence on Punt Rd after the hottest ticket in town sold out in just 13-minutes during the week.
The Tigers’ home was heaving, bursting at the seams with yellow and black as the odd blue and white hat was spotted around the boundary line.
Gil McLachlan, Damien Hardwick, Alistair Clarkson, Brendon Gale, Peggy O’Neal, and Andrew Dillon all watched on from a jam-packed grandstand.
North coach Darren Crocker would’ve liked his view from the coaches’ box and couldn’t have asked for a better performance from his troops as North looks to have timed its run to premiership glory to perfection.
Jas Garner put North on her back, putting the demons of her Rd 10 performance behind her to take Richmond apart with a scintillating performance befitting of the best player in AFLW.
It will be the first time in the club’s history they have played a preliminary final next week against the red-hot Dees, but their scoring power will cause headaches this week for Mick Stinear after kicking 10 goals for the first time this year.
The sides met in Rd 2 this year with Melbourne running out two-point winners, but North looked poised to go all the way for the first time and cause an upset next week.
Richmond will go back to the drawing board as their young side went further than they ever had before, claiming a top four spot following a meteoric rise on the back of seven straight wins.
Their biggest need is a key forward to support Courtney Wakefield, who shouldered the load all season, and another prolific midfielder to support Mon Conti, who remarkably is still just 22-years-old.
The match was played in front of 2439 fans, Punt Road’s biggest AFLW crowd but the lowest for any final between two Victorian teams.
GREAT GARNER
When the sides played out a draw in the final round of the season, which kept the Tigers inside the top four and North clinging to eighth, Jas Garner was expertly tagged by Meg Macdonald, having just 13 touches.
But the North star proved the difference as she broke the shackles early to put the Roos on her back.
Madonald went to Garner again but the coaches’ best player of the season winner turned the tables as she took her apart with nine touches in the first quarter.
Jess Hosking moved to her for part of the second term, but Crocker moved his star utility forward where she kicked two massive goals to all but put Richmond away.
Garner finished with 22 touches, two goals, seven clearances and four tackles.
CONTI HOBBLED
Arguably the season’s best player in AFLW, Mon Conti, looked sore as she sported a heavily taped right knee, worryingly staying down after friendly fire in the first quarter.
Her first touch came at the 16-minute mark of the first term, and at quarter-time was spotted feeling her groin as she hobbled to the huddle.
It was a huge blow for Richmond who couldn’t match the prolific duo of Garner and Ash Riddell, with season seven recruit Grace Egan also having a quiet afternoon at the office.
Conti finished the game strongly with 22 disposals and a goal, but her influence on the contest was noticeably down.
HOSKING THE DESTROYER
Ryan Ferguson clearly wound Richmond star Sarah Hosking up at halftime and let her go, bringing a level of brutality not often seen in AFLW.
Hosking lined Mia King up with a huge tackle early in the third term, running her down from behind leaving the North onballer feeling ginger on the Punt Rd turf.
But just minutes later Hosking delivered a bone-crunching blow that will be looked at by the MRO.
As King gave chase through the middle of the ground Hosking came off the line and cannoned into her with spine tingling hit.
It was a classic shirt front, with vision not clear on whether King was caught high. The fact she was holding her ribs as she came from the ground bodes well for Hosking, who won’t want to miss Rd 1 next year.
SCOREBOARD
TIGERS 3.0 4.0 6.0 6.2 (38)
NORTH 3.2 8.5 10.6 11.8 (74)
MOTTERSHEAD’S BEST
Tigers: Sheerin, Conti, McKenzie, Wakefield, Yassir.
North: Garner, Riddell, Bruton, M. King, Abbatangelo, Brown.
GOALS
Tigers: Yassir 2, Cox, Wakefield, Brennan, Conti.
North: Abbatangelo 2, Garner 2, Eddey 2, O’Loughlin 2, E.King, Gavalas, Randall.
INJURIES
Tigers: Conti (groin), Brennan (foot).
North: nil.
VENUE
Swinburne Centre
PIE’S INSPIRING, ‘EMBARRASSING’ TEDDY BEAR TALE
Lauren Wood
Ash Brazill is a “superhero”.
According to Louis, that is.
He’s two.
But he might well be on to something as the Magpie eyes an AFL Women’s premiership to go with her Commonwealth Games netball gold medal secured in Birmingham this year.
It would be quite the quinella.
Louis, who’s done netball hubs and Covid protocols virtually since he was born, isn’t too fazed when it comes to the footy scene, but seeing Mum out there doing her thing has her in pretty high standing in his eyes.
“He tells everyone that his mum’s a superhero. So it’s pretty cute,” Brazill told the Herald Sun this week.
“‘My mum’s a superhero and she’s got a gold medal.’
“I always say when I cross on to the netball court, my alter ego comes out, and (my wife) Brooke says I wear my cape.
“It’s quite funny. I will tell him a bedtime story and tell him that Brooke’s the superhero, but he says, ‘No, it’s you’. I’ll take it.”
Brazill herself saw her sporting idols in a similar vein as a youngster.
She’d line up her teddy bears and dolls for gold medal ceremonies and autograph sessions, dreaming of a future that might see her doing it all for real.
There’s been heartbreak and challenges, being overlooked for two previous Commonwealth Games teams, an ACL tear in 2020, her wife Brooke giving birth to their daughter Frankie last December and countless moments of thinking it all might never come to fruition.
The reality was better than she ever could have imagined.
“People tell me the teddy bear story is embarrassing, and say, ‘Why do you tell people that?’,” Brazill laughed.
“That’s the best thing about one, being a mum, and being a little bit older – you kind of lose that embarrassment and you get to realise that this is actually something I’ve dreamt about my whole life.
“I’m not going to take it for granted. Every day I’m super grateful that I get to play two sports that I love, and those moments like walking through the opening ceremony, being on the podium – they’re things that you actually dream about and picture yourself being there.”
There’s one element she’d hoped for, which might have to be rectified should the Pies progress to the AFLW grand final with a win against Adelaide on Saturday.
“You think about what emotion you’re going to have. I always thought if we won the gold medal, I’d run and jump on the closest player and have these sick photos where I’m on someone’s shoulders fist-pumping the air,” Brazill said.
“Then you win the gold medal and I just fell to the ground and started crying. I’m in no celebration photos, because I’m a sook on the floor and everyone else has these cool photos.
“What happens in the moment and the emotion that flooded me in that time. I’m glad it ended the way it did.”
Brazill – who has taken on more with Louis and Frankie, as “it’s Brooke’s turn” to build her career following “the most selfless” few years – had just a week off between the Diamonds’ victorious campaign and her return to AFLW, having sat out last season to pursue her golden dream.
The switch in skills is “pretty easy” for the code-swapping 32-year-old, who will quickly turn her attention back to the court once the AFLW season ends as the Super Netball season with Collingwood looms.
Saturday’s semi-final is firmly in her sights, though dreaming about what the next fortnight might hold – and potentially add to her cabinet of silverware – is allowed to creep in.
“I’m the player that thinks about it and dreams about it. I never get why you can’t talk about it,” she said.
“In the end, you’re training every day to win a premiership, so why wouldn’t you think that it’s possible?
“I look at the other teams at the moment – especially Brisbane and Melbourne – and they are just flying. But then finals comes around and anyone is beatable. You’re just hoping that and doing all the right training that you rock up game day and perform.
“I need to visualise it ... and seeing the end result, which is a premiership. Why would you play, if you’re not going for it?
“It’d be lovely (to have both a medal and a cup).”
Roos’ AFLW skipper joins Clarko’s coaching team
North Melbourne AFL Women’s skipper Emma Kearney is joining Alastair Clarkson’s coaching team full-time.
And as her start date looms, she’s hoping it could well mark the biggest week of her life.
Kearney, a six-time AFLW All-Australian, is preparing to lead her Kangaroos in a do-or-die semi-final against Richmond this Saturday, with her new role as development coach and player development co-ordinator in the men’s program to begin within weeks.
In AFLW grand final week, no less.
“Hopefully if all goes to plan we’re preparing for a grand final, too – that would be nice,” Kearney said on Wednesday.
“They’ve been pretty supportive already of my schedule and our new football operations boss Cam Matthews is all across it. He’s a good person to work with.”
The 33-year-old – who has a second AFLW premiership firmly in her sights in coming weeks – is a qualified teacher, and has been working as head of education at The Huddle at North Melbourne in recent times.
And it’s her time in the classroom that she believes could be one of her greatest assets after North Melbourne was awarded one of nine positions in the women’s coach acceleration program, telling Clarkson and Roos football boss Todd Viney as much when the trio caught up recently.
“I was really keen to look at the holistic development of the players,” Kearney said.
“Maybe on-field there’ll be some development coaching there, with the younger players, but that off-field education too about career planning, what’s life look like outside of footy. I’ve got a good perspective being a semi-professional athlete that young boys go from playing football as their outlet to then it’s full time.
“Sometimes the mental struggles that come with that can be quite significant for young people.
“That’s what I was really passionate about. I could see a real gap in the development of younger players at North, so that was something that really appealed to me.”
Clarkson, who started at the club on November 1 and immediately started to form his coaching outfit, said Kearney would be “a fantastic addition”.
“The role will allow Emma to combine her two passions, football and education,” he said.
“Her knowledge of the game teamed with her experience as an educator will be invaluable to our men’s program.
“Emma’s playing career speaks for itself, and it goes without saying she is already greatly respected by our playing group and football staff.”
Kearney said she had weighed up the decision heavily amid North Melbourne’s senior coaching role uncertainty, which went up a further notch when Clarkson – within weeks of being appointed at Arden Street – was named in a cultural safety report that encompassed his time at Hawthorn, embroiling the four-time premiership coach in explosive allegations surrounding player treatment.
All allegations have been denied.
Kearney, who will play her 60th AFLW game this weekend, said she hadn’t spoken to Clarkson about the saga.
“For me, it was more about who the head coach could have been and in terms of what I can bring to the men’s program,” she said.
For now, it’s about beating Richmond on Saturday and then packing her desk – not that she’s moving far.
“I was sad to leave The Huddle because it’s a great place to work, but I’m just going upstairs,” Kearney said.
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