By Marnie Vinall
AFLW finals aspirants Geelong will be without Georgie Prespakis for crucial games against the Western Bulldogs and Essendon after the young gun received a two-match ban for a dump tackle.
Collingwood captain Steph Chiocci (striking) and Essendon’s Daria Bannister (dangerous tackle) have also been dealt bans.
Erin McKinnon is helped from the field.Credit: Getty Images
Prespakis, 19, pinned McKinnon’s arms before bringing the Saints ruck to the ground in the third quarter.
McKinnon’s head slammed into the turf and she was motionless for around a minute before being helped up and taken off the ground.
Match review officer Michael Christian assessed the incident as high contact, high impact and careless conduct, drawing a two-match ban.
Geelong sit sixth and will compete with the Bulldogs (fifth) and Bombers (10th) for finals spots, but will sorely miss Prespakis’ drive, especially against her older sister, Essendon star Madison Prespakis.
The Cats can appeal the decision at the tribunal.
Georgie Prespakis of the Cats greets fans after the win over St Kilda.Credit: Getty Images
Chiocci was banned for a retaliatory strike on Bannister, who had pinned her arms and slung her to the ground in the fourth quarter of the Magpies’ win over Essendon on Friday.
The Collingwood skipper hit her head on the ground and quickly lashed out at Bannister, catching her around the throat and chin.
Bannister’s dangerous tackle on Chiocci was assessed as careless conduct, high contact and medium impact, while Chiocci’s striking charge was intentional conduct, high contact and low impact.
Collingwood confirmed on Monday they would accept Chiocci’s suspension, and she will miss Saturday’s away game against St Kilda.
Bannister is due to miss Essendon’s trip to face leaders Brisbane.
Fremantle star Kiara Bowers, St Kilda’s J’Noemi Anderson, Hawthorn’s Sophie Locke, Brisbane’s Courtney Hodder and GWS’ Haneen Zreika received rough-conduct reprimands.
Port Adelaide’s Kate Surman and GWS’ Jessica Doyle received $400 fines for their second offences of rough conduct and forceful front-on contact respectively.
The Power’s Angela Foley received a reprimand for staging.
AAP
Record defeat exposes worrying gap in AFLW
A pioneer of women’s football says the massive gap between the best and worst AFLW teams, illustrated by Adelaide’s 96-point demolition of Greater Western Sydney on Sunday, should not be interpreted as a sign that the competition expanded too quickly.
Chyloe Kurdas, who was AFL Victoria’s first female development manager and commentates on AFLW, said the thrashing was a reminder of systemic inequalities.
The Giants scored just one point and were beaten by 96 points.Credit: Getty Images
While the Crows went into Sunday afternoon’s game against the Giants as favourites, no one could have predicted the absolute demolition that took place. The Giants only registered a single behind, while the Crows kicked away to 97-points and had a record-breaking victory. The score equals the lowest in competition history along with Fremantle, who were kept to just one point in round two by Geelong.
In season seven of AFLW all 18 clubs are represented for the first time. With Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne delivering one-sided beltings, questions are being posed about talent deficits and whether the AFL expanded too quickly. Kurdas said extreme margins were not unique to the women’s game.
“New South Wales is a non-traditional state. There’s not a lot of kids that grew up kicking the footy… It’s got three really strong football codes in there already. So, there are a lot of systemic inequalities that the women’s teams are having to, I guess, bear the brunt of.
“It’s not just W but the men’s game that really struggles as well to breed high performing footy talent. And while you’ve got a part-time system in place, it’s really hard to attract players from traditional football states.”
Kurdas also said the competition would be in worse shape with slower expansion, given time in the competition increases the quality of talent of those within the system. “I don’t think we expanded too fast. If we expanded any later, the gap between the foundation clubs and the new clubs would have been greater.
“Maybe from an infrastructure perspective you don’t want to grow too quickly, but the trade off was the deficit simply in conditioning, for instance; six seasons under their belt versus what they’re getting now.”
Hawthorn wear Indigenous guernseys in show of respect for First Nations people
Indigenous round is over but Hawthorn chose to wear their Indigenous jumpers on Friday night, when they notched their historic first win over fellow expansion side Sydney.
It was a sign of respect and solidarity after former club officials were faced will allegations of mistreatment of First Nations players during the club’s recent premiership era. Defender Akec Makur Chuot told Fox Footy the team wanted to send a message.
“The women are always pillars of every club and for us, as a new team, we wanted to show we respect, and we want to listen to our First Nations people,” she said. Hawthorn coach Bec Goddard added post-game the decision was driven by the players. “They wanted to wear their Indigenous jumpers because we’re the new face of the club, we’re a new part of football at Hawthorn. We are inclusive and diverse and we treat our job as role models as a privilege,” she said. Goddard delivered a fiery spray at quarter time after Sydney kicked away with four majors to one in the opening term and dominated both the territory and scoreboard pressure. But she was a picture of unbridled joy as the siren sounded and Hawthorn scraped a four-point win at Punt Road Oval.
Hawthorn’s Aileen Gilroy.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
Tigers on a roll
Richmond had a huge upset win over the previously undefeated Brisbane, who last week looked unbeatable after putting flag-favourites Melbourne to bed by 15-points and the week before beat the Gold Coast Suns by 73 points. On Saturday at Swinburne Centre, the Tigers claimed a narrow 4-point victory, keeping their nerve against the powerhouse Lions in a low scoring thriller - 2.6 (18) to 1.8 (14) - in windy conditions. Richmond’s Gabby Seymour had the match-winning smother on Brisbane’s Dakota’s Davidson’s snap from the goal square, after the Lions chose to play on rather than lining up for a shot in the dying moments of the game. League best and fairest Emily Bates also had a chance in the last five minutes but her shot went right. Richmond’s Courtney Wakefield had two goals and Maddie Shevlin a game-high disposal count on 24, along with Lions’ Isabel Dawes. Richmond coach Ryan Ferguson said it was “by far” Richmond’s best ever win and a “breakthrough moment”. “To play against the best team in the competition and in our opinion, outright premiership favourites, it was the breakthrough we’d been looking for,” said Ferguson.
Richmond had an upset win over Brisbane.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty
Fans locked out of festival of footy
The AFLW enjoyed the festivities and crowds of the men’s grand final weekend, with the festival of football on Friday’s grand final eve public holiday seeing two sellout crowds at Punt Road Oval and a full house at AIA Centre. Both North Melbourne’s win over the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn’s first AFLW victory over Sydney both reached capacity of just over 2000 spectators, with more fans lining the fence at Punt Road to watch from the outside. Around the corner, a crowd of 3,412 lined the boundary at AIA Centre in the drizzly conditions to see Collingwood get the first honours in rivalry with Essendon. While many praised the atmosphere of the games, including Fox Footy commentator Kelli Underwood who noted how “electric” the crowds were, some fans took to social media to bemoan the limited capacity and exposure to the elements.