In December 2021, I selected and posted on this website what I called my AFLW “dream team” – a team I regarded as the best possible team from the first five seasons of the competition, choosing from players who had taken the field at least 25 times and earned at least one All-Australian blazer. When Season 10 concluded a couple of weeks ago, it seemed like a good idea to repeat the exercise, but this time with no set criteria, with six rather than five on the bench, and with a like number of emergencies to give the reader an idea of which players just missed out. The result is shown below.
Backs: K Lutkins (BL) K Peterson (Carl)
Half-backs: E Kearney (WB/NM) C Randall (Adel) D Pearce (Melb, c)
Centres: P Paxman (Melb) E Marinoff (Adel) M Conti (WB/Rich)
Half-forwards: K Hore (Melb) G Houghton (Fre/PA) C Molloy (Coll/Syd)
Forwards: E Phillips (Adel/PA, vc) D Vescio (Carl)
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Followers: E King (Coll/NM), J Garner (Coll/NM), A Riddell (NM)
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Interchange: E Blackburn (WB), E Bates (BL/Haw), A Anderson (BL)
K Bowers (Fre), A Hatchard (Adel), S Allan (Adel).
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Emergencies: B Koenen (BL), D Ponter (Adel), J Lambert (WB/Coll/StK),
T Hanks (Melb), L Pearce (Melb), K Brennan (WB/Rich).
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I’m not sure whether it says more about me or the players or the competition, but the team named above is remarkably similar to the side I chose in 2021. The back five is identical except that Kearney has replaced the injury prone Bri Davey on one flank. The wings are still Conti and Paxman, and the ruck is still Emma King – in part because she was the best tap ruck in the first few years, and in part she has doubled so effectively as a tall forward (booting 54 goals, twice as many as Carlton’s Bre Harrington, and almost four times as many as Melbourne’s Lauren Pearce). Riddell comes in for Blackburn, who goes to the bench, and Garner moves to the middle from centre-half forward, but otherwise the rest of the mids stay pretty much the same too. Marinoff takes Kearney’s place in the centre, while Bowers, Bates and Hatchard remain on the bench, where they are joined by Ally Anderson, along with tall defender Sarah Allan (who sneaks in ahead of Bre Koenen).
Most of the changes involve the forwards. Despite her good form this year, Tayla Harris has been omitted from the team (having missed a lot of games through injury, like Davey). Phillips and Vescio keep their spots, but Kate Hore and Gemma Houghton replace Jess Wuetschner and Katie Brennan respectively, and Molloy comes off the bench to make up the attacking quintet, following Garner’s move into the middle. A couple of comments on these choices. Last time Brennan got the nod over Houghton, but this time it’s the other way around, the latter having overtaken the former for total goals and average goals per game. Phillips is still my other ‘tall’ (ahead of Davidson and Harris), despite the fact that she retired a couple of seasons ago, while Kate Hore and Chloe Molloy are chosen as the best forwards we’ve seen since Phillips and Vescio were starring in Seasons 1-6.
It is worth stressing what should be fairly clear already: this is not a team consisting of my favourite players, though it certainly includes a good many who would fall into that category. Nor is it a team selected for an imaginary game next week. If it were, it would be quite different. It would not contain Erin Phillips or Daisy Pearce or Kate Lutkins, for obvious reasons, nor would it contain Kerryn Peterson or Vescio, or even Paxman. The ruck would be Matilda Scholz or Mim Strom or Alice Edmonds, and the team would certainly contain Ella Roberts, Tyla Hanks, Indy Tahau, and many of the other players from this year’s All-Australian team. No, I have looked at the whole ten seasons and chosen, not my favourite players or the best 22 players at this point in time, but a best-of-the-best team from the whole life of the competition so far, looking at the matter as objectively as possible, and taking into account nothing – or little – but on-field performance. I did look at stats and CVs, but mostly I backed my own judgement of footballing quality, having played a little myself as a young bloke (many moons ago), and having attended almost 150 AFLW games over the ten seasons, including six grand finals.
Readers are naturally free to object to some of my choices, and I’m sure that some readers will do so. I encourage them to post their comments, and they may want to publish their own ten-season dream team if it is very different to mine.
To read more by Lindsay Zoch click here.
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About
I'm a retired teacher and a keen follower of women's footy. I follow Carlton, but attend as many AFLW matches as possible regardless of who is playing. I've been to 60 so far in the first five years. I try to be objective and rational about it all, a student of the game rather than a one-eyed fanatic.
Great side Lindsay, interesting the lack of change over the five years since the last one as you said. I have a feeling it might change more in the next three or so though – players like Fish, Rowbottom and G.Prespakis could push their way in imho. I look forward to your next one.
Thanks Jarrod. I’m sure you’re right, and I’ve already had a vigorous discussion with a friend over whether I should have included some of the newer players in the team. Georgie Prespakis, for instance, and even more recent stars like Matilda Scholz and Ella Roberts. No doubt those last two are among the most talented we’ve seen so far, but as I said in the piece I have tried on this occasion to look at the ten years as a whole. So Vescio gets in ahead of (say) Hodder, though the latter has certainly been the better player in the past 3 or 4 seasons. On reflection, I probably should have kept the minimum games criterion and just made it 50 this time. That would have excluded all the johnny-come-latelys, however brilliant.