True Believers, Greetings to all. The Season has started, with a bang.
AFLW:
What a demonstration by the girls! A fantastic effort by all. And a wonderful historic start – 24,568 crowd (not counting the ones who couldn’t get in) and 1,600,000 TV audience; fantastic – puts a bunch of other sports, both men’s and women’s, into the spotlight. Will they shift the AFLW GF to the MCG? Well, maybe if Collingwood are playing Carlton or Melbourne, maybe. The score did not reflect the game or the closeness of the competition; particularly the first three Quarters – we still (almost) matched scoring shots at the final change. Lessons for the men? Yep – look at their tackling and intensity; fantastic – a lesson to anyone watching. Challenges for the girls? I think the girls’ speed of disposal caught up with them – it allowed defenders to catch their opponents and put pressure on them, leading inevitably to poorly directed disposals. Carlton were much better than us at this and this resulted in clean breaks and movement of the ball cleanly into the scoring zone. With a similar effect, looping foot and hand passes again allowed opponent players to close with and disrupt the desired recipients. The coach was spot on when he said: “We’re privileged to play against Carlton tonight. Results didn’t go our way…but it’s a night the players and our fans won’t forget.” No question.
Match Report at http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/2017-02-03/match-report-magpies-blues-2017-aflw and individual and team statistics at http://www.afl.com.au/womens/matches/match-centre?matchid=100640101&competitionid=10064. Worth a browse. Note the injuries, particularly (and not at all surprisingly given the endeavour) the pair of concussions. Impact a week later?
Next? Our AFLW team’s Round 2 match is (as corrected above) against Melbourne (also coming off a Loss to Brisbane, but in pretty awful conditions) on Saturday, 11 February at Olympic Park Oval; bounce at 7.35pm. Also on Free to Air TV, Channel 7. Saturday night. Go get em, ladies! We are with you, side by side.
Rule Changes. And for those who hadn’t picked up on the differences between the AFLW and AFL games, the differences are:
- 16 players on the ground at any time;
- 6 player bench, without cap on interchange;
- 15 minute Quarters, plus time-on; and
- Size 4 ball compared with Size 5 – Men’s and Size 4.5 – current competitive Women.
Are we looking forward to running into Craig Starcevich when we front Brisbane? Memories?
AFL:
Wednesday, 8 February. Intra-Club match and activities. Go to http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/events/events/twilight-intraclub-2017. Anyone going? Reports pls? Note that it will be streamed live from 6.30pm – go to http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/2017-02-06/cfc-intra-club-locked-in-2017.
JLT Series Practice Matches – Thursday, 16 February at Etihad versus Essendon; bounce at 7.40pm. Fox Sports TV coverage. Anyone going? Love to see some reports pls, particularly performances by individuals we haven’t seen much of over the past year or so?
Netball. First game – Saturday, 18 February. More next week.
VFL. First practice match – Friday, 11 March.
Other. For Canberra residents, GWS vs North, Friday, 10 March at Manuka; bounce 5.50pm.
Our Club? And if you need a bit of positive reinforcement, go to http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-02-06/which-was-the-best-club-since-2000. Worth a read. Comments?
Go Pies in 2017; particularly our AFLW side on Saturday.
Cam
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