After its opening round, AFLW season two has delivered more of what made it so popular in season one – with marked improvements and a few surprises.
The crowds have been overwhelmingly excellent, even if an audience on the wrong side of 20,000 was a psychological blow on night one. The lure of history-in-the-making for the first ever game was always going to be hard to top, while many more anecdotally reported that they chose to watch the game on TV fearing another lockout. With rival cricket boldly stating last week that they want to sell out the MCG when they host the women’s world T20 cup in 2020, there is certainly a case for the AFL to aim high and ticket the game (costed) at Etihad in 2019. Staging it at Ikon Park, however, retains the grassroots feel that makes the competition unique and much-loved.
This community spirit was nowhere more obvious than at Whitten Oval on Sunday afternoon, with the E.J. Whitten grandstand at capacity and not a seat spare on the concrete steps nearby. There was a carnival-like atmosphere in Footscray, with fan facilities far superior to the year before. Screens benefitted those who sat on picnic blankets on the grass, with jumping castles and free ice creams available for kids and a limited edition “Trailblazers” beer (made by all-female owned company Two Birds brewery) canned in red, white and blue for the adults.
In Adelaide, at Norwood Oval, the crowd was just hundreds shy of capacity at 12,000 – another near enough result to be extremely encouraging if somewhat disappointing given the statement a lock-out in Adelaide would have made. South Australia has arguably embraced women’s football more than any other state, and are blessed with the reigning premiers as well as competition best and fairest in Erin Phillips, even if she was a notable, and telling, absence from their grand final rematch with the Brisbane Lions with an untimely quad injury.
This game was the best advertisement for the on-field prowess of the competition, played with a grand final-like intensity appropriate for a young and budding rivalry between two (unfairly) underrated clubs. At season’s launch, not one captain tipped the Crows to go back-to-back, a fact not lost on Bec Goddard, who retorted that the underdog tag suited the club just fine in their inaugural season. Arguably, however, it is Brisbane who are even more underrated, with barely an expert tipping them to make the grand final despite the fact they went through the 2017 season undefeated (with a draw in the final round, before their heartbreaking, one-goal loss to the Crows).
The Lions appropriately played like a team spurned, perhaps also smarting from departed forward Tayla Harris’ assessment of the club as “chilled” compared with her more “professional” destination in Carlton. Her ex-counterpart in Sabrina Frederick-Traub, who was tipped to struggle without Harris as a foil, instead made the strongest possible statement with an incredible 10 marks, double anyone else on the ground. The 182cm power forward took most of those overhead in contested situations in further proof she will be a star of the competition for years to come. But the Lions’ effort to topple the premiers was even more impressive for how rounded it was; Leah Kaslar and Kate Lutkins led the way in defence by restricting Adelaide star Sarah Perkins to just one touch, while Jess Wuetschner pushed into the midfield and provided trademark spark and swagger with two goals.
The Lions were arguably team of the week, but despite their loss, Greater Western Sydney also emerged big winners in week one. Favourites to take out consecutive wooden-spoons, the Giants took everything to premiership fancies Melbourne and were unlucky not to come away with at least a draw. The whistle put away for most of the game, they could easily have been awarded a holding the ball before a supremely-fit Richelle Cranston kicked the sealer (and her third).
No doubt the Giants benefitted from the absence of Melbourne midfield star Karen Paxman, who, until her untimely back injury, had eight disposals in the first quarter including four in a minute. The competition will be poorer without her, and you’d be hard pressed to find an opponent not wishing her back as soon as possible. But GWS came away looking anything but the worst team in the AFLW, and were the best advertisement for a more even competition than in season one, which will only benefit from a strong non-Victorian presence and following.
The feel-good story of the round would come at its conclusion, with the highly-touted Katie Brennan finally showing why she was taken as the Bulldogs’ marquee forward. Her first season ruined with an ankle and then quad injury sustained trying to race the clock to get fit, the heart-and-soul captain kicked three in the first 20 minutes of the game, including one breathtaking set-shot into the wind, executed with significant skill and poise. The joy evident on her team-mates’ faces as they mobbed her in the aftermath showed just how much she means to them, while her performance, and the Dogs’ win, proved how much her own health will mirror the fortunes of her team.
New rules – particularly the last touch out of bounds – generated plenty of talk, but with only one week to judge, their impact on the game was largely unremarkable. Introduced to reduce congestion and improve scoring, they did a little bit of both, but ultimately didn’t change the brand, which was as audiences have come to expect: hard, uncompromising and played like each minute might be your last. In that regard the seven-week format followed by a top-two grand final might be a good thing, even if, on form so far, there is yet more case for an extended final series.
As the victorious Western Bulldogs performed a stirring rendition of “Daughters of the West” on Sunday evening, news filtered through that round two’s match between the Fremantle Dockers and Collingwood Magpies at Optus Stadium is officially a sell-out, a remarkable feat given the attendance for that match could therefore best this round’s official total attendance of 44,572.
