After seven rounds of heavily contested, do-or-die football, just two teams remain in the hunt for the 2018 AFLW premiership: minor premiers the Western Bulldogs and their unlikely opponents, the Brisbane Lions.
The Bulldogs go into this contest as favourites, having topped the ladder for the majority of the season, but the suspension of captain Katie Brennan throws a significant spanner in the works. Yes, Brennan is effectively playing on one leg, but as anyone who has watched Erin Phillips this season would attest, a spiritual leader can carry an entire team, injury notwithstanding.
Brennan’s suspension – given the circumstances – would have cut the players deeply, especially as she has fought so hard to return from yet another season cruelled by injury. There is a case to argue that her team-mates will take extra motivation and fire into the game on account of her absence, but the drawn out saga also threatens to psychologically derail their preparation.
Brennan is a proven goalkicker, the VFL women’s leading scorer in the most recent season past. Hers is as solid a technique as one will find in either the AFLW or AFL – look no further than her early-season goal into the wind against Fremantle for proof. Fit or not, she worries opponents into free kicks, and has the calm under pressure to slot them through.
Still, the Bulldogs have managed well in Brennan’s absence this season, forced positional changes arguably unearthing this season’s revelation in Brooke Lochland (who, at season’s end leads the goalkicking with 12, including an incredible seven against Carlton in the inaugural pride game). In combination with Bonnie Toogood and at times youngster Monique Conti, the unlikely trio have formed one of the competition’s most potent forward lines.
Of course, no forward line is effective without exceptional delivery from its midfielders, and the Bulldogs are blessed with two of the best in the competition: last season’s dual best-and-fairest winners Emma Kearney and Ellie Blackburn. Last year, Blackburn finished second in the overall best and fairest count for the competition, and this season her leadership has been taken to another level in the absence of Brennan.
However, it is arguably her counterpart Kearney who has had the better season. Kearney has averaged 19.6 disposals this season (including five clearances) and is second in the league for both centre clearances and stoppages. She has also won an average of 2.6 free kicks a game, indicative of her willingness to put head over the ball with little regard to her own safety.
The detractors will argue she has perfected the Joel Selwood shrug, which she has jokingly referenced on social media, but Kearney is consistently first to the ball, and the most desperate. She finished the season the coaches’ champion player of the year (tied with Adelaide’s Chelsea Randall), and may yet finish atop the league’s best and fairest, as well as best on ground on grand final day.
Brisbane, however, are not without star power of their own, and deserve to go into the decider a good chance of toppling the daughters of the West. Kate Lutkins deserves to be favourite for the Lions’ best and fairest, and averages 17.3 disposals in the backline, including 3.6 rebound 50s a game. It is her work off half-back that has been the most potent and penetrating, regularly setting up the more highly-touted Sabrina Frederick-Traub.
Make no mistake, to say Lutkins is underrated is not to argue that Frederick-Traub is not deserving of all the accolades she receives: she is. In perhaps the most arresting photo of the season, Frederick-Traub is depicted with no less than six Melbourne players hanging off her in an attempted tackle. She still manages to release the ball. Her core strength is unparalleled in the competition, while she also averages a competition-high 2.6 contested marks. These she takes both inside 50 and across the wing, pushing up to receive and set up play.
I love group hugs 😁 pic.twitter.com/uMpAJxFHmF
— Sabrina Frederick-T (@SabrinaTraub) March 7, 2018
Then there are the things that are harder to measure: her capacity to command respect, and unquenchable thirst to win. When Frederick-Traub isn’t in the contest, she is raring her team-mates on, fist-pumping and chest-thumping, not a moment on-field wasted. To say the marquee forward has been critical in getting the Lions this far is a serious underestimation of her talent.
As a team, the Lions are also fired up to prove a point, after not a single AFLW captain tipped them to make it this far despite being runners-up in 2017. That perception wasn’t helped by ‘doing a ‘Bradbury’ to make the grand final from fifth going into the final round of the season, but Brittany Gibson said external perception would be a weapon rather than a deterrent for the team.
“We’ve been [continually] rated as underdogs, and lacking that little bit of respect,” she said earlier in the week. “We’re working as a team to build that respect among the competition. All we can do is keep winning... [but] we thrive on being the underdog.”
Considering Brisbane have lost only one game and drawn once in Melbourne since the beginning of the AFLW, there is plenty of reason to believe the underdogs can prove the ultimate point.
The game will be played at Carlton’s historic home ground, Ikon (or Princes) Park, with a capacity of approximately 22,000. While this size is rightly of concern to fans, the AFL has reassured respective AFLW club members that they will have priority access to the final, allowed to enter half an hour before gates open to the general public. The game remains free of charge, and will not be ticketed.
Originally slated for 1:05pm, the game will also now be played at 12:35pm. This is presumably to accommodate for Brisbane Lions fans who want to head to the men’s clash at Etihad Stadium after, which kicks off at 3:35pm. For those not in attendance, the grand final will be televised nationally on Seven.
