AFLW 2022

[Reddeer]

With the girls suffering so many knee injuries , is the risk worth it

[MW]

With the girls suffering so many knee injuries , is the risk worth it

It would be interesting to see the research into what body shapes have more knee injuries...i remember seeing something where they reckon the wider hips of women can increase the risk.

[Lightning McQueen]

With the girls suffering so many knee injuries , is the risk worth it

It would be interesting to see the research into what body shapes have more knee injuries...i remember seeing something where they reckon the wider hips of women can increase the risk.

In the least disrespectful way possible, men have generally played the game longer and developed ways of maneuvering better along with bracing for contact and going in low to collect the ball.

I cringe a lot more while I'm umpiring women's games as they often go in head first or don't brace themselves well enough for heavy contact as quite often their awareness of what's around them isn't considered while they're concentrating on winning the ball.

The standard from a grassroot level has improved considerably over the past 15 years and will even more each year, you used to have half a dozen outstanding players and the rest making up the numbers in the one and only division they had, now there's no passengers in any team in the top divvy and there is class all throughout the divisions, it's developing at a very rapid rate.

[heater31]

With the girls suffering so many knee injuries , is the risk worth it

It would be interesting to see the research into what body shapes have more knee injuries...i remember seeing something where they reckon the wider hips of women can increase the risk.

Seems a high proportion of knee injuries in netball too. Guess the male sample size for netball is too small to see if it is body composition or playing surface.

Doesn't help the Women's game when it's played in summer which is the highest risk for footy knee injuries IMO

[MW]

With the girls suffering so many knee injuries , is the risk worth it

It would be interesting to see the research into what body shapes have more knee injuries...i remember seeing something where they reckon the wider hips of women can increase the risk.

In the least disrespectful way possible, men have generally played the game longer and developed ways of maneuvering better along with bracing for contact and going in low to collect the ball.

I cringe a lot more while I'm umpiring women's games as they often go in head first or don't brace themselves well enough for heavy contact as quite often their awareness of what's around them isn't considered while they're concentrating on winning the ball.

The standard from a grassroot level has improved considerably over the past 15 years and will even more each year, you used to half half a dozen outstanding players and the rest making up the numbers in the one and only division they had, now there's no passengers in any team in the top divvy and there is class all throughout the divisions, it's developing at a very rapid rate.

Interesting take and probably right

[Lightning McQueen]

Interesting take and probably right

I'm sure some Poindexter with a degree has put together some pie charts, graphs and animated re-enactments to prove differently but I've seen more than enough games to make my judgements.

3 ambulance trips to the hospital while wearing a guernsey for my daughter before she turned 18 supports my evidence an if you dartfish the AdFL women's games you'll see most have players going off injured during the game and not returning, usually avoidable injuries too and not malicious.

[MW]

Interesting take and probably right

I'm sure some Poindexter with a degree has put together some pie charts, graphs and animated re-enactments to prove differently but I've seen more than enough games to make my judgements.

3 ambulance trips to the hospital while wearing a guernsey for my daughter before she turned 18 supports my evidence an if you dartfish the AdFL women's games you'll see most have players going off injured during the game and not returning, usually avoidable injuries too and not malicious.

Yep my daughter went three times by 16 too...all knee injuries

[Lightning McQueen]

Interesting take and probably right

I'm sure some Poindexter with a degree has put together some pie charts, graphs and animated re-enactments to prove differently but I've seen more than enough games to make my judgements.

3 ambulance trips to the hospital while wearing a guernsey for my daughter before she turned 18 supports my evidence an if you dartfish the AdFL women's games you'll see most have players going off injured during the game and not returning, usually avoidable injuries too and not malicious.

Yep my daughter went three times by 16 too...all knee injuries

Knee, head and collarbone for mine.

[The Bedge]

No injuries for my daughter - she was too lazy and soft to attack the ball

[Brodlach]

No injuries for my daughter - she was too lazy and soft to attack the ball

Like her dad?

[locky801]

No injuries for my daughter - she was too lazy and soft to attack the ball

Like her dad?

i was going to say something like that but thought better of it

[carey]

No injuries for my daughter - she was too lazy and soft to attack the ball

Like her dad?

Nah, I go in pretty hard.

[Gozu]

I cringe a lot more while I'm umpiring women's games as they often go in head first or don't brace themselves well enough for heavy contact as quite often their awareness of what's around them isn't considered while they're concentrating on winning the ball.

That was something I really noticed when AFLW first started up how hard the girls go in with seemingly no self-preservation at all. You could tell it wasn't because they're so kamikaze but more a lack of experience. I think there was a woman playing out Virginia way a year or two ago that died going in hard for the footy.

[Booney]

By Kane Cornes :

It was an extraordinary weekend for Australian women’s sport.

In fact, the Aussie females are dominating our Aussie men on the world stage.

The praise has been overwhelming and rightly so.

However, something caught my attention during the dying overs of the women’s Ashes Test match at Manuka on Sunday.

It was a tweet sent from Triple M and Channel 7’s cricket commentator Isabelle Westbury.

It read:

“Whatever happens, lay off the players, lay off Lanning, & lay off telling 'em what they should & shouldn't be doing. 'Cos whatever it is, it's brilliant. Always against the odds, alway surprising. Oh, & this will finish as the fastest scoring Test.”

Westbury’s tweet is reflective of where the sporting community stands in relation to women’s sport.

The media and supporters are scared to objectively analyse what they are watching for fear it will come across as being critical which will create fierce backlash from an overly sensitive cohort.

Westbury hit send on that tweet when the game’s result could have gone either way. She preemptively feared the negativity that never came.

However, if we are to truly analyse Aussie Meg Lanning’s captaincy you’d find she had a shocker. Her field placements were overly defensive against an opposition requiring around five runs an over and her reluctance to bowl her match winning quicks when the game was at a critical juncture deserves close assessment.

You could sense the dismay towards Lanning’s captaincy from Channel 7’s expert commentator Brad Hodge, although he was treading very lightly between friendly advice and negativity.

Had this been the poor captaincy choices of former male skippers Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting or god forbid Michael Clarke, it would’ve been headline news.

Fox Cricket’s Shane Warne has been on a warpath with his criticism towards the men’s team in the lead up and during the recent Ashes series.

Shockingly, he even found a way to find fault with Allan Border Medallist Mitchell Starc’s first ball of the summer which knocked over England opener Rory Burns.

Agree or not with Warne, for this reason, his analysis is must-watch TV. He never sits on the fence and he doesn’t gush over the athlete’s performances when it’s not warranted.

For women’s sport to grow there needs to be a better balance between praise and fair analysis.

It doesn’t just stop at cricket.

It’s season six in the AFLW and the standard improves every year. This year the skill execution and implementation of more complicated game plans is noticeable.

But there have been some really poor team performances and games in general.

Collingwood managed only 10 inside 50s and one goal for an entire game last Thursday, yet I haven’t seen one critical comment about the Magpies woeful performance.

In the lead up to the season we were made to believe that Carlton forward Darcy Vescio is one of the game’s best players, however the stats tell a different story. Through four games this year, the Blue is averaging nine disposals, has kicked just one goal, one and has laid just five tackles. They are numbers deserving of losing your place in the side.

The Blues were full of hype during the pre-season, they are well resourced and well coached. However, right now they sit 10th on the ladder with one win and four losses and a percentage of just 60. The only win came against the winless Cats in round two. Why isn’t the AFLW world talking about this?

The coach Daniel Harford has been a mainstay in commentary for Fox this AFLW season. Imagine if Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew started the 2022 season at 1-3, but was doing weekly commentary for Channel 7. I don’t think we’d be silent about where his priorities should lie.

Richmond has also been disappointing despite some big off-season recruits, but we haven’t heard a word spoken about the biggest club in the land.

I’m acutely aware that the players are part-time and are juggling work and football, but six seasons in we should expect all players to be able to execute a standard drop punt and teams should certainly be capable of entering the forward 50 zone more than 10 times in a game.

The players are desperate to grow the game and become full-time. The only way for that to happen is for the media coverage to be a lot more interesting which will increase the engagement in the sport.

In tennis, Ash Barty was on court for just over an hour in the final of the Australian Open yet her male counterpart Rafael Nadal was out there for over five. They both collected over $2.8 million for their respective wins.

Why shouldn’t Grand Slam women’s events be best of five sets?

It’s not a physical thing, women have been competing and thriving in one of the world’s most gruelling events - the marathon at the Olympics - since 1984.

They don’t get paid a cent.

The nearly four million people that tuned in on Channel Nine to see Ash’s historic victory would have surely loved another hour or so of their hero on court.

In 2022, the divide between praise and criticism of women’s sport is awfully lopsided.

There is little doubt that this is doing more harm than good.

The women’s codes will thrive at a rapid rate when this eventually balances out.

[Vamos]

You lost most at Kane Cornes I reckon.

[Lightning McQueen]

When you read names such as Kane Cornes, Shane Warne and Brad Hodge in the post you generally think there's going to be a wank off competition somewhere.

[whufc]

In fairness for once Kane Cornes is right, but in the same sense I don't think the sporting community is wrong....

Yes the media and general public are 'going easy' on the female competitions in regards to critism etc but that is absolutely fine, they are in their formative years as professional sports. Their existence at the moment is equally about giving a generation of females an oppurtunity as it is the quality of the sport onfield.

Give it a few more years and im sure the media will be all over every little mistake like they do with the mens game. I like the way the women play, its not perfect but its more relatable to what me and the mates are doing on the weekend rather than Steve Smith swapping his pair of gloves every four overs. It's imperfection is a nice change in professional sport.

[Booney]

In fairness for once Kane Cornes is right, but in the same sense I don't think the sporting community is wrong....

Yes the media and general public are 'going easy' on the female competitions in regards to critism etc but that is absolutely fine, they are in their formative years as professional sports. Their existence at the moment is equally about giving a generation of females an oppurtunity as it is the quality of the sport onfield.

Give it a few more years and im sure the media will be all over every little mistake like they do with the mens game. I like the way the women play, its not perfect but its more relatable to what me and the mates are doing on the weekend rather than Steve Smith swapping his pair of gloves every four overs. It's imperfection is a nice change in professional sport.

Thing is you can't compare women's sport to anything other than women's sport and by merely being critical of it doesn't mean it will improve.

[whufc]

In fairness for once Kane Cornes is right, but in the same sense I don't think the sporting community is wrong....

Yes the media and general public are 'going easy' on the female competitions in regards to critism etc but that is absolutely fine, they are in their formative years as professional sports. Their existence at the moment is equally about giving a generation of females an oppurtunity as it is the quality of the sport onfield.

Give it a few more years and im sure the media will be all over every little mistake like they do with the mens game. I like the way the women play, its not perfect but its more relatable to what me and the mates are doing on the weekend rather than Steve Smith swapping his pair of gloves every four overs. It's imperfection is a nice change in professional sport.

Thing is you can't compare women's sport to anything other than women's sport and by merely being critical of it doesn't mean it will improve.

100% agree it wont improve just because the media etc are critical, no chance that happens.

But I do think you can compare elements of cricket regardless of whether its male or female. eg bringing your best bowler on at the most critical time is a common sense approach across all levels of cricket that exist purely to win that game. The same could be said in football regarding having your best midfielder in the centre bounce at that extremely crucial point of a game.

The other interesting part is lets not kid ourselves the media drive a lot of interest in any sport and on many occasions its the critical or ugly that generate the interest or viewers. Take a look at the Special K's, I believe they had record tv ratings for a doubles match in history....the media drove the 'its good, bad debate' and then we tune in to watch the show and make up our own minds. .....with media exposure and viewers, clickers, likers comes the increased dollars into the game and then hopefully the increased player wages.

Look at Kane Cornes…..he has a job because he slams people and it gets great reactions and viewing. Ultimately Kane Cornes is good for the AFL because his increasing the viewership of the game whether people like him or not.

[Lightning McQueen]

If you want something to improve, get Bedgie involved, simple!