‘Celebrate and help educate’: Pride round important for inclusion
The weekend was the league’s third dedicated competition-wide Pride round, and the first with all 18 clubs involved and wearing dedicated guernseys.
Essendon co-captain Bonnie Toogood, who played a pivotal role in her side’s four-point win against fellow expansion side Sydney on Saturday, said the round was an important tool in showing football is “where everyone belongs”.
Bulldogs and St Kilda captains Ellie Blackburn and Hannah Priest mark Pride round.Credit:Getty Images
“We have to continue showing that pride in that [history] and continue living out that same belief and making sure that we’re also continuing to be accepting and making sure people come here and feel belonging,” Toogood said.
“It’s really important to make sure that we’re supporting one another and that we have to have pride in who we are.
“It really breaks my heart when you hear the stories when people can’t be authentically themselves, and what I think AFLW does really well is that we celebrate and help educate and invite everyone to come and engage with AFLW because it’s a place where everyone belongs and is accepted.”
Over the weekend, rainbows were painted on the 50-metre arcs, all field and boundary umpires wore rainbow-coloured sweatbands and goal umpires exchanged their traditional white flags for progress flags to acknowledge trans-visibility and people of colour.
Each club celebrated the occasion in different ways, such as the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda who ran through a joint banner which read: “Dogs and Saints together welcome our Pride community.”
Port Adelaide and North Melbourne also ran through a joint banner which read: “Together side by side, united to celebrate pride.”
Dees deliver for Pearce’s 50th
Daisy Pearce inspired her teammates.Credit:Matt Roberts, Getty Images
This season has seen a plethora of milestone celebrations as many inaugural AFLW players reach their 50th games, including this week one of the most recognisable faces of the competition, Daisy Pearce.
And her Demons stood tall for their captain, delivering a 49-point win over Gold Coast on Saturday night at Metricon Stadium. Fittingly, Pearce booted the opening goal and proved a good target with 6 marks, while Tayla Harris kicked three and Eden Zanker and Kate Hore two apiece.
Speaking earlier in the week, Pearce acknowledged the significance of the milestone, joining other captains Alicia Eva (GWS), Ellie Blackburn (Western Bulldogs), Kerryn Peterson (Carlton), Tilly Lucas-Rodd (Hawthorn), Emma Kearney (North Melbourne) and Steph Chiocci (Collingwood).
“I’m normally one to kind of just brush it off and move on but, yeah, reflecting on it this week, 50 doesn’t sound like many particularly when we’ve just had Joel Selwood hit 40 finals and in AFL speak, we’re talking 350s and 400s,” Pearce said.
“But for AFLW … I couldn’t play a single game until I was nearly 29. Like, it just wasn’t possible.
“So I was nearly 30 when the competition started and then we were going six or seven games at a time to begin with. So, they’re hard to come by, AFLW games.
“And then to throw in twins and a pregnancy and all of that in between, it might not sound like many on paper but it feels like a lot, a lot of games.”
The win over the weekend bolsters Melbourne’s percentage and keeps them in the top two heading into the final two rounds of the home-and-away season. They next face expansion side Essendon, then West Coast.
‘Genuine superstar in the making’: Fleming’s shades of Dangerfield
In Hawthorn’s one-point loss to Greater Western Sydney on Sunday afternoon, in which the Giants’ Nicola Barr kicked the match-winning behind with less than 10 seconds on the clock, teenager Jasmine Flemings gave Hawks fans lots to be excited about.
Fleming added to her highlight reel early on when a burst away from the contest and kick to the top of the goal square resulted in a mark and first goal of the day by Jess Duffin.
Carlton coach Daniel Harford, who was commentating the game for Fox Footy, said her ability to break away and use her speed was a real strength to the side.
“In the last couple of seasons [of Fleming through the pathways], there was references to Patrick Dangerfield in the way that he would burst from contests and burst from scrimmage … [she] breaks the game open with her speed,” Harford said.
“If you’re a Hawks fan, you’re absolutely salivating at this being the future of your footy club. Jas Fleming is a genuine superstar in the making.
“The power and speed that she’s got and the will to push forward and drive is like few of her contemporaries.”
Fleming wasn’t the only young gun to be a bright spot of a losing side this weekend.
In West Coast’s nine-point loss to Geelong on Saturday afternoon, 17-year-old Ella Roberts booted the opening goal and continued to show development in her game in the forward line, while teenager Charlotte Thomas stood tall in defence.
Richmond processes ‘starting to bear fruit’
Richmond continued their hot streak with a 10-point win over Carlton on Friday night at Ikon Park, the result of their processes starting to ‘bear fruit’ in their fourth season in the competition, according to Tigers defender Eilish Sheerin.
Richmond entered the competition in the second expansion in 2020, along with St Kilda, Gold Coast Suns and West Coast Eagles, and are looking to be the first of them to play finals.
“It’s the same every week, whether it’s a win, loss or draw, we still prepare the same, the process is the same. We just back our methods and it’s obviously kind of starting to bear fruit, which is good,” Sheerin said.
“They were an expansion side, and we’ve obviously moved past that. So, understanding what’s worked and what hasn’t worked, and being able to refine that over multiple seasons, especially in terms of pre-season and things like that, and ensuring we’re all in a position of being really fit and able to execute a game plan – that’s been a big part of it.”
Sheerin said that the side’s win over Brisbane in round five, their first win over a premiership-winning team, really instilled a sense of belief that they can beat anyone.
More ACL heartbreak, Western gruesome arm injury
Injuries continue to plague the competition, with GWS confirming on Saturday an ACL tear to developing young star Emily Pease, which she suffered at training.
Giants coach Cam Bernasconi said it was really disappointing news.
“She’s been having a wonderful season, and we’re going to miss having her out there for the rest of this year,” he said. “We’ll support Em in every way, and we know this is just a minor setback in what will be a long and successful AFLW career.”
Mikayla Western is helped from the field.Credit:Getty Images
In the first two rounds of season seven, six players suffered the season-ending injury, and in round six, Adelaide forward McKenzie Dowrick ruptured her ACL in the showdown win against Port Adelaide.
In other injury news from round eight, West Coast’s Mikayla Western went down with a gruesome injury in the last quarter of her side’s nine-point loss to Geelong on Saturday.
Western executed a clinical tackle on Geelong’s Claudia Gunjaca, but landed awkwardly as her left arm took the impact. Two trainers helped Western as she walked off the ground giving a thumbs-up, despite having her left arm in a sling.
Eagles coach Michael Prior said Western had sustained an elbow injury and had gone to hospital, but was in good spirits.
“She was pretty happy downstairs on the green whistle … hopefully she’s OK” said Prior, who praised her chase-down tackling.
