Win Sunday’s grand final against Brisbane or not, Pearce’s position as a women’s football great is already secureFootball’s women, a correspondent wrote in The Age in the 1970s, “are mere appendages to the game, extras in an all-male saga, tolerated but not taken seriously”. For so long, that’s how it was in football. Women washed our socks. They drove us to training. Leigh Matthews did psychological profiles of his Brisbane players’ wives and girlfriends “to assist their playing partners to be better footballers”.When a young Darebin Falcons player was taken as the No 1 pick in the inaugural national women’s draft, things were changing. It was six months after Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech. In the next few years, a woman...
The Dees and Lions will renew their rivalry on Sunday with a second premiership flag of 2022 up for grabsHere we are then. After plenty of twists and turns throughout the season, both on and off field, two teams remain and will face off on Sunday in the second AFLW grand final of the year. Brisbane and Melbourne were only separated by 0.3% at the top of the ladder at the end of the home-and-away season, so perhaps it is only fitting they’re the last two standing.On Friday night, at their home away from home on the Gold Coast, Brisbane did what they’ve done all season – they piled on the goals. After an arm wrestle in the first few...
The elimination finals went down to the wire and two more top quality games are expected this weekend, although not everyone will be able to watch liveTickets to the game at Richmond’s Swinburne Centre, which has a capacity of 2,500, sold out in nine minutes on Monday. The decision to host the match there was backed by the AFL due to higher-ranked Richmond’s preference, but has angered many fans of a sport fighting for growth. Continue reading...
The returning coach says he has ‘unfinished business’ after taking on a job loaded with emotional risk – both for him and the clubIt’s halfway through the final quarter of the 2015 preliminary final. Hawthorn has played almost flawless football, but the Dockers are rattling home. Nathan Fyfe is running around with a broken leg, because that’s what you do when you play for Ross Lyon. The crowd is febrile – later we will learn that a woman has been punched in the face and that a Hawthorn player has been whacked over the head with an inflatable anchor. The Fremantle defender Tendai Mzungu switches play with a 20-metre kick across half back. His target is Tom Sheridan, who’s playing...
The coach’s dismissal caught most analysts off guard although the least surprised was likely a supporter base at its wits endIn the off-season, optimism blooms the cheek of every footy fan and club leader. Andrew Bassat, the founder of Seek and the president of St Kilda, was certainly bullish about his footy club and his senior coach heading into 2022. “I fully expect Brett to be our long-term coach and I fully expect — no pressure at all — Brett to become our second premiership coach,” he said. For the first few months, things were tracking nicely. They weren’t exactly a team you’d cancel all plans to go and watch. But they were in the top four. Against Geelong, they...