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Welcome to Balls of Steel’s AFL Beat!

AFLW TEAM PREVIEWS

This weekend, (TONIGHT ACTUALLY!), the third season of AFL Women’s gets underway. As you may or may not remember from the first offseason report, we have two new teams this year: North Melbourne Kangaroos and Geelong Cats.

Let’s take a look at last year’s final ladder, shall we?

Now forget about the standings because they are essentially irrelevant. In order to have the two new teams be competitive with the existing teams, ALL players were available for selection by the new teams and many existing teams got RAIDED.

There was a LOT of player movement from club to club and a lot of new players have been added to the league. That all adds up to a whole lot of uncertainty as to which teams will be good and which won’t.

The Doggies are the returning champions, but this year that means nothing. Neither does the fact that Brisbane has played in the last two Grand Finals. And any thought that North Melbourne and Geelong would be pushovers has gone out the window with the way North raided the roosters of the existing teams and how Geelong basically took their regional VFL team and made it the basis of the AFL team.

To sum up, it’s really a waste of time to preview the teams given absolutely no one has any clue what to expect. It’s better to watch the games and decide for ourselves who we like.

Just like Season One!

Which makes it kinda exciting, like regaining your virginity except now you know how an Around The World works!

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This year, since we have two new teams, the ladder will be split up into TWO ladders, one for each conference:

Conference A

Conference B

The teams are divided roughly across geographic lines with the teams based in Melbourne split up evenly. I’m pretty sure they wanted to keep traditional rivals Carlton and Collingwood in the same conference due to history. Keeping the teams with “Melbourne” in their name was probably also a priority.

That left Geelong and Western and, well, Western should be in the Western Conference A, so there you have it.

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Lady Footy Tipping Contest

The Footy Tipping Contest for AFLW is back again! Those who participated last year should have received an email. If any of you newer readers want to participate, please click on this link and sign up. The URL is https://www.footytips.com.au/comps/DFO_Lady_Footy. It’s an Australian ESPN site, so it’s perfectly legit and, even better, completely free. It’s the same site we use for the regular AFL season.

To remind you, here is how we finished last year:

Last year’s winner was crowned on the last day as nomonkeyfun correctly picked the Western Bulldogs to win while I wrongly picked the Brisbane Lions. Like last year, if we get more than 10 people, I will offer a prize to the winner!

DONT FORGET TO PUT THE FOOTY TIPS IN!

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AFLW Round 1

All the games are available to watch on the Watch AFL app. If you are an International Member of one of the AFL clubs, this is included in your membership. If not, you can subscribe directly through the Watch AFL website: https://www.watchafl.com.au

For $150 per year, you get to see live every AFLW game, every AFL preseason game, the AFLX tourney, and all AFL games up to and including the Grand Final. You also get full game replays of every game I mentioned in the prior sentence as well as the live feed of the Fox Footy channel from Australia.

It’s really quite a bargain for nine months of entertainment.

Fox Soccer Plus also shows most games live. However, there is an extra charge for that channel and if you’re only interested in AFL, getting the Watch AFL yearly subscription is much cheaper and you get the benefit of replays without having to take the time to record games.

Here is the schedule for this week (all times Pacific):

Friday, February 1, 2019

11:40 PM – Geelong Cats v Collingwood Magpies – at GMHBA Stadium

The AFLW season debut game is being held at Geelong’s regular field, which is a good sign for equality. Word has it the Geelong community is rallying behind the ladies so the attendance might be pretty sizable.

Saturday, February 2, 2019

1:40 AM – Adelaide Crows v Western Bulldogs – at Norwood Oval

The only two champions in league history meet in Week 1 to see who has the inside track to become the first repeat champion.

6:05 PM – North Melbourne Kangaroos v Carlton Blues at North Hobart Oval, Hobart, Tasmania

Interestingly, the Roos will, like the men’s team, play some home games in Tasmania. To do that in the first game in team history is a pretty strong statement of commitment to Tasmania.

8:05 PM – Melbourne Demons v Fremantle Dockers at Casey Fields

I’m pretty happy that we get a tripleheader to start the season. Hopefully this game will be good.

10:05 PM – Brisbane Lions v GWS Giants at Moreton Bay Central Sports Complex

These have been my two favourite teams for the last two seasons for the way they play. It will be fun to watch this one.

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AFLX

We have some new AFLX news in that Vice Captains were named for the four squads. They are:

The rest of the teams will be announced in early February well ahead of the February 22, 2019 tournament.

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Get ready, boys and girls, because a super fun sport is ready to take your attention away from the doldrums of the NFL off-season! Like I’ve mentioned in the past, the women sometimes hit harder than the men and their sport is a joy to watch. Enjoy the games!

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