Gritty Kangaroos and classy Lions win through to AFLW grand final
Premiership favourites Brisbane have done it easy in their qualifying final, cruising to a 17-point victory over Richmond at Metricon Stadium to set up a gripping AFLW grand final with their fierce rivals North Melbourne.
The Tigers, who were making their AFLW finals debut after entering the competition in 2020, defended valiantly but were outclassed by the Lions 5.9 (39) to 3.4 (22).
The minor premiers’ only loss for the season came against Richmond at Punt Road Oval back in September, and the Lions were determined to turn the tables. Brisbane spearhead Jesse Wardlaw duly opened the scoring to become the first player to kick 20 goals in an AFLW season.
Richmond captain Katie Brennan snapped a terrific goal to level the scores after five minutes but majors to Cathy Svarc, Sophie Conway and Dakota Davidson blew the game open in the second term as the Lions took a 22-point lead into halftime.
Richmond looked more threatening in the final quarter as Brennan added to her major in the first term with two more to finish with all three of the Tigers’ goals. Other Richmond players had gilt-edged opportunities to reduce the deficit even further but they were still able to win the final quarter.
Brisbane dominated inside-50s by 36-22 and could have won by more if they had kicked straighter and the Tigers’ defence was not so resilient. Nonetheless, Brisbane controlled most of the contest to prevail. The commanding victory allows the Lions to have a week off and progress to a home preliminary final as they seek to win their second AFLW premiership.
Reigning league best-and-fairest winner Emily Bates and fellow Lions premiership player Ally Anderson were the leading possession winners on the ground with 21 each. But Brisbane had winners all across the ground and were crucially able to curb the influence of star Tigers midfielder Mon Conti, who is favourite to claim her first league bestand-fairest award later this month.
“Really stoked to get the dub (win), not just to get to the prelim but also to get the win back over the Tigers,” Conway told the Seven Network. “We had a disappointing loss to them in round-five so we wanted to come back out here and play our brand of footy and our style. I felt like we did that for parts of today but maybe not all four quarters.”
Richmond will now meet North Melbourne in the AFLW grand final only a fortnight after the Tigers drew with them to deny the Kangaroos a topfour finish.
The Kangaroos tackled their way to a great escape, beating Geelong by two points in a hard-fought elimination final. No goals were scored from the last minute of the first term, but the Kangaroos withstood a barrage of inside-50s to win 2.4 (16) to 1.8 (14).
A week after posting the secondhighest score in AFLW history, the freewheeling Cats were shut down and posted the second-lowest score of their season, despite ideal conditions. Geelong had a whopping 40 inside-50s to 18, but North dominated the tackle count 82-57 - with Kangaroos defender Amy Smith racking up 17.
Asked if he felt North had got away with it, coach Darren Crocker said “absolutely”.
“But as I just said to the players,” he added. “We’ve been probably on the wrong end of a few of those results as well. In a final, it was nice to get one back. They will definitely feel disappointed they didn’t come away with that win.”
Kangaroos captain Emma Kearney, who was heroic in defence, was similarly blunt. “We were actually really lucky to hold onto that - Geelong were outstanding,” she told the Seven Network.
Cats coach Dan Lowther said his players did not adapt to North’s ironclad defence. “It was a tough loss,” he said. “We play six weeks of really open, flowing football ... and then you get caught in a game where you play four quarters of an arm wrestle. But credit to the Kangaroos. They certainly did their homework.”
In round one, Geelong beat Richmond by two goals-to-one at the same venue, also in good conditions, and it was arguably the worst game of the season. Saturday night was anything but, with the two teams battling out a riveting contest, as Cats forward Shelley Scott had two shots on goal in the last couple of minutes, only to see the first miss and the next rushed through for another behind.
The game turned on two injured players. Kearney played with her right knee strapped heavily in her return from a week off, but was outstanding and marshalled the North defence. “She’s such a professional, she’d done everything she possibly could right to get herself right for this game,” Crocker said.
By contrast, Geelong ball-magnet Georgie Prespakis was well off her usual output, a week after rolling her ankle. “She was pretty upset during the game because she was hamstrung by an injury that stops her playing good football,” Lowther said.