This Week In Football is a collection of some of the best in football currently outside the walls of AFL clubs or broadcasters. Each week a curated grab bag from regular contributors and special guests will provide insight into and beyond the game on subjects of their choosing. For more about our contributors, click here.
Banner images by Polly Porridge of the True Bloods Podcast. Check out her other design work.
Before the Bounce
Eight finalists have become six just like that. Every game now is an elimination battle as the premiership cup draws closer for each club.
This week James, Cody and Sean will look at what each team will be looking to do – and avoid – in their upcoming Semi Finals.
Brisbane v GC
Image – James Ives. Words – Sean Lawson and Cody Atkinson
Gold Coast Suns preview
Stepping into the Suns shoes is a bit hard. They’ve already achieved more than they ever have before, and they’ll be going up against a side they’ve already beaten this year.
The Suns really want to take away Brisbane’s kick-mark game by getting in their face. That means controlling ground ball and stoppage exits. Gold Coast are a dominant ground ball side and beat Brisbane handily when they were able to turn the game chaotic this year, but were beaten by the Lions’ controlled possession game at the Gabba earlier in the year.
If I’m Hardwick, I’m looking to go head-to-head around the ball. With Lachie Neale out, the Suns will expect to have the edge in gathering and feeding the ball out. The Lions have depth in the middle, but throwing an extra number at the contest could be spreading the Suns too thin in transition down back.
Even with a dominant midfield we probably can’t score 7 goals from centre bounce again like last time, but that would be the easiest way to win.
Otherwise, I’m hoping for raw speed, especially by hand, to work out of contests and get deep forward before Brisbane can fully get back. If the game turns into kick-to-kick, the Suns will be in trouble.
The Suns will hopefully feed it deep to Ben King on his island effectively, getting a few clean marks and otherwise letting Long, Humphries and co go to work in the space he creates.
Brisbane preview
If stepping into the Suns shoes is hard, the Lions are in an even tougher spot. The reigning premier from last year is missing their captain and one of their forward focal points. At some level the personnel is what it is – at this time of year it has to be next player up to get the job done.
The most important thing for the Lions is to effectively control how the Suns use the ball at clearance. If having Neale missing means that we will lose a few more hard balls, we need to be ready defensively to protect the exits. I might want to throw an extra number around the contest and following the ball to clog up the contest – sacrificing a high forward to protect space a little better.
The next most important thing is to get the game on our terms. That means taking the pace out of play, and preventing the surges through the ground from the Suns. Moving the ball carefully by foot will be critical, as will be establishing the contested marking game. Playing Fort and OMac together is a risk from a speed perspective, but it might just stretch the defence and open easier avenues to goal.
Working out how to replace Hipwood is at the front of mind as well. The Suns defence is solid, and are willing to back themselves in without a bunch of extra numbers down back. Making space with smalls deep is key, but also making targets up the ground will be critical.
Creating mismatches for Logan Morris and Charlie Cameron might be key as well – the Lions might try to force some switches and to deploy their unit in different ways to before.
Adelaide v Hawthorn
Image – James Ives. Words – Sean Lawson and Cody Atkinson
Adelaide preview
Last week wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible either. If I am the Crows it’s about staying the course about what worked this year.
That means I’m looking first to defence in all parts of the ground as the primary route to victory. A 10 goal to 8 grind sounds like a fine way to win a final and I’m setting up for a lot of stoppage contests. I’m also trying to find spares in defence and protect as much as I can from damaging attacks.
The Hawks get a lot of good ball up forward when given the chance – second in marks per inside 50 – and we really need to limit that given our own difficulties scoring. That means blanketing them in all phases of play, which luckily we’ve done well all season.
The Hawks are a middling deep transition team so in going forward, I’m confident in our strong defence of against transition against me. Two middling transition teams means contest and territory is going to matter a lot and we can lean on our usual kick-first possession profile. I’m probably content leaning on a lot of quick long kicking, with any sort of dirty ball enough to set up to go again.
The Hawks are going to want to move the ball by hand so we need to prevent forward handballs from contest and flowing through the middle of the ground. Jumping lanes is critical, as is holding space and not overcommitting to the player with the ball. If needed, make them use the ball one too many times rather than one too few.
With this contest focus, the quality of the entry inside 50 will likely suffer. The hope is that the weight of numbers will brute force enough decent kicks inside 50 to get to get the chances to score needed.
Hawthorn’s height in defence makes me think there’s a chance to beat them for pace at ground level with my non-key forwards, though it does make me think Thilthorpe and Walker have their work cut out halving contests.
If the Crows lose the territory battle it could be game over – so getting first possessions at stoppage will be critical.
Hawthorn preview
Last week looked great until it didn’t. If I’m the Hawks I’d be starting to get a bit worried about how streaky the play has been against good sides. Resilience is one thing, but consistency is key.
The message for the Hawks would be simple – split the territory battle and trust the forwards to execute. That’s why Lewis has come in – to space the forward line further. Finding chests inside 50 is the pathway to victory. Giving Gunston the room to operate will be crucial – if we can get the Crows to over-adjust the game could be over.
The Crows love to kick the ball, so making sure they can’t find targets is critical. They’ve also got a lot of mobile talls that can move up the ground. Making sure that we are protected deep at all times with a deep spare will be critical to stopping forward thrusts.
They might try to suck us into a number of repeat stoppages, so making sure we can execute blocks for Newcombe and co will be critical. Getting the stoppage set up right will be key.
The Hawks also need to effectively get the ball to at least halfway when rebounding from 50. The Crows kill teams by trapping them up the ground. Everything beyond halfway is a win – because that means their defence will be at breaking point.
Sitting wide might be key to exploiting their high press. Making sure the fat side wing stays wide could make the ground big, and make it easier to counter attack. Rewarding leads will also be critical to making this space.
Age and Experience in AFLW 2025
Emlyn Breese / CreditToDuBois.com
There’s been some commentary in the public about AFLW squad ages this season. Usually, the rule of thumb is that older teams tend to do better than younger sides, but is that stacking up so far this year?
There’s some difference between the age of a squad and the age of sides selected week-to-week can vary a lot so I wanted to have a dive into that.
Three of the four undefeated teams are amongst the youngest sides selected so far this year (Hawthorn – youngest, Sydney – 4th youngest, Melbourne – 5th youngest). Sitting just behind the undefeated sides is the 3-1 West Coast. They happen to be the 2nd youngest selected side this year.
The undefeated Roos are unsurprising as the oldest team so far this year, but the winless Richmond being the second oldest is potentially cause for concern.
The ideal for a future outlook is to be both young and have game experience. The only teams that are both below the median age and above the median experience this season are Melbourne and the Dogs.
On the chart above the teams above the diagonal line have more games of experience than you’d expect for a team at that age profile (based on league average).
For a bit more context, how does this stack up against previous seasons?
Note: Some pre-2024 data may not be 100% correct, but it should be directionally correct due to the use of median instead of mean.
As we’d expect, the experience of selected sides has gone up as the competition has advanced. But, we can see the same isn’t the case for age.
Another note: We’re looking at sides selected from rounds 1-4 compared to sides selected over a full season. Take the same side in Round 1 and play them through the season and the median age will have increased by three months and the median experience by 10+ games.
At the start of the competition the best players were typically either those with extensive footy experience through amateurs, or those with professional experience at the elite level of other sports. We’re now getting players come through who have had elite pathways through footy. I think that’s probably driving the median age staying low – we’re getting draftees who are pushing from selection from the moment they walk in the door.
The same data source I draw on for ages also has heights, so I thought it would be fun to take a look at the tallest teams selected.
Of the 11 tallest teams across a season, 4 of them are from this year, and Gold Coast from Season 7-10 also occupy 4 of those 11 slots including a monopoly on the top 3.
At the other end of things the shortest teams this year are St Kilda, Richmond, and Brisbane, each clocking in at 169 cm, putting them equal 21st shortest (alongside a further 17 teams from previous seasons).
Leave a Reply