Melbourne and the Western
Bulldogs – they were the very first two AFL women’s teams, playing biannual exhibition
matches from 2013 to 2016. Those matches were effectively women’s ‘All‑Star’
games, and featured many of today’s best AFL Women’s players, including Daisy
Pearce, Ellie Blackburn, Darcy Vescio, and Chelsea Randall.
The
2016 clash in particular drew a lot of national attention – along with high
ratings – ahead of the inaugural AFL Women’s season last year. Perhaps in part
due to the memory of that moment Melbourne and the Bulldogs were two
of the most-fancied teams going into the 2017 season, even though many of
the players who pulled on their colours for that match were going to be spread out
across the eight AFL Women’s teams.
Well it took a season, but
maybe Melbourne and the Bulldogs are once again the leaders of the pack. The Demons
had a very strong five-goal win on the weekend against last year’s premiers the
Adelaide Crows (more on them in a moment). And the Dogs accounted for the other
of the grand finalists, the Brisbane Lions, with an impressive nine-point win
up in Queensland. The Demons and Dogs are both undefeated after two matches, as is Carlton, but the Blues have had only small wins so far against lower-ranked sides.
Meanwhile 2017’s two best sides
seem to have taken a step back, particularly the Crows. Adelaide has been savaged
by the injury to co-captain Erin Phillips, who last year had possibly the most dominant AFL season ever, albeit
in a season that lasted eight weeks. Phillips’ two-week absence, and the lack
of output from last year’s star forward Sarah Perkins (11 goals in 2017, none
so far this year), are some of the main reasons that – in a competition of only
seven weeks and one final – the
Crows’ chances of defending their title are already close to zero.
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