While the round officially ended
with the Suns-Bulldogs match on Tuesday, I’m stretching it to include the
Saints-Giants game, after which all teams have played the same amount of
matches again. My poor spreadsheet has copped enough twisting and turning this
season with all of the postponed matches, and the AFLW app itself is taking a
somewhat loose approach as to which match belongs to which round.
Tayla! – she had Brisbane
on its knees
One of the best matches of the
season was Brisbane versus Melbourne, where the Demons came from over 20 points
behind to win by three points.
Forward Tayla Harris took an
AFLW record seven contested marks and kicked two goals to help lead the
comeback. That now gives her almost double the number of contested marks (18)
of the rest of the competition, and she is second for goals.
Specialist key forwards have
arguably not been that ‘key’ in AFLW. Sarah Perkins and Sabrina Frederick were
All-Australians during the competition’s first couple of years, but have
struggled to find a prominent role since. Goalkickers that can also pound their
way through the midfield or play higher up the ground like Erin Phillips, Katie
Brennan, and Kate Hore have been more effective as the competition has
progressed. Still Tayla Harris and Fremantle’s Gemma Houghton have managed to
find a decent amount of success as specialist forward targets.
Harris’ performance on Monday
encapsulates the value of a key forward fairly well. Melbourne can certainly
not rely on her pulling down seven contested marks each week. But if she can do
something close to that again in a big match, it could be the crucial
difference.
(Having said all that, with 13 more
inside 50s Brisbane probably still should have won it…)
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