Both teams are heavily represented in the AFLW so for Darebin we were basically looking at their reserves team but Melb Uni further affiliated with Tasmania for this game specifically and had half and half of their reserves team and Tassie's best young female footballers.
I've never seen a game of local women's footy so I wanted to get a look at what 'the rest" of the players looked like, game style, skill level etc.
I especially wanted to see the differences between the good local players and the elite AFLW players.
After watching most of the AFLW games and then this game this is what I saw as the major differences in no particular order.
CLEAN HANDS OFF THE GROUND
The elite AFLW players like Daisy Pearce, Emma Kearney and Brianna Davey all have extremely clean hands when the ball is on the ground.
They all regularly pick the ball up in 1 go and they can easily "handball on the up" with accuracy.
They can do both of these skills in contested and uncontested conditions, can do it on either side of the body and most importantly they can do it at speed, and without having to slow down to have more time to do it.
I say this all the time but football is a game of a million races - the fastest wins.
STAYING IN THE CONTEST
This stood out to me in the local game in that the women would go into the contest, provide 1 effort and then that would be it.
In the AFLW you have players like Emma Zielke who have 2, 3 and 4 efforts in a single passage of play, applying constant pressure to the opposition at all times.
This is pretty much how the Brisbane Lions have remained unbeaten, they're effort never drops and it results in turnovers leading to them being able to score off the transition from those turnovers.
PHYSICALITY
AFL is a physical game, I'm not breaking new ground there I don't think.
But the physicality I'm talking about is about handling contact with out without the ball and still being effective, which piggy backs off the last point a little bit.
Emma Kearney have the strength, speed and aggression to break out of packs and burst into open space.
Daisy Pearce is a Sam Mitchell clone where she gets the ball off the ground in pack situations and while being pressured, can get handballs out that hits targets every time.
Brianna Davey is a bit of both as she has speed, strength and smarts.
These players can make something out of nothing in contested situation, which as we have seen is very prevalent in AFLW at the moment, and is a rare but talent, but maybe the best one to have right now.
SPEED
Katie McCarthy - that is all!
In the last 2 weeks she has kicked goals purely off the back of speed.
I sat down for 30mins and worked out her splits I was that impressed with that long goal from 2 weekends ago!
It does help that she runs 100m in 12secs but speed can be improved, and at a decent rate too, as I've proved with my current women footballers I'm training at the moment, Sarah and Anna.
I rate speed as the number 1 quality to build, to train, to possess for all team sports - behind skills obviously - and she has it in spades.
What impresses me the most about Katie Mac is that she uses it to her advantage as good as she does.
In that game above she had just 3 possessions for the game = 3 kicks - but 2 goals...2 long running goals where she burnt off her opposition to run into open goals.
When goals are hard to come by and you want to kick them when you can, then running to the goal line and attempting to score from there is probably what you want isn't it?
It's one thing to possess a game changing strength, it's another thing completely to be able to use to change actual games.
Testing wise, over 20m from a standing start, a test for acceleration, 3.13secs was the 4th best at all the AFLW talent days last year by Georgia Baldwin from Tasmania so there's a time to aim for.
A good enough range would be 3.30 - 3.50secs.
I also like a max velocity score too so I train my female players over a flying 20m which Anna has posted a blistering 2.75secs.
From the image above you can see I had Katie Mac clocked at 2.93secs for a flying 20m (with the ball), but it was hard to judge the splits so they're not a million % accurate.
Now if you don't naturally possess these talents then you need to train them up and as it happens I still have 7 spots open to female footballers who want to make their AFLW dream happen.
The sessions that we can do in-person if you;re local or online if you're not, focus on what you don't train at footy training and also works around your footy training for minimal interference with that, as it's the most important aspect of all your training.
In 4 - 6 weeks I can't see how a drop in half a second off your flying 20m, a quarter of a second off your standing 20m and also a few beats decreased from your resting heart rate (increasing aerobic capacity/endurance) can't happen.
Email at aussierulestraining@gmail.com, pm through the Facebook page or go right ahead in fill in the application form if you want those results before the season starts.
It does help that she runs 100m in 12secs but speed can be improved, and at a decent rate too, as I've proved with my current women footballers I'm training at the moment, Sarah and Anna.
I rate speed as the number 1 quality to build, to train, to possess for all team sports - behind skills obviously - and she has it in spades.
What impresses me the most about Katie Mac is that she uses it to her advantage as good as she does.
In that game above she had just 3 possessions for the game = 3 kicks - but 2 goals...2 long running goals where she burnt off her opposition to run into open goals.
When goals are hard to come by and you want to kick them when you can, then running to the goal line and attempting to score from there is probably what you want isn't it?
It's one thing to possess a game changing strength, it's another thing completely to be able to use to change actual games.
Testing wise, over 20m from a standing start, a test for acceleration, 3.13secs was the 4th best at all the AFLW talent days last year by Georgia Baldwin from Tasmania so there's a time to aim for.
A good enough range would be 3.30 - 3.50secs.
I also like a max velocity score too so I train my female players over a flying 20m which Anna has posted a blistering 2.75secs.
From the image above you can see I had Katie Mac clocked at 2.93secs for a flying 20m (with the ball), but it was hard to judge the splits so they're not a million % accurate.
Now if you don't naturally possess these talents then you need to train them up and as it happens I still have 7 spots open to female footballers who want to make their AFLW dream happen.
The sessions that we can do in-person if you;re local or online if you're not, focus on what you don't train at footy training and also works around your footy training for minimal interference with that, as it's the most important aspect of all your training.
In 4 - 6 weeks I can't see how a drop in half a second off your flying 20m, a quarter of a second off your standing 20m and also a few beats decreased from your resting heart rate (increasing aerobic capacity/endurance) can't happen.
Email at aussierulestraining@gmail.com, pm through the Facebook page or go right ahead in fill in the application form if you want those results before the season starts.
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