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Saturday September 5
Second Elimination Final
1:05pm AEST - Carlton v Port Melbourne
IKON Park, Melbourne • Wurundjeri
Sunday September 6
First Elimination Final
10:05am AEST Collingwood v Western Bulldogs
Victoria Park, Melbourne • Wurundjeri
Great comeback by the Port Melbourne women after being down by 10 at 1/4 time and by 9 at the half. Contested work has been one of our strengths all season, but in the first half Carlton were getting too many uncontested possessions and were beating us on transition. Then our players were able to get the game back on our terms starting late in the second quarter by increasing their pressure and turning it into a contested game. Body work in the contest has generally been a strong point for us, and that was the case again here. Interestingly both the men and the women won their finals partly thanks to great contested work despite losing the hitouts and the clearances. The women's game was very much a game of two halves, and in the second half we kept Carlton under pressure even when they did win the clearances.
Courtney Jones was probably best on ground, with strong performances from Caffry, Scally, and Stutt as well. Eimear Scally has been quite a find and performed well in the midfield in only her fourth VFLW game - hope she re-signs for next season. Gebel-Lamb, Georgia Foran, and O'Keefe were all particuarly good as well. The defence as a whole stood up well despite losing Olivia Barton at the half; hope she's fit to go next week.
Next week we play either Willy or North depending on who wins the Collingwood-Bulldogs game today. Both of this weekend's winners will certainly have their work cut out for them in the prelims. I could see Collingwood-Bulldogs going either way now that Dom Carbone is playing for Collingwood's AFLW side instead of their VFLW side.