AFLW 2018 Collingwood Preview

Collingwood News

2018 AFLW Round 1 COLLINGWOOD v CARLTON Time & Place: Friday February 2, 7:45pm EDT Princes Park TV: 7mate / Foxtel 7.40pm EDT Weather: Min 14 Max 24 Chance of rain 5%: < 1mm Wind: SSW 14kph Betting: Collingwood $2.45 Carlton $1.55

1. It’s one of the biggest events of the season
Last year’s inaugural match was a lockout. A lockout! We don’t see those in football too often these days. More than 24,000 fans packed Princes Park to watch history as Collingwood and Carlton launched the new national women’s competition. Huge crowds are expected to flock to the precinct again on Friday night, and the match is quickly drawing notice as one of the showpiece matches of the football season.

2. It’s time to atone
What many may have forgotten is that Carlton won that first match, and won it quite convincingly (by 35 points, in fact). Collingwood will be keen to make amends this time around, as noted by captain Steph Chiocci during the team’s Season Launch.
“We’ll be fierce. We’re not going to let them get one up on us again. We’ve got a point to prove.
We’ve done all the hard work and we’ve got a great program in place. We want to do it justice, we want to go out there and play Black and White footy and get the four points on the board.”
Say no more.

3. New faces aplenty
While some, such as Nicola Stevens (Carlton) and Alicia Eva (Greater Western Sydney) have moved on from the 2017 squad, Collingwood has added plenty of talent to its ranks for the new season.
Top draft choice Chloe Molloy, the leading goal kicker in the VFLW last season, headlines a host of new arrivals, including former Western Bulldog Jamiee Lambert.
Three international athletes have traded in the green and gold for Collingwood’s Black and White. Georgie Parker (hockey) and Eliza Hynes (volleyball) have completed their first pre-seasons at the club, while Ashleigh Brazill has made history, representing Collingwood in both netball and football since making the choice to switch to footy late last year.

4. The dawn of a new era
The Collingwood Football Club has undergone plenty of change in the past eight months.
New staff in both women’s and men's football and fresh blood in playing personnel have given the club a fresh look heading into 2018.
The club’s AFL Women’s outfit will lead the Magpies into a new era when they run through the banner on Friday night.

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Herald Sun

Collingwood

THE HOOK: Will it be as big as last year? The AFLW01 season opener resulted in a lockout after it was shifted and more than 20,000 turned up, and they’re much better prepared this time around. If you can’t get in, there’s a big screen on the grass. Not a bad result if it’s a nice night.

BOOM OR BUST: The Pies will come up against a familiar face in last year’s best-and-fairest Nicola Stevens who is now a Blue. Both have plenty to play for — Stevens to show she’s at home as a Blue and the Pies to show they can do it without her. Exciting.

WHAT’S AT STAKE: Like every Blues v Pies clash — men’s or women’s — bragging rights. There’s not a lot bigger rivalries than this one.

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The Age

Collingwood

Captain: Steph Chiocci
Coach: Wayne Siekman

Ins and outs 

Collingwood's most recent top draft pick Chloe Molloy. Photo: Joe Armao

In: Jaimee Lambert (Western Bulldogs), Chloe Molloy, Darcy Guttridge, Iilish Ross, Sarah Durgan, Kristy Stratton, Ashleigh Brazil, Holly Whitford, Georgie Parker, Eliza Hynes
Out: Nicola Stevens (Carlton); Alicia Eva (GWS); Penny Cula-Reid, Kendra Heil, Helen Roden, Lou Wotton, Kate Sheahan and Georgia Walker (delisted)

Key player: Jasmine Garner
Excellent second target up forward in 2017, she has been impressing track watchers with her talent. The hard-running Garner could play as a high half-forward as she has great running power.

How they went last year: 5th
Looked to get it wrong last year from the start with the list's athleticism below par and their wingless structure found wanting. By season's end they were playing winning football but they were still a way off the best teams.

Prediction for this year: 6th
It's hard to see the Magpies winning the competition although the first match against Carlton will be telling. With a new structure, a good opening result would give the team confidence and momentum. Unfortunately early draftee Darcy Guttridge suffered a broken collarbone in a practice match.

AFLW 2018 Preview

The Roar

Teams

2018 AFLW Round 1 COLLINGWOOD v CARLTON Time & Place: Friday February 2, 7:45pm EDT Princes Park TV: 7mate / Foxtel 7.40pm EDT Weather: Min 14 Max 24 Chance of rain 5%: < 1mm Wind: SSW 14kph Betting: Collingwood $2.45 Carlton $1.55

The number of teams hasn’t changed in 2018. The AFL postponed expansion of the AFLW competition until 2019, when North Melbourne (together with Tasmania) and Geelong will enter new teams into the league. In 2020 West Coast, Gold Coast, Richmond and St Kilda will enter, taking the total number of teams to 14.

The fixture
The season opens on 2 February with Carlton playing Collingwood at Princes Park, and it continues until 24 March, meaning the latter parts of the competition will be up against the men’s preseason competition and the AFLX weekend. Despite this, the AFLW fixture has no double-headers with men’s games in 2018.
Matches will be played at Traeger Park in Alice Springs for the first time for AFLW, with Melbourne scheduled to play Collingwood there in a move to support programs in the Northern Territory.
The Pies have not moved to play at Victoria Park, with two games at Olympic Park and a game at Moe.
Like last year, Adelaide will play one game in Darwin and GWS will play one game in Canberra. The Crows games in Adelaide have been moved from The Barton Oval to The Parade after the success of games held last year at the larger capacity venue.

Ticketing
Like last season, all matches will have free entry, with the sole exception of the Fremantle vs Collingwood game at Perth Stadium on 10 February, where entry will cost $2.

Broadcast
At least one game per round will be broadcast on Channel Seven or 7mate across the entire competition, including the season-opening fixture. Adelaide and Fremantle games will also be broadcast locally into Adelaide and Perth. GWS and Brisbane games will not be shown locally on the Seven network unless they’re part of the Saturday night fixtures.
All games will be broadcast live on Foxtel as well as free on the AFL website.

List changes
There were some big movements over the offseason through various trades. Carlton traded picks for Nicola Stevens from Collingwood and signed Tayla Harris from Brisbane while losing Nat Exon and Isabella Ayre to Brisbane and Bianca Jakobsson to Melbourne, who traded Deanna Berry to the Bulldogs as part of a three-way trade.
Melbourne later traded Pepa Randall to GWS for Ashleigh Guest. Collingwood would get Jamie Lambert from the Dogs, while the Giants would gain Alicia Eva from Collingwood in another three-way trade.

Rule changes
Three rule changes come in for the 2018 season, the biggest being that the AFL has decided to modify the out of bounds rule. A player will now give away a free kick if they kick or handball the ball over the boundary line without it being touched by an opposition player.
There will also be a reduction in the number of interchange players from six to five, meaning teams will now have 21 players in total – 16 on the field plus five on the bench.
Finally, there will be the implementation of time-on for the last two minutes of each quarter, as happened in the women’s grand final last season.

Pay
Total player payments have increased by $500,000 this year under a revised payment system whereby the minimum wage of a senior listed player rose from $8,500 to $10,500. However, it should be noted that it amounts to a 36 per cent increase in contracted hours but only a 20.96 per cent increase in total player payments.
Players have signed 24-week contracts which include two weeks of annual leave. Players will now commit 13 to 15 hours per week during the preseason and ten hours during the season proper. Matchday hours are on top of the ten-hour week.

Postseason
At the close of the season there will be a period during which Victorian AFLW clubs will have to give up certain players to be recruited by incoming clubs to the value of 100 points, with players being ranked by an AFLW committee that will place a value of between ten and 50 points on every listed player. Points will be based on performance and will also take into account injury, age and other relevant factors.