Thursday’s opening night of AFLW was designed to evoke memories of one of the competition’s greatest days, but a slick Carlton performance and flashes of brilliance from the league’s newest faces have proven there is no need to dwell on the past.
The Blues played their way into the contest against Collingwood in front of a healthy crowd of 8,042 at Ikon Park, overcoming a slow start to dominate the Magpies in the second half and accelerate away from their opponents in a 6.9 (45) to 3.3 (21) victory.
The result mirrored the outcome of the first game of AFLW back in 2017, when almost 25,000 piled into the ground set within the same picturesque venue in Melbourne’s inner north to see the home side triumph.
But on Thursday it was the turn of a new generation. Carlton’s 22-year-old vice-captain Mimi Hill finished with 32 disposals, 11 more than any other player, showing she is ready to continue her ascension into the game’s elite. Irishwoman Erone Fitzpatrick bagged two goals in her 11th game of AFLW.
Blues coach Mathew Buck said he was careful not to dive too deep into the fixture’s heritage. “In the build-in, our players were pretty calm and we probably didn’t lean into it too much,” he said. “We’ve got nine players under twenty-two, so making sure we weren’t over-aroused going into the game was really important.”
The Blues’ two standout rookies were mostly composed on debut. Father-daughter draft selection Sophie McKay and Poppy Scholz – the younger sister of Port Adelaide’s 2024 Rising Star winner Matilda – looked like they will be AFLW players of the future. “Poppy burst onto the scene there with a spin through the middle and then managed to kick a goal too,” Buck said. “I’m just really excited for the player Poppy can become.”
Both sides are in the middle of what some might describe as a rebuilding phase. Collingwood were the wooden-spooners last year with the league’s worst percentage. The second-worst belonged to Carlton.
It was appropriate therefore that these teams launched the AFLW’s tenth season, given the league is in a rebuilding period itself. From the excitement within the community evident at that famous first game in 2017, the AFLW has stumbled when others in women’s sport have stepped up.
Officials have shunted the league’s calendar around, toyed with midweek matches and early bounces, and kept the costs for clubs to a minimum. Only last week did the AFL Commission agree to lock in a late November grand final date for the women’s competition each year. The long period instability prompted the inaugural No 1 draft pick, Nicola Barr, to write in the Guardian this week that the league must no longer be a “side project” for the AFL.
The profile of Barr – now at St Kilda after nine season at the GWS Giants – may already be exceeded by the woman taken No 1 last year, Collingwood’s Ash Centra. At the club with the largest traditional fanbase, the athletic, silky-skilled midfielder-forward with the long sleeves and shimmering boots showed enough on Thursday to further inflate already vast expectations.
After a first-half goal with her first kick, a third-quarter jinking pirouette underscored her potential, even if Centra’s contribution at the final siren – three disposals and two tackles in managed minutes – highlighted there is more to come.
Collingwood coach Sam Wright said she already has a cult following. “Every time she went near the ball, whether she got it or not, you could hear the crowd get up and about, I just think it’s so great for our game. I mean, the long sleeves, you can see her coming from a mile away,” he said. “She’s going to be a serious player.”
Her debut was watched by a promising turnout on Thursday: the biggest home-and-away round attendance in the competition in two years according to Austadiums data. They also enjoyed several sequences from the Blues of breathless run and handball off half-back. Buck said he hoped his team left an impression on those that came with their “brave” football. “To have the opening game, to be able to bring that crowd in and put some exciting footy out there for them, hopefully they’ve left with a smile on their face.”
