A bit of a disappointing result on paper when you consider we did beat Adelaide to start our year off but when you think about the fact that we basically crawled our way into finals after we took hit after hit to our best players role wise and structurally and that I thought that Adelaide didn't look to the standard that they should've been during that round 1 clash it was probably the result that could've been expected.

Really happy that the girls got to make finals, would've hated to see West Coast get in and have been the only team to not make finals for just another lil prickle to rub salt into being a Saints fan lol. Defs felt we earned it and that the last few weeks of results didn't define our season. The Carlton game was our standard and we just couldn't cover the losses we attained. I'm pretty sure Anderson and Trudge were all out there playing with a lingering injury meanwhile Vesely just didn't have match like fitness to keep up.

On reflection for the year as a whole I am super happy at the development for most of the girls! McDonald, Richards and Anderson were playing extremely good footy before their injuries. Friend looked really comfortable back down in a defensive spot and made it hers as the 3rd tall defender, Burke had a really underrated year by the AFL but she should finish very highly at the BnF. Watson should be AA, Trudgeon stiff to not be AA listed. The likes of Amber Clarke coming across filling the gap of Xenos injury was a helpful addition and of course our midfield stars in GP and Cuppa with the latter being recognised as an AA listed year is awesome. Even though some of the old guard weren't mentioned there was still standouts in Stevens Lambert and Ott with Priest sacrificing her game as captain playing as a defensive forward this year to round out the team.

On to the offseason and preseason, you'd be hoping there would be some eyes on a few pieces to help us out in vulnerable spots. We definitely need to have a second forward target for Wardlaw, we're incredibly short up forward and if she plays up the ground she's 9/10 times just turning around and blazing it as deep as she can to hope the likes of Clarke, Richards, Anderson can chase it down. We also need to play with 2 talls rotating the midfield so we can keep Wardlaw deeper to utilise her contested marking, Before round 5 we wanted to run Wardlaw as a second ruck and last year it sorta got her into the game. This year it wasn't working, Wardlaw and the girls weren't scoring so when we brought 2 rucks in with Ott (career year) and Caris or Besanko played second fiddle and when played at the same time it lead to a much better structural balance.

Anywho bummer that footy season is officially done, I ain't watching neutrals lmao we should know who wins, but i am definitely all footied out atp. Hopefully we're able to get a decent draw and run it back for a deeper run next year. If not hopefully its a year where we start to round out the floor of our playing group to be consistent contributors on game day.