AFLW: Fremantle Dockers coach Lisa Webb has no issues with league’s brutal midweek fixture crunch
Fremantle coach Lisa Webb says she has no problem with the AFLW’s brutal fixture crunch, despite her team preparing to play three time in 11 days.
The Dockers flew an extended squad, including injured players, to Melbourne on Wednesday for matches against St Kilda on Friday and Geelong on Tuesday.
It is a two-week period likely to shape the club’s season, just days after Aine Tighe — arguably their most important player — was ruled out of the rest of the campaign with an ACL tear.
But Webb said she was OK with the fixture, echoing West Coast coach Daisy Pearce’s call they were “cheering for more footy”.
“I actually don’t mind it, to be honest with you,” Webb said.
“The girls get one less training session but one more chance to be able to put their best foot forward.
“We just want to play more games, so to have two on the road is actually just really exciting and it’s an exciting time to be in Melbourne as well, so one that we see as a great opportunity rather than a downside at all.”
The West Australian columnist and former Collingwood player Georgie Parker wrote on Monday the AFLW was “being set up for fail”.
“I would rather 10 games if this is what 11 looks like,” she wrote.
Pearce made an impassioned plea for the league to increase list sizes amid its injury scourge and to open up more options for scrimmages against opposition and more valuable match simulation sessions.
That was backed on Wednesday by Dockers vice-captain Laura Pugh.
“From my perspective, we would want more people on the list,” she said.
“Even just to get girls more experienced in the training and in the kind of things we’re doing down at Cockburn and then they’ll be ready to go.”
Camera IconAriana Hetherington looks set to replace Aine Tighe. Credit: Paul Kane/Getty Images
Ariana Hetherington looms as the likely key forward replacement for Tighe after playing the past two games as ruck support for Mim Strom.
Hetherington rested on the bench, rather than forward, before Tighe’s injury and played just 21 per cent time-on-ground against Port Adelaide a fortnight ago.
“Highly competitive in what she does, the girls love playing with her,” Webb said of Hetherington.
“She has got great connection with the group, so she is one we will have to look at.”
Mikayla Morrison, Serena Gibbs and Tara Stribley have all travelled and could be in the mix for the Dockers’ clash with Geelong on Tuesday night.
Webb said they would need to prove their fitness in training sessions in Melbourne across the weekend.
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