QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“It’s pretty special on International Women’s Day… every young girl and young boy out there wants to kick a goal after the siren.” - Sarah “Perko” Perkins on kicking goals on IWD in her comeback to the AFLW after a year and a half out of the game.

THE BIG ISSUE

As alluded to above, Round 5 fell on and around International Women’s Day this year and for the players, fans, and staff of 14 clubs, this was a day of both celebrating a competition at the peak of its powers (and growing) and reflection upon the women who had put in the hard yards in the decades before.

The Australian Women’s Cricket Team may have been the headline act with their World Cup victory, but the AFLW played a tremendous part in spreading the goodwill through word and deed.

BEAT THAT

Who doesn’t love seeing a big bag kicked? We were fortunate enough to see not just one but two hauls of four majors from North Melbourne’s Kaitlyn Ashmore and Fremantle’s Sabreena Duffy. While Ashmore was deadly accurate, Duffy also managed four minor scores in a domination of the Lions’ defence unlike anything we’ve seen thus far in 2020.

The star performers also took turns in unseating Brisbane’s Jesse Tawhiao-Wardlaw from the top of the goalkicking ladder. It will certainly be interesting to see who ends up with the title in a few weeks from now if these types of outings continue!

UNDER PRESSURE

The main contenders won without too much trouble this week as the ladder took shape, with Geelong’s win over the slow-finishing Suns the only somewhat eyebrow-raising result.

Collingwood went some ways toward righting the ship, but face a stern test-taking on Brisbane in the Sunshine State for Round 6.

Possibly the team under the most pressure is the Pies’ opponents, the Western Bulldogs. While few people would have had them seriously contending for the flag in 2020, successive years of falling behind the curve after claiming the 2018 decider should be disconcerting for the trailblazers of women’s footy as they sit mere percentage above the Saints and Eagles at the bottom of their conference.

WHAT'S NEXT

We have some games that look to be outstanding contests ahead, perhaps none more-so than Melbourne vs Carlton in the Northern Territory on Saturday night.

While the Dockers and Kangaroos probably deserve to be favourites for the Grand Final at this stage, these two sides don’t sit too far below them in the pecking order – and as we saw last year, finals are a different beast where almost anything can happen.

The winner of the game on Saturday night will claim a fifth win and almost certainly lock in a top-two finish at the conclusion of the home and away season; the vanquished could well have the Pies leapfrog them into the calculation for Conference B’s last post-season position.

Ostensibly the Dees have home advantage, but this is only their second clash at Traegar Park and the first was a belting at the hands of the Magpies in 2018. An unfamiliar location bodes well for these sides who could become increasingly familiar with each other when April rolls around.