AFLW powerhouses ready to hunt Dees

AFLW club captains have overwhelmingly backed Melbourne to win back-to-back flags, with 14 of the 17 rival skippers tipping the Demons to salute after a remarkable off-season in which they managed to retain all of their stars, save for retiring captain Daisy Pearce.

No captains picked Brisbane to make it to a second consecutive grand final after the departures of star trio Emily Bates, Greta Bodey and Jesse Wardlaw, but Lions skipper Breanna Koenen said the perception they were no longer a serious threat would only spur her team on.

It comes as the AFL announced on Monday $1.1m in prizemoney would be issued to players from the top eight AFLW sides, bringing the financial award in line with the men’s competition in a $500k increase from last season.

“(Being underdogs) suits us – in the past couple of seasons, people have wrote us off, so I think that’s a good thing for us and I think a lot of the girls take that in their stride and want to prove people wrong,” Koenen said.

“We’ve had really good depth over the last few seasons, I think giving those younger girls a chance, and we’ve recruited pretty well – I think it’s probably underrated how many good people we’ve brought into our group as well.”

“I think if you dwell on (last year’s grand final loss) too much, we’re not going to get anything out of it. I think we learnt from that experience, and then moved on – we want to try and be bigger and better this year.”

Koenen said the Lions would be challenged by the introduction of an interchange cap, with teams to be limited to 60 per game.

Playing regularly in hot conditions, the All-Australian defender suspected her side had used significantly more rotations last season, although they weren’t recorded by the league.

Adelaide star Ebony Marinoff said the new rule could present the Crows with an advantage over Brisbane and Melbourne, who she said were both perceived by opponents as sides which relied heavily on quick rotations.

Marinoff said an inability to use their bench as well as the Lions could have cost the Crows in their preliminary final played in balmy evening conditions on the Gold Coast.

“Something that potentially could have got us against Brisbane last year is they do have high rotations, it’s good for us that we didn’t really,” Marinoff said.

“I guess the faster the game gets, you probably need more rotations – Brisbane and Melbourne were two teams that were really going for it (with high rotations), but we weren’t, so hopefully that holds us in good stead.”

Marinoff said there was a sense at Adelaide that pressure had been “taken off” after Melbourne’s breakthrough flag last season.

The Crows have started almost every season as premiership favourites, winning three of the seven flags.

“Having that pressure taken off, it’s always a good thing – you love pressure, because it’s a complement, but we also love being the underdogs and we’re really looking forward to this season,” Marinoff said.

Originally published as ‘It suits us’: Brisbane, Adelaide relish rare AFLW underdog status