ESSENDON waltzed its way to another big VFL Women’s win on the weekend, this time against North Melbourne.
One of the key factors to the Bombers’ success this season has been their forwardline, and how dynamic it is. They have so many different types of options up there, which makes life for the opposition defenders much more difficult.
Among said options is Federica Frew.
She is not the tallest or most well known target in that forwardline, but she is just as dangerous as others.
She currently leads the VFLW goalkicking, with 21 majors to her name thus far. That is eight more goals than the next on the list, which is teammate Cecilia McIntosh.
On the weekend against North, she took a while to get into the game, but as it wore on she began to impact the scoreboard more and made her presence more felt in the forwardline.
Frew was certainly involved in the play early in the match, but her more effective work was done later on.
She played the majority of the game as one of the deepest forwards, which may have played a part in why she did not have as much of a say in the opening stages.
With tall targets Mia-Rae Clifford and Renee Tierney playing higher up the ground, it was when the ball got out the back that Frew was most dangerous.
Early on in the contest, most of Frew’s work was done around making a presence in the contest. There were a few missed marking attempts, but they were either because the ball was kicked over her head or she was just out-marked by taller defenders.
Her first goal of the afternoon came nine minutes into the opening term, directly in front as the result of a free kick.
The second half was where she really came into her own though.
She kicked her second goal of the afternoon 15 minutes into the third term, where she was being held in the goalsquare but remarkably found a way to still dribble it through.
Her third goal was much different from her first two. This one was a long bomb from about 45 metres out, which shows that not only is she clever close to goals, but she also possesses a powerful kick at distance.
Her fourth goal of the afternoon came after she took a strong mark on the lead and duly converted.
With a number of big bags kicked already this season, expect more of the same from this dynamic and dangerous forward in the weeks to come.