SYDNEY University proved too strong for newcomers St George Dragons in Round 4 of the AFL Sydney Women’s Premier Division, running away 14-goal winners on Saturday afternoon. The Students dominated en route to a 13.13 (91) to 1.1 (7) victory.

Although Jasmine Smith will deservedly take best on ground votes, the big margin win really was a consistent and universal team effort, with contributors all across the ground. The Students were too experienced, all day, being much more effective with the football time consistently and showing their ability to find and create space in contested areas was a marked differential.

Emma Walsh and Saskia Johnson had huge games, while Arabella Price racked up the possessions and showed poise with the football in hand. Natalie Murray was instrumental in front of goal kicking the first across her body, and setting up other opportunities In the first quarter, and she has made quite impressive strides forward in certain aspects of her game over the past two seasons.

For the Dragons, the effort across the day never relented, much to their credit, and they showed a great attitude when soccering through their sole goal in the late stages of the match. They are just yet to find the keys to success in the Premier Division.

The headline of the game though was Smith. Sometimes a player on a field just takes control, and she did just that, starting at full-forward and was a key target early. Smith crashed packs and attempted overhead marks, kicking one goal and setting up a few more.

She was then rotated through the ruck and had plenty of clean taps, even winning a clearance herself straight out of the middle, charging forward and setting up a goal. Late in the game, she kicked a checkside goal to ice the game on the final siren, right in front of her fans, capping off what could be a three-vote performance.

Smith would finish with four majors, while Mikaela Mahony and Murray both kicked three, and Walsh finished as the other multiple goalkicker with two. For the Dragons, it was Bianca Clayton who soccered home a goal getting into the right spot at the right time, while Tahlia Robertson and Kaitlyn Eisenhuth were among the best.

SYDNEY UNIVERSITY 5.1 | 6.5 | 11.9 | 13.13 (91)
ST GEORGE DRAGONS 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.1 (7)

GOALS:
Sydney Uni: J. Smith 4, M. Mahony 3, N. Murray 3, E. Walsh 2, A. Cagney
St George: B. Clayton

BEST:
Sydney Uni: J. Smith, E. Walsh, S. Johnson M. Mahony, A. Cagney
St George: T. Robertson, K. Eisenhuth, C. Edmonds, M. Ritchie, Z. Maher

AROUND THE GROUNDS

Manly Warringah Wolves 9.3 (57) defeated East Coast Eagles 2.8 (20)

The upset of the year so far, with the Wolves taking the reigning Premiers convincingly on the scoreboard. This will be a relatively huge result for the Wolves and for their finals ambitions. As predicted, the Eagles have their work cut out for them this year to maintain standards and availability, with several players missing due to VFLW or Coates Talent League such as Caitlin Reid.

Parramatta Goannas 5.2 (32) defeated Pennant Hills Demons 4.1 (25)

A very close contest where the Demons also nearly caused the upset after being up at half-time. However they could not hold on with the Goannas kicking three goals to one in the second half to record a seven-point win. As expected, Parramatta faced physical pressure at every contest from the willing Pennant Hills side, but just were too effective at extraction at crucial points, hitting the scoreboard in the third to swing the result.

North Shore Bombers 4.8 (32) defeated UNSW-ES Bulldogs 3.5 (23)

North Shore is making a habit of being behind early, and then gradually wearing its opponent down until the third quarter where the Bombers put a couple of goals on the board and swinging the result. Adrienne Keefe was an effective target up forward. UNSW put up a great contest all day and showed they are improving and going to be a difficult team against all comers this year. Top of the table North Shore starts its consecutive run against other contenders next week.