A KNOCKOUT final eliminated the Southern Saints, whilst Geelong lived to fight another day and set up a preliminary final with an unlucky Essendon, as Collingwood advanced through to another Victorian Football League (VFL) Women’s Grand Final. As we have each week, Draft Central takes a look at some of the NAB League Girls graduates who have come through the state league.<\/p>\n
In a tight, low-scoring encounter, Collingwood moved through to the 2021 VFL Grand Final with a seven-point victory over Essendon. Eastern Ranges graduate Olivia Meagher<\/strong> played one of her best VFL Women’s games, picking up 16 disposals and seven clearances, whilst ex-Gippsland Power tall Jasmine Ferguson<\/strong> continued her role in defence with 11 touches and three marks.<\/p>\n The Bombers had a ton of young talent who have filtered through the NAB League of late, with Georgie Prespakis<\/strong> stepping up to rack up 21 disposals, seven clearances, 13 tackles and two inside 50s in the loss. Ex-Cannon Alana Barba<\/strong> shared the spoils inside with seven clearances, 10 tackles and four rebound 50s to go with her 18 touches, while ex-Bushranger Eloise Ashley-Cooper<\/strong> had 10 disposals, four tackles and three rebound 50s. The other past graduates of the NAB League in Tamsin Crook<\/strong> and Grace Dicker<\/strong> also played in the semi-final.<\/p>\n Of the current Calder contingent with Prespakis, Emelia Yassir<\/strong> laid three tackles to go with four touches, Tahlia Gillard<\/strong> amassed 16 hitouts and five tackles with five disposals amongst quality opposition, and Zali Friswell<\/strong> had the six touches, seven tackles and two inside 50s. Tara Slender<\/strong> also ran out for her second game in the red and black.<\/p>\n In the other semi-final, a couple of current NAB League players and a couple of past NAB League graduates donned the blue and white hoops. Greater Western Victoria (GWV) Rebels’ talent Chloe Leonard<\/strong> picked up 14 disposals, four rebound 50s and seven tackles in the long sleeves, while Geelong Falcons’ Renee Tierney<\/strong> also returned to the lineup to pick up the five touches and a clearance. Former Falcon Paige Sheppard<\/strong> booted a goal and racked up 19 disposals, six marks and five inside 50s in a lively performance, while ex-Bushranger Tamara Smith<\/strong> had the 11 touches, five tackles and three inside 50s in the win.<\/p>\n For the Southern Saints, Gabbi De Angelis<\/strong> booted two majors from 13 disposals, four marks, two tackles and four inside 50s, whilst ex-Oakleigh tall Amelia Peck<\/strong> had eight disposals, six marks and two tackles. From the current NAB League contingent, Jemma Radford<\/strong> had seven disposals, while the trio of Sandringham Dragons in Emma Stuber<\/strong> (eight disposals, three marks), Pia Staltari<\/strong> (four disposals, three tackles) and Charlotte Ryan<\/strong> (three disposals) all competed against more experienced opposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A KNOCKOUT final eliminated the Southern Saints, whilst Geelong lived to fight another day and set up a preliminary final with an unlucky Essendon, as Collingwood advanced through to another Victorian Football League (VFL) Women’s Grand Final. As we have each week, Draft Central takes a look at some of the NAB League Girls graduates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":83096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7950,8,3121,3134,137],"tags":[7848,7985,15422,2909,3494,8315,8202,16275,4529,3757,4151,6999,3729,3452,10894,3768,7846,3495,4734,7013,4599,2802,17416,11002],"class_list":["post-83055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nab-league-girls","category-news","category-vflw","category-victoria","category-womens","tag-alana-barba","tag-amelia-peck","tag-charlotte-ryan","tag-chloe-leonard","tag-eloise-ashley-cooper","tag-emelia-yassir","tag-emma-stuber","tag-gabbi-de-angelis","tag-georgie-prespakis","tag-grace-dicker","tag-jasmine-ferguson","tag-jemma-radford","tag-olivia-meagher","tag-paige-sheppard","tag-pia-staltari","tag-renee-tierney","tag-tahlia-gillard","tag-tamara-smith","tag-tamsin-crook","tag-tara-slender","tag-vfl-womens","tag-vflw","tag-vflw-graduates","tag-zali-friswell"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90705,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83055\/revisions\/90705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}