{"id":92557,"date":"2021-12-09T14:39:08","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T04:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/?p=92557"},"modified":"2021-12-09T14:39:11","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T04:39:11","slug":"2022-aflw-ones-to-watch-molly-mcdonald-st-kilda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2021\/12\/09\/2022-aflw-ones-to-watch-molly-mcdonald-st-kilda\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 AFLW Ones to Watch: Molly McDonald (St Kilda)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>THE off season in the AFLW always brings many changes for every club. Players retire, are moved on, or are traded. These changes mean there are holes in sides that need to be filled, and players need to step up and fill them. In this series we\u2019re going to take a look at some of the players to watch in 2022 that might fill the holes in their sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In today\u2019s inaugural article in the series, we\u2019re taking a look at St Kilda&#8217;s <a data-type=\"player\" data-id=\"30836\" class=\"_dc_spo\" href=\"\/afl\/player\/molly-mcdonald\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Molly McDonald<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div>    <div class=\"t3b_footy-stats player-detail_card rmc-block\"><div class='player-detail_card-head'>\n    <h5 class='heading title h5'>Molly McDonald<\/h5><div class='player-detail_team'><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"team-img\" src=\"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/st-kilda.png\" alt=\"St Kilda-logo\" title=\"St Kilda-logo\" \/><a class=\"team-link\" href=\"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/team\/st-kilda-womens\/\">St Kilda<\/a><\/div>    <\/div>\n        <div class=\"player-detail_wrap\">\n        <p class='cmpt-copy'><span class='cmpt-head'>League\/s: <\/span>AFLW, Vflw, AFLW U18 Championships, Coates Talent League Girls<\/p><p class='cmpt-copy'><span class='cmpt-head'>Season\/s: <\/span>2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, S7, 2023, 2024, 2025<\/p>    <\/div>\n    <ul class='player-detail_stats'><li class='player-detail_stat'><div class='tag tag-is-sml'><p class='cmpt-copy'><span class='cmpt-head'>Games <span>[tot]<\/span>: <\/span>66<\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='player-detail_stat'><div class='tag tag-is-sml'><p class='cmpt-copy'><span class='cmpt-head'>Goals <span>[tot]<\/span>: <\/span>18<\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='player-detail_stat'><div class='tag tag-is-sml'><p class='cmpt-copy'><span class='cmpt-head'>Disposals <span>[avg]<\/span>: <\/span>11.5<\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='player-detail_stat'><div class='tag tag-is-sml'><p class='cmpt-copy'><span class='cmpt-head'>Marks <span>[avg]<\/span>: <\/span>1.9<\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='player-detail_stat'><div class='tag tag-is-sml'><p class='cmpt-copy'><span class='cmpt-head'>Tackles <span>[avg]<\/span>: <\/span>3<\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='player-detail_stat'><div class='tag tag-is-sml'><p class='cmpt-copy'><span class='cmpt-head'>Cont. Poss: <\/span>3.4<\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='player-detail_stat'><div class='tag tag-is-sml'><p class='cmpt-copy'><span class='cmpt-head'>Uncont. Poss: <\/span>5<\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='player-detail_stat'><div class='tag tag-is-sml'><p class='cmpt-copy'><span class='cmpt-head'>Clearances: <\/span>0.9<\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='player-detail_stat'><div class='tag tag-is-sml'><p class='cmpt-copy'><span class='cmpt-head'>Inside 50s: <\/span>2.1<\/p><\/div><\/li><li class='player-detail_stat'><div class='tag tag-is-sml'><p class='cmpt-copy'><span class='cmpt-head'>Rebound 50s: <\/span>1.3<\/p><\/div><\/li><\/ul>    <\/div>\n<\/div><div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>On the injury front, this preseason has been one to forget for the poor Saints. They lost <strong><em>Paige Price<\/em><\/strong> to a hip injury, and they\u2019ve lost <a data-type=\"player\" data-id=\"30848\" class=\"_dc_spo\" href=\"\/afl\/player\/tyanna-smith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tyanna Smith<\/a> to a season ending anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. This is on top of potentially losing <a data-type=\"player\" data-id=\"30798\" class=\"_dc_spo\" href=\"\/afl\/player\/georgia-patrikios\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Georgia Patrikios<\/a> for the season due to the AFL\u2019s mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The loss of Smith and Patrikios in particular will leave a huge hole in St Kilda\u2019s midfield that will need to be filled quickly. So, which one of their players is going to step up and fill the hole left by the pair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enter a potential candidate \u2013 Molly McDonald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fans might remember McDonald made a bit of history in 2020 as St Kilda\u2019s inaugural goal scorer in the AFLW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately for McDonald, back-to-back quad strains limited her to only five games in 2021. This means she will be looking to come back stronger than ever in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McDonald is a running machine, who can win plenty of the ball. Over her AFLW career she has averaged around 10 disposals per game, which although isn\u2019t ground breaking is still a solid number. Without Patrikios and Smith around, there will be the room for McDonald to step up and win more of the ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the likes of <a data-type=\"player\" data-id=\"29705\" class=\"_dc_spo\" href=\"\/afl\/player\/kate-mccarthy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kate McCarthy<\/a> getting older, and Patrikios\u2019 future uncertain, 2022 could be a big year for McDonald. It could be the year she becomes one of the stars of AFLW and sets St Kilda up for success. Only time will tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-dc-block-dc-mention _dc_mention\"><div class=\"section-heading_wrap\"><span class=\"section-heading is-small\">Mentions<\/span><span class=\"hor-border\"><\/span><\/div><ul class=\"js-overflow-list overflow-list\"><li class=\"object-mention_single\"><div class=\"tag tag--is-clickable\"><a class=\"tag-text _dc_mention_p\" href=\"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/player\/molly-mcdonald\/\">Molly McDonald<\/a><\/div><\/li><li class=\"object-mention_single\"><div class=\"tag tag--is-clickable\"><a class=\"tag-text _dc_mention_p\" href=\"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/player\/tyanna-smith\/\">Tyanna Smith<\/a><\/div><\/li><li class=\"object-mention_single\"><div class=\"tag tag--is-clickable\"><a class=\"tag-text _dc_mention_p\" href=\"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/player\/georgia-patrikios\/\">Georgia Patrikios<\/a><\/div><\/li><li class=\"object-mention_single\"><div class=\"tag tag--is-clickable\"><a class=\"tag-text _dc_mention_p\" href=\"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/player\/kate-mccarthy\/\">Kate McCarthy<\/a><\/div><\/li><li class=\"js-dropdown dropdown overflowed\"><button class=\"btn btn-icon-only\"><span class=\"icon btn-icon\">\n                    <!-- icon - plus circle - 20px-->\n                    <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 20 20\">\n                        <path d=\"M15,9.28h-4.3V5h0A.72.72,0,1,0,9.28,5h0V9.28H5a.72.72,0,0,0,0,1.43H9.28V15a.72.72,0,0,0,1.43,0h0V10.71H15a.72.72,0,0,0,0-1.43Z\"\/>\n                        <path d=\"M10,0A10,10,0,1,0,20,10,10,10,0,0,0,10,0Zm0,18.57A8.57,8.57,0,0,1,10,1.43h0a8.57,8.57,0,0,1,0,17.14Z\"\/>\n                    <\/svg>\n                <\/span><\/button><div class=\"popover\"><div class=\"popover-content\"><ul class=\"popover-menu\"><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE off season in the AFLW always brings many changes for every club. Players retire, are moved on, or are traded. These changes mean there are holes in sides that need to be filled, and players need to step up and fill them. In this series we\u2019re going to take a look at some of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10000,"featured_media":78293,"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":[3115,8,18291],"tags":[157,3288,3194,3803,3662],"class_list":["post-92557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aflw","category-news","category-opinion","tag-aflw","tag-georgia-patrikios","tag-kate-mccarthy","tag-molly-mcdonald","tag-tyanna-smith"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92557","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\/10000"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92557"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92562,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92557\/revisions\/92562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}