{"id":97070,"date":"2022-02-07T11:45:56","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T01:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/?p=97070"},"modified":"2022-02-07T11:45:57","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T01:45:57","slug":"2022-vflw-season-preview-carlton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2022\/02\/07\/2022-vflw-season-preview-carlton\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 VFLW Season Preview &#8211; Carlton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>THE 2022 VFL Women\u2019s season is almost here, so it is time to take a look at each of the competing teams and see where they sit as another season approaches. Today, Rookie Me Central takes a look at Carlton, who will be looking to make the next step in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2021, Carlton almost made the finals but fell oh so short. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After losing their first two matches of the season, the Blues finally got on the board in Round 3 with a win over Darebin. They then beat the Roos and Hawks before falling to the Pies and losing the next four, before beating the Dees and Cats. They then lost to the Saints before they beat Williamstown in the final round. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This saw Carlton ultimately finish in eighth place, but only a game out of the top six, so they came agonisingly close to making the finals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They have a new coach at the helm this season, with former VFLW assistant <strong>Tom Stafford<\/strong> taking over from former head coach <strong>Luke O\u2019Shannessy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stafford said he has really enjoyed the role thus far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve loved it, I\u2019ve been really welcomed by the club, he said. &#8220;The players and the support staff have been really welcoming. It\u2019s a great environment to be a part of and I\u2019m really looking forward to season 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stafford has been really happy with how preseason went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a great preseason and everyone\u2019s standing out, so the girls have worked really, really hard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite claiming that everyone has been standing out, Stafford did mention a few Blues that have impressed on the track over the preseason, including the likes of <a data-type=\"player\" data-id=\"50221\" class=\"_dc_spo\" href=\"\/afl\/player\/esther-honybun\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Esther Honybun<\/a> and <a data-type=\"player\" data-id=\"34658\" class=\"_dc_spo\" href=\"\/afl\/player\/jorja-borg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jorja Borg<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Skipper <a data-type=\"player\" data-id=\"50128\" class=\"_dc_spo\" href=\"\/afl\/player\/ally-bild\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ally Bild<\/a> also mentioned that the likes of new recruits <strong>Thomay Nicolau<\/strong> and <strong>Maddi Di Cosmo<\/strong> had been performing very well on the track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Blues have several new players on board for 2022, including Nicolau, Di Cosmo, <strong>Lilly Goss<\/strong>, <strong>Vanessa Murphy<\/strong> and <strong>Jess Stramandinoli<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bild is back at the helm as skipper again, ably aided by vice captains <a data-type=\"player\" data-id=\"78621\" class=\"_dc_spo\" href=\"\/afl\/player\/jennifer-lew\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jennifer Lew<\/a> and Nicolaou.  Bild reflected on last year and the frustrations that came along with it for the Blues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s bittersweet. We were able to kind of trooper through Covid and then we were unfortunate to miss out on the top six by one game which was really disappointing,&#8221; she said. &#8220;So, I think we take a lot of positives and negatives from them and we learn from them and we strive froward, but it was really good to get a season, albeit obviously with the climate that we\u2019re in at the moment with Covid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking forward to season 2022, Carlton recently had two practice matches; one against the Falcons and one against Williamstown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They won both of those matches comfortably, but will face much tougher competition in Round 1 when they come against Geelong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stafford is philosophical on what the ultimate goal for the Blues is this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe ultimate goal for the year is to be the best side we can be and I really don\u2019t want to put a ceiling on where we can finish,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I want to get the best out of the playing group as coach and (I&#8217;m) really excited to see where that takes us.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bild was philosophical in her response too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEveryone plays footy for success and I think it\u2019s really easy to get blindsided by that and want all the success in the world,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Obviously everyone dreams of a premiership but for us, although it definitely is a premiership, any improvement from last year is a testament to the girls. As long as we\u2019re improving on a trajectory that only goes up I think that\u2019s a massive tick for us.\u201d<\/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\/esther-honybun\/\">Esther Honybun<\/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\/jorja-borg\/\">Jorja Borg<\/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\/ally-bild\/\">Ally Bild<\/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\/jennifer-lew\/\">Jennifer Lew<\/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 2022 VFL Women\u2019s season is almost here, so it is time to take a look at each of the competing teams and see where they sit as another season approaches. Today, Rookie Me Central takes a look at Carlton, who will be looking to make the next step in 2022. In 2021, Carlton almost [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10000,"featured_media":76901,"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":[8,18235,3121,137],"tags":[5117,5746,16443,18617,4959,18616,3297,18615,18610,18611,16021],"class_list":["post-97070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-season-preview","category-vflw","category-womens","tag-ally-bild","tag-esther-honybun","tag-jennifer-lew","tag-jess-stramandinoli","tag-jorja-borg","tag-lilly-goss","tag-luke-oshannessy","tag-maddi-di-cosmo","tag-thomay-nicolaou","tag-tom-stafford","tag-vanessa-murphy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97070","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=97070"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97211,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97070\/revisions\/97211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}