The AFLW season is quickly approaching and with four new teams, accelerated player movement and new-look sides, things could be quite different in 2020.
With that in mind, here’s how all 14 teams are shaping up heading into the season and their biggest strength and weakness.
This includes the expansion teams, though we will have to wait and see how they look early in the season before really knowing where they sit.
From Adelaide to Gold Coast, here’s your team’s biggest strength and weakness.
Strength: The best list
This one is pretty simple. They have won two of the three Grand Finals, boast six elite players – according to Champion Data – and added an MVP winner in Courtney Gum on top of everything.
They have the competition leading goal kicker, the strongest starting midfield, a backline that conceded the fewest points last season and close to exclusive access to South Australia’s best talent year after year.
There’s not much more you can say.
Weakness: Injury worries
Adelaide has the best squad in the competition and is coming off a season where they were 10 goals better than the runner up. For them to win the flag this year, they simply need to roll on and hope issues out of their own control don’t get in their way.
The reigning champions have lost one of their captains and best players in Chelsea Randall to a serious knee injury, while the best player in the game Erin Phillips will be limited coming off one of her own.
Add in Chloe Scheer and Rhiannon Metcalfe who are also returning from ACLs, coupled with niggling minor injuries to the likes of Ebony Marinoff and there a few underlying issues at the start of the season.
They’ve also already lost Hannah Martin and Ruth Wallace for the season as well. Injuries may be the only way the Crows get brought down in 2020.
Strength: Veteran core
The Lions have a steady leadership of players, especially through the midfield and down back.
Through the middle, Emily Bates, Emma Zielke, Lauren Arnell and Ally Anderson give them a core that can hold their own, while Kate Lutkins, Breanna Koenen and Shannon Campbell been reliable in defence.
Add in Jess Wuetschner inside 50, one of the competition’s few players who has kicked goals consistently across the three seasons, and you have the basis of a strong line-up.
Weakness: Talent lost
The Lions have been picked apart by the expansion sides over the last two seasons. This has left the inaugural Grand Final runners up looking like a completely different side three years later.
If Brisbane is to be competitive they need to hope a few of their highly touted young players like Lily Postlethwaite, Jordan Zanchetta, Nat Grider and others to immediately have a big impact.
Strength: Attack and defence
The Blues boast one of the best defensive group’s in AFLW, led by captain Kerryn Harrington, All-Australian Gab Pound and veteran Nicola Stevens.
It took a few games for them to gel under new coach Daniel Harford, but by the end of the season they were firing on all cylinders.
Up the other end, if Tayla Harris can solve her goal kicking struggles, she should go in as the favourite to be the competition’s leading goal kicker. Darcy Vescio, Chloe Dalton, Georgia Gee and Brooke Walker are all also capable hurting teams on the scoreboard.
Weakness: Inexperienced midfield
If Carlton still had Brianna Davey, they would be the outright favourites in Conference B. Unfortunately, the captain defected for Collingwood, leaving a void to be filled in the middle of the ground – don’t underestimate the retirement of Amelia Mullane either.
Maddy Prespakis was elite in her debut season and still has plenty of improvement left in her, while Lucy McEvoy was rated as many as the best player in the draft.
There is a lot of pressure now on their shoulders to carry this Carlton midfield, which struggled in the first two seasons before Davey was moved into the middle.
Strength: Their midfield
The Pies very nearly went through 2019 without a win, and yet they go into 2020 with a lot of momentum.
On paper, their team looks incredibly strong, with Davey joining from the Blues and Chloe Molloy returning after missing last season. Davey is a top five player in the competition, while it is easy to forget Molloy came second in the competition’s major award in her rookie season.
Put them with Jaimee Lambert, Steph Chiocci and Brittany Bonnici and you’ve got a star-studded midfield unit.
Weakness: Known goal kickers
The Pies ranked second last in the competition for points scored in 2019 as the team struggled to find a reliable option.
Sarah D’Arcy has the potential to breakout as a key forward after two good seasons and Sarah Rowe was impressive in 2019, but it’s hard to know who stands up beneath them.
Their midfield has the potential to pile on the goals, with Lambert, Molloy and Davey all known goal kickers, but they will need more contributors.
Strength: A soft fixture
In an eight-week competition, the Dockers only leave Perth once in the first five weeks and that is to travel to Melbourne to play St Kilda in Round 4.
They could easily get off to a 5-0 start assuming they are as impressive as they were last year. Fremantle wasn’t hit as bad as they could have been by West Coast’s introduction to the competition and still have the talent all around the ground to beat anybody.
Five wins is likely enough to get you into finals as it is, but the Dockers could put themselves in a position to run away with Conference B and force teams to come to them in finals.
Weakness: Ball winning
In Fremantle’s only two losses last season, they were blown out of the park by the opposition midfields.
Kiara Bowers emerged as one of the competition’s elite on-ballers last season, but will need more help in 2020.
Kara Antonio (nee Donnellan) had a season well below her lofty standards and there aren’t many stars around them now that Dana Hooker has joined West Coast.
Couple this with their lack of an established ruck option and teams could take advantage of them through the middle.
Strength: The backline
The Cats were excellent defensively in 2019, with only Adelaide being harder to score on.
Meg McDonald emerged as one of the competition’s best key defenders, while veterans Mel Hickey and Rebecca Goring also provided a strong unit.
This is despite giving up some big scores towards the end of the season. If they can find some consistency in 2020, they will be tough to beat once again.
Weakness: The forward line
Up the other end, they only managed 22 points per game – which was ranked dead last, leading to Geelong having a percentage of 65, also worst in AFLW.
They made finals essentially by default last season and if they want to be a serious threat, they’ll have to start hitting the scoreboard to take advantage of their backline.
Phoebe McWilliams is an outstanding contested mark inside 50 and the return of Nina Morrison is a significant boost to their midfield, but they will have to find a way to score consistently.
Strength: Talent in defence
Two of Gold Coast’s biggest acquisitions were veteran defenders out of Brisbane.
Leah Kaslar and Sam Virgo were the backbone of a Lions backline that made a Grand Final and should set similar standards for the Suns.
Add in talented draftees Serene Watson and Kitara Wharp-Farrar and they have plenty to work with down back.
Weakness: Experience
Working out Gold Coast’s strengths and weaknesses is challenging, given the vast majority of the team hasn’t been exposed at AFLW level just yet.
We don’t know what they’re going to look like, but they have not had the time just yet to gel. That will naturally come across the season.
The Suns are a team mostly made up by young Queensland talent, without a great deal of AFLW experience.