AFLW Grand Final: Irish women guaranteed winners as Lions meet Demons at home

AFLW Grand Final: Brisbane Lions vs Melbourne Demons, Sunday November 27th, Brighton Homes Arena at Springfield, Brisbane, 3.40am (Irish Time), live on BT Sport 2, deferred coverage on TG4 at 11.10am

The oil lamps will be burning dry in Armagh, Tipperary and Cabinteely in the small hours of Sunday morning.

Once again, this competition, which is indelibly linked to Irish sport, is guaranteed to have a winner from these shores as the Brisbane Lions – with Tipp’s Orla O’Dwyer in tow – take on the Melbourne Demons with Blaithin Mackin (Armagh) and Sinéad Goldrick (Dublin) among their ranks.

In many ways it is the perfect final, the two best sides throughout the seventh iteration of AFLW coming through the knockouts stages to meet, with the title on the line. Both teams held a 9-1 record over the course of the season’s 10 rounds, Brisbane finishing atop the ladder by virtue of the percentage awarded based on the difference between points scored and conceded throughout the year. Mind you, just the 0.3 per cent separated first and second.

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Melbourne’s sole defeat came against Brisbane back in round four. Add the fact that the final game is also a home one for the Lions and they would be considered favourites.

Champions in 2021, the Lions are going for their second premiership crown in three years. It would be a second title for O’Dwyer, who became the first Irish woman named an All-Australian (All Star equivalent) after a breakout AFL 6 campaign.

O’Dwyer continues to be a key part of the Lions’ midfield this year, with her disposals and kick stats both above her career average. Off the pitch, the former Tipperary dual-code star has been a mentor to some of the younger Irish players now she has spent three years in the sport.

North Melbourne’s Erika O’Shea, a former All Star with Cork, has spoken of O’Dwyer’s role in helping her deal with the pressure of professional sport in her first year in AFLW.

[ ‘What team wants a one-eyed player?’- Erika O’Shea details near escape from serious injury ]

“Back with Cork I struggled with pressure. Even when I won the All Star, I struggled to keep everything level. Meeting girls out here, Orla O’Dwyer went through a similar thing, she said to me, and that put my mind at ease, knowing I wasn’t the only one who felt this pressure after winning stuff.”

O’Shea and North Melbourne team-mate Vikki Wall could well have been lining out against O’Dwyer and the Lions on Sunday had they not fallen to the Melbourne demons in last weekend’s preliminary final. Instead, Mackin and Goldrick fly the Irish flag opposite O’Dwyer.

Mackin, who had 10 disposals and 10 kicks in the win over North Melbourne, has impressed as a rookie since moving over from Armagh. Since Melbourne’s lone defeat to Brisbane, the Demons have had a flawless record, and senior coach Mick Stinear has namechecked Mackin as playing a significant role in that revival.

“It’s been not so much our method that has changed, but what we were valuing and what we were putting our attention to when the ball turned over,” said Stinear on the Credit to the Girls podcast.

“The depth through our midfield has grown since then, and the depth in our wings, with Blaithin Mackin, Sarah Lampard and Casey Sherriff shouldering a lot of that workload. So, we feel like we’ve got strong in that part of the ground.”

[ Next three years could see Irish involvement in AFLW peak and then fall ]

As for Goldrick, the four-time All-Ireland football champion with Dublin is very much one of the Irish success stories in AFLW. Having moved to Melbourne in 2020, the Foxrock-Cabinteely clubwoman has become a mainstay in the Demons’ defence and was part of the side that lost last year’s Grand Final to Ailish Considine’s Adelaide Crows.

It’s been a stop-start season for Goldrick after an MCL injury earlier in the year, but she is well and truly back into the swing of things after 11 disposals and three marks in last week’s win. Key to going one better than last season will be to stop Brisbane’s much-vaunted forward line. Goldrick’s form will go some way to securing the title, a result that would add the Dublin woman to an exclusive list of those to have won both an All-Ireland and AFLW title.