Brisbane Lions v Adelaide Crows
12.55pm (AEST), Saturday, March 25
Metricon Stadium
THE Brisbane Lions might have to travel 70km down the road to Metricon Stadium to host the Adelaide Crows in the inaugural NAB AFL Women’s Grand Final, but it won’t bother them at all.
Lions marquee player Sabrina Frederick-Traub said while the players were disappointed they weren’t able to play on the Gabba, they were excited to be playing in front of a home crowd.
“We’re just happy [the game] is in Queensland because we worked really hard to earn the right to have a home Grand Final,” Frederick-Traub said.
“For us, home is the Gabba. But home is also Queensland, so we’re happy it’s still here.”
Adelaide coach Bec Goddard said the controversy over the venue had no effect on her players.
“If you’d seen some of the football grounds that these girls have played on over the course of their careers, you could tell it just wasn’t an issue,” Goddard said.
“You could put us out on the nature strip out the front of West Lakes (Adelaide’s home base) and we’d really be quite happy.”
The Lions and Crows last met in a top-of-the-ladder clash in round five, with Brisbane running out three-point winners in one of the games of the season.
However, Brisbane defender Sam Virgo said the Lions weren’t putting too much energy into studying that game.
“You can do all your homework and all the research you want, but at the end of the day … it’s a different game on Saturday,” Virgo said.
“We’re prepared for a physical battle. They want to move the ball quickly and we will have to counter that.
“It should be a cracking game.”
After finishing their season with a draw against a fast-finishing Carlton last week, coach Craig Starcevich said the plan for the Lions on Saturday would to get back to doing the basics well.
“[The focus is] getting in hard to win the contested ball and being really diligent about where your opponent is at all times,” Starcevich said.
Two groups of Crows flew separately to the Gold Coast on Thursday, a day earlier than they have done for interstate trips, to give the squad a chance to spend some time together before the game.
Nine of the Crows’ 27 players are based in the Northern Territory and the squad usually only comes together the day before a game.
“This weekend, we thought it was great to get the girls together a little bit early and just enjoy each other's company as part of Grand Final week,” Goddard said.
“They [would have been] sitting around at home or work thinking about the game anyway, so we thought it was best to get them together to do that.”
Goddard said the Crows had taken a lot out of the loss to Brisbane three weeks ago and would try some different match-ups this weekend.
“Nelson Mandela said, ‘I don’t lose, I win or learn’,” Goddard said.
“Did we have the match-ups right against Brisbane the first time, one on one? Probably not.
“Brisbane likes to roll back into our attacking half and drop all of their numbers as quickly as possible and they're very well drilled at it.
“So, we want to go with the fastest team possible available to play.”
Goddard said the team was planning to continue with the fast ball movement it utilised to great effect in the last quarter against Collingwood last week.
“[Our ball movement] might not have looked the prettiest, but it was really fast,” she said.
"As a consequence, we gave our forwards the best chance to kick goals.”
Both teams named unchanged sides for the decider, although Adelaide defender Courtney Cramey is still in doubt after suffering a concussion in the win over Collingwood.
“Courtney is doing all the right things with her recovery, [but] as you know with concussion, there’s not much you can do,” Goddard said.
“You’ve just got to wait, do the tests and hope the result comes up your way.”
The game is expected to run longer than usual due to some minor rule changes.
Quarters will run 15 minutes with time-on called after all scores, when the ball is out of bounds or for any significant delays in play.
The half-time break will also be extended to 20 minutes.
