On the day of the fifth and final Bond University QAFLW Pride Round to have all matches in one location, commentator Daniel Viles picks his favourite matches for each team.
YERONGA SOUTH BRISBANE
2019 – Yeronga 6.8 (44) d University of Qld 5.4 (34)
The very first Pride Round in the Bond University QAFLW contained three lopsided matches but one classic.
Yeronga and UQ had traded goals through the first half but goals to Nat Grider and Greta Bodey gave the Red Lionesses a ten-point lead at the final break.
The Devils hit back within a minute through Jacqui Yorston and then took the lead when Sarah Duncan roved in front of a pack and snapped truly from 35 metres out wide on the right.
With eleven minutes remaining, UQ’s Jane Childes scored what everyone on the ground assumed to be a goal, but the goal umpire ruled that the ball had missed to the right. That was the last time the Red Lionesses were inside their forward 50.
With 90 seconds remaining, a Rachael Anstey tackle knocked the ball loose to Yorston. Her shot from 45 metres out rolled through the posts to seal the win.
There was no Grand Final that year for Yeronga, but glory would come in 2020.
Bond University
2021 – Bond University 9.10 (64) d Coorparoo 3.2 (20)
After winning its first nine matches of the season, a win over hosts Coorparoo in the 2021 Eximm Pride Round would seal a third consecutive finals appearance for Bond University.
Most of the premiership-winning Brisbane Lions side were enjoying a post-season trip, but the Gold Coast SUNS players were back and ready to hit the Bond University QAFLW hard, none more than Ellie Hampson and Kalinda Howarth.
Howarth scored four goals, the second of which saw her run onto a Lily Tarlinton ruck tap and kick checkside from hard on the left pocket boundary.
But Hampson’s passing from midfield was sublime. So often the now premiership Lion would find space in the centre square and hit the chests of her forwards from 40 metres away.
Future SUN Krystal Scott was barely passed at centre halfback while the intercept marking of Lulu Pullar was merely one part of arguably the best state league season by a rebounding defender.
The Bull Sharks would fall one match short of triumph in 2021 but that should never overshadow how brilliant their play was in what would become a 13-match winning streak.
Maroochydore
2021 – Maroochydore 10.9 (69) d Yeronga 5.3 (33)
Going into this evening match, it was assumed that the return of Yeronga’s fleet of AFLW stars would take them to the finals. Alas, they had not counted on the brilliance of one of the few Lions players to play in Eximm Pride Round in 2021 – Belle Dawes.
Dawes became the first player that year to get the better of Devils midfield powerhouse Madi Goodwin, regularly winning the ball from the ruck taps of Jac Dupuy and providing space for Chloe Gregory to produce a passing performance not unlike Hampson in the previous match.
Behind them, Rachel Crack patrolled the area behind the contest while Maggie Harmer marked and rebounded with her usual grace.
Powerful key forward Brooke Matheson scored four goals and six other players scored singles, including future Collingwood and Williamstown forward Jazmin Tweddle-O’Donnell, and Rianna Maloney whose singing career as Kaia Kingsley has, amongst other things, seen her perform the national anthem at the WAFL Grand Final.
The strongest Roos team to date would fall agonisingly short of that year’s decider with a Preliminary Final loss to Bond University after keeping them goalless until three-quarter time.
University of Queensland
2022 – University of Qld 6.7 (43) d Aspley 5.2 (32)
Eximm Pride Round, the final round of the 2022 regular season, began with four teams still in the running for the minor premiership. When reigning premiers University of Queensland were behind at every break in the day’s first match against an Aspley side enjoying its best year to that time, the buzz around Leyshon Park was palpable.
Former Red Lioness Rachael Vetter had scored four of the Hornets’ five goals to secure the Leading Goalkicker award and give her side a 9-point lead at the final changeover.
Step forward Steph O’Brien. The future Queensland captain had taken just two years in Aussie Rules to forge a reputation as a powerful running midfielder, but with regular ruck Jacqui Russell unavailable, O’Brien stepped into the ball-ups.
The problem for Aspley was that O’Brien kept playing as a destructive midfielder as well. 32 disposals, 9 clearances and 11 inside-50s barely describe one of the great individual matches in Bond University QAFLW history.
O’Brien’s drive out of the middle produced three final-term goals, including the sealer to a barely known Jess Stallard playing just her second match as a forward.
With the minor premiership sealed, UQ would go on to win the Grand Final with O’Brien being named Best on Ground.
Southport
2022 – Southport 4.5 (29) d Coorparoo 2.3 (15)
There has never been a more cut-throat match in a Pride Round. Finals footy for the winners; end of season for the losers.
The tackling pressure from both Southport and Coorparoo made for a tense and congested first half, the only goal a set shot to the Sharks’ Selina Priest.
Three minutes into the second half, Coorparoo’s Jo Miller broke a tackle on the right wing and headed infield towards an overlap on the left. Then Maddy Watt smashed her. Correction: Maddy Watt sprinted twenty metres unnoticed and then smashed her. The tackle was voted the best of 2022 and is probably still the most replayed moment on AFLQ social media.
Southport dominated from then on with future Giant Caitlin Miller scoring from a set shot, but conceded when a defensive lapse allowed Chelsea Chesterfield to soccer through from a tight angle.
Coorparoo dominated the first ten minutes of the final quarter; only the defensive work of Kaylee Kimber and Lily McDonald prevented the Kings from scoring.
With six minutes remaining, Kimber intercepted at centre halfback, charged through the corridor and launched a 45-metre kick over the defence to where Bree McFarlane, who had been taking speckies for fun throughout the match, ran in to score. A second goal to Caitlin Miller a minute later secured a maiden finals appearance for Southport.
Wilston Grange
2023 – Wilston Grange 5.1 (31) lost to Southport 6.9 (45)
The Gorillas are the one current Bond University QAFLW team yet to taste success in a Pride Round, but they were a whisker away from toppling runaway league leaders Southport in 2023.
Grange kicked just seven behinds in its first three matches against the Sharks while conceding 34 goals. They corrected that in the final seconds of the first term when 15-year-old Mia Geere outjumped Selina Priest in a marking contest and calmly drained the set shot.
One minute after the break, Giffin Park began to buzz as Kylie Welsh gave Grange the lead with her first goal in six years.
Quarter no. 3 was the Charlize Anderson show. On the ground where she began her QAFLW career, Anderson scored in the second minute when she half-broke a tackle and dribbled from an acute angle, a minute later when she intercepted a handball and drove home from 30 metres, and in the sixteenth minute from a mark advanced by a 50-metre penalty.
At the back, Shania Jones was producing thumping tackles and Gemma Donataccio was running through traffic. In midfield, Mackenzie Findlay had somehow found another gear above her usual level and Kierra Zerafa was producing such a good passing display that the Sharks recruited her over the off-season.
Alas, Pride Round specialist Steph O’Brien turned the match for Southport in the final term, but Wilston Grange had shown in front of the whole competition that its bad days were over.
Aspley
2023 – Aspley 7.15 (57) d Yeronga 6.7 (43)
Not just a great escape; the greatest escape.
No record has yet been found of a team in the Bond University QAFLW being as many as 28 points behind at halftime and going on to win. True, Yeronga were and would remain winless in 2023, but the return of Zimmorlei Farquharson had given the Devils an energy not seen for a long time. Their six goals in the first half were more than they had kicked in a match all year.
It was three Aspley champions who stepped up in the second half. Co-captain Courtney Daniec bossed the middle of the field (25 effective disposals, 8 clearances, 8 inside-50s); Louise Tyson caused panic at half-forward and scored a brilliant goal early in the fourth term when she tapped a loose ball beneath a defender before regathering to score from 35 metres.
But Jess Stallard produced a performance for the ages. To her second quarter goal, she added four, three of them on set shots after either winning contested marking contests or running into space after tying her defender in knots. The other was when a Hanna Brennan kick allowed her to get behind the defence and run into an open goal.
Five weeks later, Aspley again won from behind in the Preliminary Final against Southport. It’s hard not to think that those seeds of belief were sown in Pride Round.
Coorparoo
2023 – Coorparoo 5.7 (37) d Bond University 1.2 (8)
In an up-and-down 2023 season for Coorparoo, this win over the eventual premiers was the undoubted highlight.
Regardless of whether Bond’s convoy of underage representative players were available or not, teams just didn’t trap the Bull Sharks in their own 50 for long periods the way the Kings did that night.
Winning the inside-50s 34 to 23 and the overall possessions 267 to 228 were impressive enough, but Coorparoo also won the tackle count 62 to 31. Read that again slowly – they doubled the tackle count… of Bond University.
Lily Tarlinton scored Bond’s only goal of the match in the first term. Thereafter, the Bull Sharks barely saw the front half.
Chelsea Chesterfield is one of the smaller forwards in the league, but she took six forward 50 marks and scored three goals as the Kings midfielders picked her out in space time and again.
Which midfielder it was didn’t matter: Jess Watts; Lucy Schneider; Sally Young; Hannah McLaughlin; Jo Miller; Taya Oliver who spent the evening charging forward from halfback to maintain the pressure up front, all found Chesterfield at different times. Even Chloe Gaunt took four forward 50 marks herself but regularly found a better option further forward, usually Chesterfield.
It worked the other way as well with Chesterfield marking in the pocket and handballing her captain Young into goal.
Irregular player availability saw the Kings finish the season with an 89-point loss, an 87-point win and a 43-point loss, but in the twilight of 2023 Pride Round, they were unstoppable.
Daniel Viles has commentated 9 of the 16 Bond University QAFLW Pride Round matches to date.
All Pride Round Results
27 July 2019 at Moreton Bay Central Sports Complex, Burpengary (Round 13)
10:30am – Maroochydore 14.15 (99) d Aspley 0.0 (0)
12:30pm – Yeronga 6.8 (44) d University of Qld 5.4 (34)
2:30pm – Bond University 8.10 (58) d Coolangatta 0.0 (0)
4:30pm – Coorparoo 22.10 (142) d Wilston Grange 2.0 (12)
15 May 2021 at Giffin Park, Coorparoo (Round 10)
10:30am – University of Qld 7.8 (50) d Coolangatta 3.3 (21)
12:30pm – Aspley 6.9 (45) d Wilston Grange 2.5 (17)
2:30pm – Bond University 9.10 (64) d Coorparoo 3.2 (20)
4:30pm – Maroochydore 10.9 (69) d Yeronga 5.3 (33)
16 July 2022 at Leyshon Park, Yeronga (Round 16)
10am – University of Qld 6.7 (43) d Aspley 5.2 (32)
12pm – Southport 4.5 (29) d Coorparoo 2.3 (15)
2pm – Bond University 8.6 (54) d Maroochydore 4.3 (27)
4pm – Yeronga 6.6 (42) d Wilston Grange 2.3 (15)
15 July 2023 at Giffin Park, Coorparoo (Round 14)
10am – Southport 6.9 (45) d Wilston Grange 5.1 (31)
12pm – University of Qld 4.9 (33) d Maroochydore 1.2 (8)
2pm – Aspley 7.15 (57) d Yeronga 6.7 (43)
4pm – Coorparoo 5.7 (37) d Bond University 1.2 (8)
13 July 2024 at South Pine Sporting Complex, Brendale (Round 12)
10am – Wilston Grange v Yeronga
12pm – Coorparoo v University of Queensland
2pm – Aspley v Bond University
4pm – Maroochydore v Southport
