The Grand Final has sold out already, the W Awards turned up some exciting results, and boy Richmond’s suddenly looking extra youthful…
In this final episode for the year, Bree and Fi lay out a huge week of news, review the preliminary finals, and preview what is set to become a stormy final-final.
Breeza has curated her Top 5 Stories of The Year to wrap up the AFLW season – including Game of the Year (for some)! In the newest of news, we hear beautiful things that long-serving Swans coach John Longmire has to say following a bombshell announcement.
And the show highlight? An engaging interview with a Roos superfan, community footballer and whole-hearted adorer of women’s footy: Rosie Carter. Picking a team from the ambiguous mass of vertical stripes jostling on a little black and white telly, admiring the hugest hunk of spunk ever to play behind a handlebar moustache, the satisfaction of watching your footy team thrive at the same time as your home country kicks butt on a second screen at the bowls club, connecting with pioneering community teams, and playing the game you love in a local club alongside your partner… footy life can be so full and joyous, as Rosie exemplifies in the classic spirit of Chicks Talking Footy.

Our busy and important Bree makes a long-awaited return to the show. Tonight, she
is both co-host and special gust in a very drafty episode!
Bec, Fi and you get to learn the meanings behind all the jargon swirling around
this week. Know what to keep an eye out for! Catch up on the rest of the footy
news, alongside the Chicks’ insightful critiques.
There are freshly announced dates for next year’s AFLW season. The league
recognises a nonbinary athlete’s rainbow advocacy with an award nomination. An
iconic player was conspicuously absent from the Kangaroos’ centenary celebration
video. Victorians, Tasmanians and Northern Territorians have had free-to-air footy
ripped away from them on Saturdays, of all days. And a survey has found what most
impacts fans’ enjoyment of the game.
Meanwhile, the finals are stoking passions and we’re tad concerned about the heat.

These are exciting times in football news and speculation. Just ask our very own “footy empath”, Bec Dahl, and resident poetry aficionado, Fiona Newton!
Adelaide people love a Thursday night! (But who wants a Saturday night game?) The 2024 AFLW All-Australian Squad is coming! (And how about the redheads!) North Melbourne’s home turf is going to engulf Perth and Bunbury! Uh, but Hawks games in Dingley…?
The AFLW finals are underway!
The Roos’ mental resilience is robust these days, but don’t underestimate the power of one Crow single-handedly trying to win the game. The Hawks and Lions, who crashed a wedding, inspire whispered confessions in the studio. Things got so rough it’s broken the fourth wall. Our podcaster’s other notes are an inscrutable scrawl. Blame it on the excitement! Blame it on the bad influence of the AFLW in their experimental phase! Rest assured and listen on – the Dockers and Bombers and Port and Richmond got up to noteworthy things in this elimination round too!
Now as the season comes to a close, so too do some playing careers. In honour of the retirees, this episode features encore interviews with legends Jess Del Pos and Rhi Watt.

Special guest Kel Rowe joins your regularly scheduled Fi as the AFLW season rockets toward finals.
Although women haven’t been making the weekly footy news much – “We’re better behaved” – this episode there’s a big announcement hot off the press!
Fi and Kel devote much of the show to a meticulous review of the Indigenous Round. A contender for Mark of the Year broke out of a sweaty, scrappy game in Gimuy Cairns. The round also saw a rare bench infringement, quirky shifts of mathematical possibility, and Lions befriending the wind. The inaugural Dreamtime Game in Garramilla Darwin prompted some creative ways to keep cool, while the Tiwi Bombers and Darwin Buffaloes put on a stunning curtain raiser. Enjoy the rich meanings behind some of the equally stunning team guernseys and the AFLW Indigenous ball, from players and designers themselves.
In this week’s feature interview, the courageous Tamara Smith reveals how the Hawks have been managing their bodies and mental load. It’s a story of passion and mutual support. But of course Fi also grills Tamara on the complex issues of double headers and seriously what is hokball actually, though…?

The tenor of the footy week has moved from pride through shame and back again. Bec and Fi contemplate the impacts of homophobia against Kate Dempsey and of the GWS men’s ‘Troubled Couples’ post-season fiasco. Still, they share the excitement around the first AFL Indigenous All-Stars side in a decade, and spotlight this year’s AFLW Indigenous Round.
We hear from several commentators on the state of this season. But what of the round? Round 8 featured a derby-derby-showdown, one very disruptive burst drainpipe, and got us thinking… is it time to question The Daisy Effect? Or maybe not?
Then catch up with Rhi Watt, who took an interesting path to football. Rhi delves into the camaraderie of the ACL, fixture psychology, and her team’s immersion in culture for the Indigenous Round. You can hear how the Dees have remained relaxed about their Hawks game.
At the Indigenous Round media launch, Fi enjoyed a chat with Kalinda Howarth. Kalinda expands on the celebration of Indigenous players and culture, the centrality of healing, creating safe cultural space, and watching the Magpie’s new game system coming to fruition. Bec and Fi cast an eye at the need for support structures to increase Indigenous inclusion in the league, before they preview the matches ahead.

We’re dedicating a whole show to this week’s AFLW Pride Round. We take a look at the unique relationships between Pride supporter groups, clubs and players. Pioneers of the comp express the full depth of what Pride means to them. And we discover some of the stories behind this year’s stunning Pride guernseys…
Noah Gemmell of Bulldog Pride delves into the Bulldogs’ rich history in Pride Games and the AFLW. Find out how to get involved in Friday night’s Bulldogs v Essendon game – anything from an accessible community “casual stroll” to the ground, to forming part of the guard of honour!
Nell Morris-Dalton from Collingwood Football Club shares the energy of Pride Round, how Collingwood keeps its designs topical, and the joy and beauty of AFLW… as well as a personal message to all the Collingwood fans!
Finally, Carlton’s Gab Pound talks about breaking into footy during the glory days of VFLW and how women’s football has been shifting club culture. Following in the tradition of Carlton Respects, there is education to go with the visibility at Carlton, too!
Happy Pride Round, everybody!

Join Bec, Sasha and Fi for the 2024 Chicks Talking Footy Post Grand Final Show. It’s full of footy news, AFLW Round 5… and of course the men’s Grand Final.
A new Eagles coach has prompted trade requests and Bec’s got a beef with clubs ratcheting up the exit pain.
We’re in the middle of Rounds 5, 6 and 7 of the AFLW – with games progressing as we speak. Sasha’s ready to pen a strongly worded letter over these condensed rounds. Meanwhile, the new smart ball has succumbed to human error, and the Chicks celebrate two former players who are excelling at commentary and coaching.
Then we turn to Grand Final Day. The gang talk musical entertainment, choreography and staging; crêpe paper and catering; and even the actual game!
Relive the big day with two special guests:
Nat’s followed the Lions ever since he was in prep, during the Fitzroy era. Rowena began barracking for Brisbane back when they were Bears. These superfans bring vibrant perspectives on celebrations across two very different cities.

It’s the Chicks Talking Footy AFL Grand Final Spectacular!
Bec, Bree and honorary chick Dave review all the news, nominate their tips for everything from Katy Perry bangers to the footy food spread, and pit Crows against Cats in a big grand finals quiz.
Brownlow highlights, morning tribunals, the AFL preliminaries, and AFLW Round Four and A Bit… they cover the lot.
Finally – here’s a bit of bonus night-game trivia for all you podcast listeners:
Electrically lit football goes back to at least 1879, at the MCG.
(Source: David Havyatt, ‘History of Electricity Reform in Australia’, in On the Grid, edited by Guillaume Roger, Monash University Publishing 2022).

There has been so much going on in this week of footy!
The 2024 AFL finals are in full swing, with some thrilling matchups set for this weekend.
Fi and Sasha discuss the mid-week fixture for AFLW and what bearing this has on injuries. Injury is rife this season and we want to know why.
Everybody is talking about the exchange between Hinkley and Ginnivan, the fine and the fall out.
And we look at the winners of Round 3 in the AFLW…

Crack open the air-beers and storm up your teacups – it’s time to unravel the mysteries of hokball!
Meanwhile, is Bailey Smith leaving the Bulldogs to start spruiking the chicks’ new cologne? Have GWS been dissing Sydney-Sydney’s baking skills? Was Isaac Heeney really robbed of flippin’ Mark of the Year?
Then hear from Patty Kinnersley – CEO of Our Watch and Vice President of the Carlton Football Club – about this weekend’s Carlton Respects game. Patty and Fi discuss online harassment and the ways Carlton strives to prevent gendered violence, by offering young people a different story.
And there have been packed out games in the AFLW! But what happened to the Doggies’ pizzazz? How have systemic issues already thwarted some of the league’s best players within only two rounds? Fi, Rachael and Sasha pick it all apart, and Chloe Molloy talks us through her extraordinary leadership in the face of some gut-wrenching news.

The footy is so intense you can almost smell it!
Bec and Fi consider all the big questions. How do you kick goals in this wind? When should the AFLW season be? What will happen in the men’s finals? How do we get on top of concussion? Who’s resigned?! Why is that woman doing semaphore?
And don’t miss Fi’s chat with her alter ego! That’s Katherine Smith, vice captain of GWS.

This week’s episode is packed with goodies for Hawks fans, but there’s something for everyone at the beautiful intersection of the women’s and men’s seasons.
Fi, Breeza and Rachael talk water bottle throwing, suspensions, trade requests, the horrifying aftermath of that Christian Petracca injury and more.
Plus, hear from the new AFLW boss Emma Moore and dive back to 1996 for Fi’s Footy Record find, ‘Women Speak Out – Why I love football’!

Bec and Fi take us through a truly mint round of the AFL, look back on the season so far and catch up on all the goss from this week’s AFLW Captains Launch!

Bree, Motty, Rachael and special guest contributor Adelaide discuss all the stories of the week.

We chatted about the prelim finals, W Awards and previewed the AFLW Grand Final between North and Brisbane.

We also looked back on the year and picked out a couple of the biggest stories in football.

Thank you to all the players, coaches, administrators and the AFL for putting on this game every week that we so love.

See you at a game some time soon.

 
Bec, Fi and Sash dissected draft week from a serious and not so serious perspective, talked AFLW finals (Fi is dreading the thought of an Adelaide v Brisbane grand final) and we caught up with Natalie Hutchins, Minister for Women and passionate Kangaroos supporter!

 

On this week’s show Breeza, Motty and Fi discuss all the latest footy news.
We look back at some of our ‘ bold predictions on the eve of the AFLW season to see how many we got right.
We review the first week of AFLW finals and focus in on North Melbourne’s big win over the Demons hearing from North Melbourne Captain Emma Kearney.
Some big AFL news dropped this week with a bold scheduling move announced by the AFL.  The Chicks rant about the season starting a week earlier with ‘Opening Round’ games scheduled across NSW and QLD.
Give us a listen.

Thirty-five of our lucky JOY community caught the Kinetic Pride bus to the Pride Game at Victoria Park!
We crossed to roaming Tri who gave us the latest gossip on the bus and just like roaming Brian she loved to get people to chat on the mic. One person came to their first ever AFLW game.
 

Nicole Livingstone the head of AFLW and friend of the Chicks Talking Footy show joined us to debrief the whole season and discuss the significance of Pride Games and Pride Round to women’s footy. We’ve created something special!
 

 
 

The Chicks chatted to one of favourite police officers Dylan Miles LLO (LGBTIQA+ Liaison Officer). Dylan chatted about the role LLO’s play at events like Pride Game, how the LLO’s want to build a bridge with our community and they even caught the Kinetic Pride Bus to the game.

Bec and Fi chatted to the Mayor of Yarra – Claudia Nguyen during the Pride Game at Victoria Park. We talked about the significance of the game being played in Yarra which has the highest population of LGBTIQA+ people in Victoria, their strategy with Rainbow Yarra for the area and what the game meant to her personally as a member of our community.
Claudia tipped a draw to be diplomatic.