Aug 9, 2026 · 34 min · 11 segments
In this episode of Soaring to New Heights, Tim and Liam sitdown to recap the pre-season and then do a rapid-fire preview of the season, including Liam’s controversial (and brutally difficult) best 21…
We had the practice matches as well, but been some injury news which has led to one of our new signings unfortunately not being able to participate in the upcoming AFLW season.
Yeah.
So I'll quickly whiz through.
Um, Ellie Simons will be out for a few weeks just rehabbing a long ongoing foot issue.
Uh, Grace Barber played on a severe ankle sprain, it turned out, in the second half of the game against Sydney, so quite an incredible effort on her part there, but she'll be missing for a, a... at time of recording, undetermined time.
Maya Diaz out for three to five weeks looks like as well.
Although the one that I have never in my life been so flat about an injury to a player who's never played an elite level game, perhaps up there with Lauren Young when she did her knee, uh, in her first season.
Matilda Van Berkel is unfortunately out with a foot fracture, and we signed her to replace Emily Everest, and we've now had to replace the replacement.
Annabel Embleton gets a richly deserved opportunity, and I don't want to take anything away from her.
She's a hundred and seventy-nine centimeter key defender, booming right boot, really strong one-on-one.
Been a one woman wall at Box Hill this year in a far too busy back line at times.
But yeah, Matilda Van Berkel's injury from, from a footballing perspective because she's earned her shot at AFLW level, but also from a, a supporter's perspective, and especially speaking a little bit personally here as someone who's covered the VFLW quite closely, as listeners would know, it's just a gut-wrenching blow that someone works so hard for so long to get their shot and then they sustain a foot injury and they're out for the season and their, you know, that shot they've earned is potentially over before it starts.
So yeah, that's, that was a tough one.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And we wish Matilda Van Berkel all the best with her recovery from that foot fracture because certainly would be some gut-wrenching news for her.
And we wish Annabel Embleton all the very best for the upcoming season.
We had the practice matches as well, but been some injury news which has led to one of our new signings unfortunately not being able to participate in the upcoming AFLW season.
Yeah.
So I'll quickly whiz through.
Um, Ellie Simons will be out for a few weeks just rehabbing a long ongoing foot issue.
Uh, Grace Barber played on a severe ankle sprain, it turned out, in the second half of the game against Sydney, so quite an incredible effort on her part there, but she'll be missing for a, a... at time of recording, undetermined time.
Maya Diaz out for three to five weeks looks like as well.
Although the one that I have never in my life been so flat about an injury to a player who's never played an elite level game, perhaps up there with Lauren Young when she did her knee, uh, in her first season.
Matilda Van Berkel is unfortunately out with a foot fracture, and we signed her to replace Emily Everest, and we've now had to replace the replacement.
Annabel Embleton gets a richly deserved opportunity, and I don't want to take anything away from her.
She's a hundred and seventy-nine centimeter key defender, booming right boot, really strong one-on-one.
Been a one woman wall at Box Hill this year in a far too busy back line at times.
But yeah, Matilda Van Berkel's injury from, from a footballing perspective because she's earned her shot at AFLW level, but also from a, a supporter's perspective, and especially speaking a little bit personally here as someone who's covered the VFLW quite closely, as listeners would know, it's just a gut-wrenching blow that someone works so hard for so long to get their shot and then they sustain a foot injury and they're out for the season and their, you know, that shot they've earned is potentially over before it starts.
So yeah, that's, that was a tough one.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And we wish Matilda Van Berkel all the best with her recovery from that foot fracture because certainly would be some gut-wrenching news for her.
And we wish Annabel Embleton all the very best for the upcoming season.
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