TIPPERARY AND GEELONG star Aishling Moloney has finished the 2024 regular season as the AFLW’s joint top goalscorer.
Moloney shares the title with Brisbane’s Taylor Smith and makes history as the first Irish player to achieve the feat.
The duo kicked 21 goals each, a new record which surpasses the 20-mark hit in 2023.
For the second year in a row, it's a tie!
— AFL Women's (@aflwomens) November 3, 2024
Congratulations to Aishling Moloney and Taylor Smith who each finish the 2024 home and away season with 21 goals 🌟
Details: https://t.co/dUgb9HziVy pic.twitter.com/Ynh8DLTCBO
Moloney enjoyed a stellar second season for Geelong. She kicked six goals in their penultimate game against West Coast Eagles, breaking a club record and surpassing her previous career-best of four against Gold Coast Suns in September.
The 26-year-old scored 10 goals as she was named AFLW Best First Year Player after a breakout 2023.
She has hit new heights this year, and is being tipped for an All-Australian. Moloney has also been nominated for an All-Star back home.
She's done it! 💪🇮🇪
— Geelong Cats Womens (@catswomens) November 3, 2024
In just her second season, Aishling Moloney is the joint-leading goalkicker in the @aflwomens!#SheIsFootball pic.twitter.com/DfIf8CS4th
Moloney and Geelong’s interest in the 2024 season has come to an end after failing to advance to the finals series, which gets underway on Friday.
15 Irish players are involved across five teams: Defending champions Brisbane (Smith could add to her tally), in-form North Melbourne and Hawthorn, Fremantle, Dockers and Adelaide Crows.
In all, 33 Irish players featured throughout the campaign. Some of those could be forced to decide between inter-county football and AFLW next year as the Australian sport considers an earlier start.
Meanwhile, talk is ratcheting about a potential Ireland v Australia International Rules Game. Mayo and Collingwood ace Sarah Rowe is among those calling for an historic showdown.
“It would be a shame of us not to do it,” Rowe told 7AFL this week. “I think it would be an absolute spectacle and I think at this point now, us Irish players are so hungry for it to happen that it just has to happen.”
Great result – horrible game
Agreed; all that spitting and shouting at the ref, never mind the tribalistic thuggery it engenders internationally.
A lot to be said for oval shaped balls.
And as is evident here you will often find a cock on the end of them
This is qualified success in a worldwide sport, not reaching the quarter finals of a sport played by 10 teams… Genuine achievement by an extremely mediocre side. Possibly the worst Irish side in my life, but much more commendable than coming out of a group they were expected to come out of(like the oval-balled lads) and then losing to a side they should beat. These boys have a massive task in front of them now. If they can pick up some points it’ll be a result. And if they do a Greece, yourself and the D4 crowd will probably be first on the bandwagon. I’ve been on it years though and there’s plenty of room whenever you’re ready.
99.999% Qualified which is a great achievement for the material that Trap has. Europe is more difficult to qualify for than the World cup well done to the team. It will give the country something to look forward to next summer the kind of buzz that an oval ball would never give to such a wide section of the population.
Worst Irish side in your life?! what age are you, 2? This is easily the best Irish side in 10 years, possibly on a par with the ’02 team. Its the tactics that make the team look bad.
Oh please,no more oval ball shennanigans,please.
Great achievement overall to qualify and well done to the lads but Ireland’s style looked like that of a second rate Jack Charlton’s tonight for much of the time, belting high balls at and into Walters, who did very well. If only we had a player who could put his foot on the ball in the centre of the park and spray the odd decent pass. The result is obviously the most important thing but we are just not an enjoyable team to watch at present and the players to me seem to be stifled, mainly by Trap’s tactics.
A win is a win no matter what you can watch any match and get a bad game but when it your team and you win it’s a great feeling and I hope it’s lift us all out of this recession come on Ireland
“international football has never been more open. As a result ……teams like Greece actually winning etc. “. That’s incredible , Greece were the most defensive team ever to win a championship. Their games were like watching chess in slow motion. Some sports reporters give you the impression they have never done more than read each others articles.
I think it’s fairly obvious he means ‘open’ in the sense of ‘there for the taking’, as opposed to an open style of play.
Tens of thousands of paddies boarding flights to Poland next Summer- whoda thunk it?
I could almost hear Michael O’Leary hiking up prices at the end of the game.
Did anyone else notice the flag the Estonian supporters were flying last night? It was the Union Jack, with the Three Lions crest of England, but in the Estonian colours. What was that all about?
Did wonder about the union Jack alright. Weird!
great article,spot on!
No no Alan,that s only when all the normal priced flights to Poland are sold that Michael will raise the prices,do u know so all the rest of us can have the chance to buy tickets at €400 odd euro