Dees Sit Pretty, Cats Won’t Stop: AFLW’s Top Two Are Legit

Two clubs are absolutely cooking right now and if you’re not paying attention to AFLW yet, this is your sign. Melbourne remain undefeated at the top of the ladder while Geelong just banked win number five on the trot, and the gap between the contenders and the rest is starting to look pretty real.

As someone who talks footy for a living and genuinely thinks the women’s comp deserves the same energy as the men’s, weeks like this are exactly why. No filler, no easybeats coasting through, just quality footy at the pointy end of the table.

Melbourne are building something scary

The Demons haven’t dropped a game yet this season and honestly, watching them week to week, it doesn’t feel like a fluke or a soft draw either. Their midfield brigade is winning the contest consistently, they’re hard at the ball in a way that suggests real depth, not just one or two stars carrying the load.

What I love about this Melbourne outfit is they’re not just grinding out four-point wins and hoping for the best. They’re putting big scores on teams, controlling territory, making the most of their inside 50 entries instead of just bombing it forward and hoping. That’s the sign of a side that’s actually coached up and structured, not just talented.

Could they go through the home and away season unbeaten? It’s a big call this early, but you’d be silly to rule it out the way they’re travelling. Premiership favouritism is theirs to lose right now, in my view.

The Cats are quietly the form side of the comp

Geelong don’t always get talked about the same way Melbourne does, which is a bit rough given they’ve now strung together five straight wins. This isn’t a side sneaking through on the back of one dominant quarter here and there — they’re finding ways to win when it’s tight and winning comfortably when they get on top too.

That’s honestly the more impressive trait in September footy terms. Teams that can win multiple different ways, whether that’s grinding it out in the guts or having the class to kick away in the last quarter, tend to be the ones still standing when it matters. Geelong look like they’ve figured out how to do both.

Why the top two feel different to the rest

No notes on either of these clubs at the moment, and that’s not something I say lightly given how competitive this comp has become. What separates Melbourne and Geelong from the chasing pack isn’t just the win-loss column, it’s the manner of the wins.

• Melbourne are dominating the contest at stoppages and turning that into scoreboard pressure
• Geelong are showing genuine composure in tight finishes, which is the hardest thing to teach
• Both sides have multiple avenues to goal instead of relying on one or two go-to targets
• Neither club is leaking easy scores back the other way, which tells you the defensive structures are legit

When you’ve got two clubs ticking every one of those boxes at the same time, that’s when you start thinking premiership contenders rather than just early-season pace-setters.

The rest of the comp needs to find another gear

Here’s the thing though — footy being footy, someone’s got to catch these two eventually, or at least make them work harder for it. The teams sitting just outside the top two can’t keep letting this gap widen without a response. It’s still relatively early days in the context of a full season, and form can shift fast in this competition.

We’ve seen it before in AFLW where a club looks unstoppable for six or seven rounds and then hits a wall, whether that’s through injury, fatigue, or just other sides working them out tactically. So I wouldn’t be writing off the chasing pack completely. But right now, purely on what we’re seeing week to week, Melbourne and Geelong are just operating on a different level.

What this means for growing the game up here in Queensland

I’ll always bring it back to this because it genuinely matters to me — weeks like this, with genuine quality and genuine stakes at the top of the table, are exactly what gets new eyes on AFLW. When kids in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast are watching high-quality, competitive footy rather than lopsided blowouts, that’s how you grow the game in non-traditional markets.

The more the competition can produce genuine title races rather than one dominant club running away with it from round one, the better it is for everyone, including us Lions fans watching our own side try to climb back into that conversation. Competitive tension at the top makes casual viewers into invested viewers, and that’s the whole game long term.

Where does this leave the Lions and the rest of the pack

I’m not going to pretend my beloved Lions are firmly in this conversation this week, because credit where it’s due, Melbourne and Geelong have simply been better sides. But that’s exactly why these next few rounds matter so much for every other club in the comp — someone needs to lay down a marker and show they can live with the top two before finals arrive.

If Brisbane, or Adelaide, or North Melbourne, or whoever it might be, can go out and knock over Melbourne or Geelong in the next month, that changes the whole complexion of the ladder conversation. Until then, though, credit has to go where it’s due. These two clubs are the benchmark right now, and everyone else is chasing.

Genuinely can’t wait to see what happens if — or when — these two eventually clash. That’s the kind of game that sells AFLW to a whole new audience, and it’s exactly the sort of blockbuster this growing competition deserves.