{"id":845846,"date":"2026-08-06T17:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T17:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845846\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T17:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T17:48:10","slug":"aflw-teams-blues-shock-as-star-duo-to-miss-saints-make-tall-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845846\/","title":{"rendered":"AFLW TEAMS: Blues shock as star duo to miss, Saints make tall call"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The squads are in for Sunday’s AFLW season-opener between St Kilda and Carlton\n <\/p>\n

L-R: Sophie McKay, Emmelie Fiedler, Keeley Sherar. Pictures: AFL Photos<\/p>\n

CARLTON will be without Sophie McKay\u00a0and Keeley Sherar\u00a0for its season-opener against St Kilda.<\/p>\n

The pair picked up low-grade injuries during the week, with Sherar to miss with a quad concern, while McKay has a calf injury. The club expects the pair to be available for selection for round two.<\/p>\n

The Blues have named three fresh faces, with Brooke Boileau, Claudia Whitfort\u00a0and late call-up Nell Morris-Dalton\u00a0to don the navy blue for the first time.<\/p>\n

>> KEEP SCROLLING TO SEE THE FULL TEAMS OR CLICK HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

Morris-Dalton\u00a0was only added to the squad last week after the former Pie impressed with Carlton’s VFLW team.<\/p>\n

The Blues hit the trade period hard after making a preliminary final last year, adding midfield duo Boileau\u00a0(Adelaide) and Whitfort, but the latter’s fellow ex-Gold Coastian, Lauren Bella, has been ruled out of at least the first month with a calf injury.<\/p>\n

Carlton’s extended squad also includes potential debutant Lily Baxter\u00a0and club debutant Kiara Bischa.<\/p>\n

St Kilda will unveil a new forward line for Sunday’s double-header, with recruit Sophie Butterworth\u00a0and draftee Abby Hobson\u00a0locked in.<\/p>\n

Butterworth\u00a0played six games for Hawthorn over two years, while fellow tall forward Hobson\u00a0was drafted with pick No.42 from Gippsland Power.<\/p>\n

The pair will add some much-needed height to the Saints’ forward line alongside Jesse Tawhiao-Wardlaw (pronounced tauh-fee-ah-oh), who has re-embraced her surname with M\u0101ori origins in 2026.<\/p>\n

The Saints have elected to play Rene Caris in the ruck, with Emmelie Fiedler not named.<\/p>\n

Winger Molly McDonald\u00a0is the only Saint who is unavailable through injury, set to miss the first month with a foot complaint.<\/p>\n

St Kilda could potentially have a few more debutants, with Irishwoman Saoirse Lally\u00a0and draftee Maya Louvell-Finn named in the extended squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Final teams will be confirmed on Friday night.<\/p>\n

SUNDAY<\/p>\n

St Kilda v Carlton at Marvel Stadium, 4.35pm AEST<\/p>\n

ST KILDA<\/p>\n

B: E.Friend 16 P.Trudgeon 10
HB: S.Watson – C 12 S.Butterworth 2 A.Burke 3
C: N.Barr 17 G.Patrikios 21 C.Baskaran 26
HF: A.Richards 22 A.Hobson 32 H.Priest 14
F: J.Tawhiao-Wardlaw 30 J.Anderson 7
Foll: R.Caris 19 J.Lambert 9 T.Smith 6
I\/C: D.Guttridge 5 Z.Besanko 11 M.Louvel-Finn 13 S.Lally 18 O.Vesely 23 A.Gee 24 A.Clarke 25 B.Jakobsson 35<\/p>\n

New faces: Sophie Butterworth (club debut), Abby Hobson (AFLW debut)
Notable absences:\u00a0Molly McDonald (foot), Emmelie Fiedler<\/p>\n

CARLTON<\/p>\n

B: H.Cordner 21 M.Hendrie 49
HB: A.Velardo 1 C.Fitzgerald 36 S.O’Connell 14
C: D.Finn 17 C.Whitfort 4 Y.Duursma 11
HF: P.Scholz 7 E.Fitzpatrick 19 L.Keck 23
F: N.Morris-Dalton 35 D.Vescio 3
Foll: J.Good 12 A.McKay – C 5 M.Hill 10
I\/C: T.Bohanna 42 B.Vickers 24 B.Boileau 22 L.Goss 20 G.Pound 6 K.Bischa 30 A.Reidy 13 L.Baxter 8<\/p>\n

New faces: Claudia Whitfort (club debut), Brooke Boileau (club debut), Nell Morris-Dalton (club debut)
Notable absences: Sophie McKay (calf), Keeley Sherar (quad), Lauren Bella (calf)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The squads are in for Sunday’s AFLW season-opener between St Kilda and Carlton L-R: Sophie McKay, Emmelie Fiedler,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-845846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}