The Brisbane Lions AFLW team will be without speedy Irishwoman Orla O’Dwyer when they face North Melbourne this weekend.
O’Dwyer will be rested with shoulder soreness after coming off in the third term of Sunday’s West Coast clash with a shoulder injury.
While scans earlier in the week cleared O’Dwyer of any significant shoulder damage, the 23-year-old will be a test to play in next weekend’s game in Ballarat.
Her absence makes way for smart midfielder Maria Moloney to come back into the side, having last appeared in Round 3, 2022.
Moloney was named in Head Coach Craig Starcevich’s Best 21, alongside her history-making teammates, Ally Anderson and Emily Bates.
Anderson and Bates will be the first AFLW players to reach the 50 AFLW career game milestone this weekend, having never missed a game in their entire career to achieve the feat.
The milestone moment is the equivalent of roughly 100 AFL games and has taken the duo six seasons to reach.
Anderson and Bates will achieve the milestone in Melbourne, after the AFL announced a venue change on Friday for the Round 9 clash following the ongoing volatile conditions in South East Queensland.
Although every effort was made to keep the game at Maroochyodre, the unpredictable nature of the storms that have battered the region over the past week, and that continue to do so, made the situation too uncertain and forced the game to be relocated.
The game will be open to the public and free to attend, with fans in Brisbane able to watch the game on Channel 7.
The Brisbane Lions will face North Melbourne at VU Whitten Oval on Sunday March 6 at 12:10pm AEST (1:10pm local).
