You didn’t have to be Inspector Clouseau to join the dots.

A minute after Channel 7 ran a feature interview during the halftime break of Friday night’s Western Bulldogs-Melbourne game, a tweet which rocked the AFLW world was posted.

We’re tipping former Western Bulldogs premiership coach Paul Groves was on his couch at home enjoying a nice bottle of red wine when he saw the interview.

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media_camera Former coach Paul Groves (C) quickly deleted his tweet. Picture: Mark Stewart

It clearly hit a nerve with Groves deciding to drop this bomb on Twitter: “Most selfish player I’ve ever coached. Ungrateful. Cracks were caused by said person. You play footy to create friendships. Shame.”

media_camera The controversial tweet from Paul Groves.

Understandably the tweet caused quite a stir among Bulldogs officials whose first thoughts were that he was aiming at someone at the Whitten Oval, given he’d made a shock exit from the club last year for “family reasons”.

The detectives on social media went into meltdown as they tried to work out the identity before it became very clear who the former Dogs coach was taking aim at.

Libby Birch was the subject of the halftime interview, given she’d crossed over to the Demons this year after three seasons at the Dogs.

media_camera Libby Birch was a foundation Bulldog. Picture: AFL Media media_camera Birch made the shift to the Demons after three seasons at Whitten Oval. Picture: AAP

Birch is understood to be disappointed and hurt by the actions of her former coach.

She had been a mainstay of the Bulldogs line-up, gaining a premiership medal in 2018 and not missing a game for three years.

In the interview, Birch took a swipe at her old club suggesting that “cracks were appearing” and that she had “needed to go somewhere where I could challenge myself”.

She also said she no longer felt like she belonged at the Kennel.

This was clearly too much for Groves to digest, although he did take down the tweet from his protected account after 10 minutes.

By then, though, plenty of eyes had already seen it.

Groves, who was the inaugural Dogs coach, quit in June after three seasons.

DEE FEARS ON KEMP

The Demons face a nervous wait amid fears they may have lost another player to an ACL injury.

Ainslie Kemp – who plays without a fully functioning right ACL after previously returning from the injury without surgery – was felled in the dying second of Friday night’s 20-point Melbourne victory over the Western Bulldogs at Whitten Oval.

It looked to be a textbook ACL mechanism to her left knee and the 22-year-old was in tears after the match.

Sad scenes after the game with Ainslie Kemp.



The luckless Demon looks to have done her ACL again 😢 pic.twitter.com/asEZM2JIQa — 7AFL (@7AFL) February 14, 2020

Kemp could be the eighth AFLW player to suffer the injury this pre-season and season proper.

But coach Mick Stinear – who already lost defender Katherine Smith and Shae Sloane to the injury before Christmas – did his best to remain optimistic.

“It looked like a knee, but we haven’t heard any more,” he said.

“She’s an incredibly powerful athlete and player. So she’s done well to be able to get back to this position. But she hasn’t had a good run at AFLW, unfortunately, but fingers crossed it’s nothing too severe.”

media_camera Ainslie Kemp of the Demons leaves the field. Picture: Getty Images

Stinear said it had been a “competition-wide” trend for the worst case to be feared when a player went down.

“Competition-wide, players are on edge a little bit because they’ve been popping up too frequently unfortunately,” he said.

“The depth of our list is a strength of ours, so if Kempy’s not available next week, there’s other players who are playing in a practice match (today) against the Bulldogs VFLW who will get a chance to step up.”

media_camera Daisy Pearce was best on ground. Picture: Getty Images

THE FAITHFULS UNITE

It was a night for the originals.

The competition’s next generation might have taken the limelight in the opening round of AFL Women’s, but on Friday night it was the old guard who showed them just how it’s done.

Almost a year to the day since Daisy Pearce was in the delivery suite for twins Roy and Sylvie to come earthside, the star midfielder proved a class above.

With trusty comrades Karen Paxman and Shelley Scott alongside her, the clean hands of Pearce and her crew were so valuable as Melbourne weather wreaked havoc with traffic both on and off the field.

“Obviously (Daisy) is a great leader and a great player and just a classic person to have around,” she said.

“It’s great having her back and a massive addition back into the side. I love playing alongside her – I have for many years now, so it’s great having her back and she did great tonight, too.”

media_camera The Demons took out the Hampson – Hardeman Cup.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

The Hampson-Hardeman Cup has become one of the jewels in the crown of AFLW, with former Fremantle coach Michelle Cowan lauding the match this week as a potential season-opener in years to come.

And Paxman agrees.

“The Doggies and Melbourne have been frontrunners in women’s footy and pushed women’s footy to the spotlight and enabled the AFLW to kick off a lot quicker than it might have,” she said.

“It’d be awesome to kick off the season with a Doggies versus Dees game. It holds a fair bit more significance, I think, this round than the others. A lot of girls have a lot of history with each other.”

Many supporters opted to watch on from home rather than brave the humidity, at times howling winds and driving rain, with 3133 people turning out to see two women’s football powerhouses go toe-to-toe in a fierce contest.

VOTES

3 Daisy Pearce

2 Karen Paxman

1 Shelley Scott

BEST

WESTERN BULLDOGS: McCarthy, Blackburn, Lamb, Ferres, Newton

MELBOURNE: Pearce, Paxman, Scott, Hore, Gay, Heath

ATTENDANCE: 3133

Originally published as The player ex-Dogs AFLW coach slammed as ‘most selfish’