Women's Curling WCF World Championship 2024 Road to Milano-Cortina 2026

intoronto · March 19

Josh · March 19

19 minutes ago, intoronto said:

May want to check the previous page

Josh · March 19

:EST 6-4 up on :SCO after six ends :wacko: :mumble: :coffee:

Edited March 19 by Josh

Rafa Maciel · March 20

3 hours ago, Belle said:

What happened to Scotland?

So, my take on this...

With Muirhead retiring after Beijing, the options were pretty limited. Muirhead had been such a dominant force within the sport domestically (and internationally) that it was difficult to see who was going to be able to step up. At the same time, Vicky Wright also retired so it wasn't a case of just making minor changes to the lineup, they basically needed to put together a whole new team.

At this point, Scottish Curling could have stepped in to put together a composite team/podium program containing the best curlers in the country. Instead, Jennifer Dodds went off to one team whilst Hailey Duff went to another. In the end, Scottish Curling looked to the promote a whole team to the podium program. At the time, Morrison's team probably was the best of the rest in Scotland but arguably her third - Gina Aitken - actually had the stronger pedigree as a former Junior world Champ and a bronze medalist in the Scottish Senior event.

Morrison's 1st foray into the World Champs in 2022 ended early -through nobody's fault - when the team contracted Covid and had to withdraw. They bounced back later that year with a surprise bronze at the 2022 Europeans and I think everyone assumed that they had a pretty solid team whoc ould certainly hold their own on the international stage.

The 2023 World Champs were a disaster for the team, and they finished 12th out of 13 teams. At the Europeans that same year, they finished 5th. By this point, Jennifer Dodds had been brought into the team as alternate/third with Gina Aitken dropping to 2nd. I watched a lot of their matches at the Worlds and Europeans that year, and from what I saw, the dynamics within the team were a complete mess. I got the impression that Dodds being in the team wasn't Morrison's choice and there was no strong connection between the pair, with Morrison instead relying heavily on Aitken. One of the strengths of the Scottish men's squad is the connection between Mouat as skip and Grant Hardie as third. Likewise with Muirhead, it was evident that she got on well with Dodds and they worked great as a team. With Morrison, it looked like Dodds was being frozen out.

Coming into the '24 Worlds, Morrison didn't win the Scottish Championship. Instead, Fay Henderson - a double world junior champion - took the title, but her rink had had a mediocre season prior to that so the selectors opted for Morrison based on her more consistent performances across the year. Interestingly, Henderson is coached by Eve Muirhead and has Hailey Duff as her third.

If I was a betting man, I think it will ultimately fall to Henderson's rink to secure GB's Olympic quota and I wouldn't be surprised if we see her at the Europeans later in the year. If they could find a way to incorporate Jen Dodds into the set-up I think they could have a pretty formidable team.