Ollie Hollands comprehensively outplayed Ed Langdon who, until recently, was the wingman every team wanted. Yes, Langdon got a few possessions in the second half but he did nothing with them.
Ollie is in his second season and he has a lot of development ahead of him. That doesn’t detract from the fact that his first quarter was outstanding, and was an important factor in our five goal lead, and his game was his best yet in navy blue.
Enjoy his success and look forward to continual improvement but don’t focus on the few errors he made, no more than Crippa, Walsh, Weiters and our other seasoned campaigners made.
I missed the game. I'd just like folks opinions.... Walsh racks up possessions and it's noticable. He's everywhere. He's influencing the game.
One of the things I've noticed watching VFL games when Binns is involved is... that I don't 'notice' him. It surprises me when I look up the stat sheet at the end of the game and see he's had it so many times.
I'm guessing part of that is the coverage of games with less camera angles and the commentators not always calling the player in possession on long shots.
Was Binns 'noticable' last night? Did he have a big influence on the game.
You couldn’t miss him Lods. Not only did he bring his own ball, he did some great things with it and at both ends of the ground.
Sometimes his work didn’t go to plan, like the run from halfback to half forward that ended with a shanked kick, but was eye catching just the same.
Not the result we wanted but it was good to see AFL listed players with senior experience showing they’re a step above the VFL boys. Take a bow Jaxon Binns, Orazio Fantasia and, to a slightly lesser extent, Lewis Young.
Not quite the same input from Marchbank and Cuningham but Marchy’s leadership was evident.
Monahan does some nice things. I think he’s going to be a player.
Watch the last 5 or 10 minutes again, Lever ended up with leather toxicity syndrome, closely related to COVID apparently, nobody wanted to go near him except our kickers!
Are you sure about that LP?
Lever marked McGovern's kick in from fullback, marked Hewett's kick at CHB, and spoiled Harry's kick into the forward pocket, all in the first 10 minutes of the last quarter. After that he and Durdin competed for a ground ball which Durdin knocked forward for a stoppage. Finally, Lever gathered a loose ball between wing and half forward and got a hand pass away. That was his only touch in the last ten minutes.
I thought May and McDonald were their most effective defenders in the last quarter but it was the tackle pressure when we were trying to work the ball up the ground that set up Melbourne's opportunities and denied ours, that and some strange free kicks.
Edit: Just listening to David King explain how we set up to drag Lever away from the contest and force May to do the bulk of the defensive work by himself. That certainly gels with what I saw.
Reckon Newman might be an out. His bump was high and he got off the ground. Might miss a few.
I think that you have to make contact with an opponent to be eligible for suspension ... but I could be wrong
Apparently, Christian's eyesight is more reliable than most and he detected the faintest of contacts between Newey's arm and Neale-Bullen's body. Newey gets a $2500 fine with an early plea. Lachie Cowan was also fined for doing something mean to Neale-Bullen; $1875 with an early plea.
I thought Matt Kennedy did a good job on him in the middle for the first quarter and a half, it was only when he went forward he became a problem. Thought he tried at least unlike one Melb player in Fritsch, talk about lazy, if it wasnt delivered silver service style then he couldnt be bothered chasing or even competing and Goodwin dragged him several times and it was only in the last quarter I saw him making any effort after Petracca had done the hard work. I thought we had players who were beaten on the night but at least tried, reckon Melb had a few who couldnt be bothered at all or sooked all night ie Gawn.
Vossy said that Kennedy probably did too good a job on Petracca!
It's interesting how the run with player's role normally changes when their opponent is shifted. I suspect that Kennedy would have continued to get the job done if he had stayed with Petracca. He has played as a defender recently and knows the structures and patterns. We would have been a midfielder down, but Melbourne was and we have plenty others to rotate through the midfield.
The super slow mo shows no obvious contact with head or jaw, and no deviation in Neale-Bullen's head aligned to Newman's direction of contact. The only detectable motion is Neale-Bullen throwing his head back!
Last week the media piled on Matt Owies for banging his own head into the turf. This week it’s Brodie Kemp who is copping it for slamming his own head into the ground. I’m not exactly sure how you stop your head from hitting the ground when your arms are pinned and the tackle knocks you off your feet and drives you forward.
Meanwhile, is there any chance of scrutinising Neale-Bullen’s flop when Newman brushed past him? 🙄
One thing I think the umps stuffed up. Mcgovern juggled a mark, had two hands on it, and Petty knocked it out of his hands. Play on the call.
That's a mark every week, and there was a few of those last night. Wet weather footy, you can't make players hold it with an opponent punching it out. Melbourne scored on the back of one of those. Must have been 3rd quarter as it was the non punt road end.
The same thing happened to De Koning about 15m from goal in our forward line. Poor umpiring!
Arrived home from the game with Junior G2C to be greeted my an angry Mrs G2C. Reckoned the Ch7 commentary was so biased she had to mute it. Ahhhh yes, love it when my effect wears off on family members. PS Heard Cornes this morning on radio say how he listened to SEN Blues Radio (Maher, Edmond, Kouta and Ange) synced with the TV telecast, absolutely hilarious he reckons.
Ms DJC is pretty much a neutral observer and she remarked that she never heard such biased commentary before. She also had a crack at the umpires for some poor decisions
BT and his mates do tend to boost the team that's behind so that the punters won't turn the game off but a bit of balance would be a pleasant change.
Just on Ollie Hollands, caught a couple of times last night...he's only in his second season, still young , still very slight, and still probably adjusting to the speed of the game. When he gets a bit more experience and a bit more bulk (he may never be super big, but he can add a bit of muscle and strength) he'll be a valuable long term player for us.
I reckon that was Ollie's best game.
I think that he is trying to find the time to make his disposals count and underestimates his opponent's closing speed and/or proximity. In some ways it's probably better that he gives away a free than kicking to the opposition. I imagine that Tim Clarke and Luke Power will be working with Ollie to improve his ability to get his disposals away more quickly and without losing efficiency.
Ollie was quieter in the second half, and Langdon's not the player he was, but it's still an important scalp to have taken.
