Kennedy and OBrien look destined for backup duties... TDK needs some senior footy and to learn of Kreuzer, very promising tall is TDK and players who can ruck and be handy down forward are like gold..
I'll be interested to see which player out of Goddard and Collins proves the more useful....
I find that hard to believe EB, I was surprised to see them line up in the 2's as well, and While Kennedy looked a class above in the game, O'brian didn't stand out anywhere near as much.
Maybe not enough room to play all the mids in the senior game, and these 2 drew the short straw, I don't know. I'm not willing to write either of them off yet.
I agree TDK shows a lot of promise, Patty Kerr also played well yesterday in his 1st (2nd if played against Hawthorn last week) game as a defender.
BSOS did a couple of nice things, also got caught out of position a couple of times too, this will be a growth year for him, physically and mentally.
His mate Finbar showed some promise up forward, again did a couple of nice things and didn't look out of place.
I enjoyed going to the game last night, it's always a joy to win against the Bummers!
Thoughts on the game....
Gibbo is a lock for a small forward role, he showed his class last night, I would like to have seen him play more midfield minutes, but alas. His greatest weakness is probably penetration in his kicking, but as long as he plays within his limitations, he will do just fine.
McGovern looked good, he got on the lead or at least lost his man a couple of times to take a mark and get a shot on goal. H and Charlie both seemed too content to sit in the goal square and let the mids bomb it long to the top of the square. Ok we did score quite a few crumbing goals from this, but I would prefer to see more movement and creativity in our forward movement and leading patterns.
Newman was solid, dependable and exactly what he needs to be in his role down back. Nothing flashy, but he wins his contests and plays his role. He doesn't have Docherty's quality, but I would consider him a competent replacement.
Settters seemed to have a quiet 1st half, at least I didn't notice him too much, but he seemed to work his way into the game from then on. To be expected for someone who has been out of the game for as long as he has I guess. He showed some class and skills and did enough in the end to encourage me that he will be a good addition to our midfield.
Schuey I didn't see until about 2 minutes before the final siren, so can't really comment. His stats read 2 tackles which might say something about his intent for the short time he was on the ground.
Walsh. Believe the hype, all of it. I could not have been more impressed, he was in everything, backing into packs, making 2nd and 3rd efforts when team mates were just ball gazing. Phenomenal game for a 1st year player. Very excited.
Sammo has stepped up. He probably needed to, but IMO he has, or did last night anyhow, he looked good, got involved and used the ball well.
Dow, a year below Fisher and Sammo and looked a step below them last night too, which is more observation than a criticism. I was impressed that every time it was his time to 'go' he did, and more often than not got the ball and did something constructive with it. I didn't notice any 'wow' moments, but that's ok by me.
Phillips was probably the standout tall player on the ground, dominated the 2nd qtr and made solid contributions in the other 3 with some great marks around the ground.
I thought Daisy was the best of our older guys.
Without looking at the stats, the ball seemed to spend a lot more time in our forward half than it did theirs, so we won that battle. When they did get the ball out it was out the front of a contest and then on a fast break. We had no answer when this happened. Over all though our defense was much better than anything seen last year, but our ball movement seemed a bit scratchy at times, so plenty of things still to work on !!
A fairly high scoring game, Im sure the AFL will be happy about that, although the new rules didn't make any obvious differences to me, which is probably a good thing.
I asked an Essendon supporter sitting next to me how many they had out from their best 22? He counted 4, I counted 4 for us as well, so no excuses for either side there.
Having him and Teague about should have a significant impact on player development. Listening to Fraser at VFL intervals he strikes me as perhaps the best VFL coach we've had for a long time.
I'm heading down for this game, I might even get there early enough to catch some of the early game too.
Im looking for improvement from Sammo, Fish, Cuningham, and less so Dow. O'Brian and Garlett. I will also be very interested in what the new guys bring in Setters, McGovern, Gibbons, Newman and of course Walsh!
And being the Bombers, lets pray we come away with a win !!
I'd make no major changes, I'd swap Jones for Rowe.
I know they aren't at the club yet and so probably why you haven't included them, but Walsh and Setterfield would definitely strengthen the 2nds team, and quite possibly keep a couple of guys in the 1sts on their toes too.
Even with those two, IMO this still shows that we are still a couple of mature mids short. I'll be interested to see if SOS agree's, and if so, who he brings in.
We had a punt blocked and returned for a TD to start the game off.
We had our kicker miss 3 makeable FGs, including one to win the game.
Former 1st round WR dropping more catches than Phil Tufnell did, including one that turned into an interception.
We ended up scoring 22 points in the 4th quarter to come back and tie, then defense came up trumps in OT to move you guys out of FG range which would've won the game for you.
...we had a plenty go wrong, and still got a tie @Lambeau.
Positives.
Funny, I saw quite a few positives in our game too, I guess we both must be optimists !!
Probably the most surprising part of this announcement. Well done to the lad if he has done enough to keep himself on the books, he will be exciting to watch if/when he ever makes it into the seniors...
