Did what we had to do and probably should've won by more.
Is it just me, or is Charlie dropping a lot of marks in the first 3 weeks that he would've clunked easily in the past two seasons? Looks to be getting in the right spot and then just having the ball bounce straight out. Luckily he's like a cat when the ball hits the ground.
Harry is absolutely on at the moment....kicking goals but getting the ball all round the ground and marking everything that comes his way. It's an awesome double act to have.
The defence looked so much better with Weitering there. I was one suggesting Marchbank shouldn't come straight back in and nothing changed as the game wore on....not sure if he was on Zuurhar early on but, if he was, it was a terrible match up.
Hewett goes under the radar and is back playing good footy and I thought it was Cerra's best game of the season.
Hopefully Martin and Motlop come back in against Freo and one of Kemp or Young probably comes back in for Marchbank.
Given Marchbank's inability to get out on the park and the fact that he hasn't played a game in a while, he's better off playing a couple of VFL games first.
Agreed Thry.....if we're serious and on, we should win easily. We still need to learn how to really bury sides when we have the advantage and % could be critical come the pointy end of the season.
Watched the North v Dockers game today. North were good early but you can see they're a relatively young side still. Turnovers and butchered the ball when they had Freo right under the pump early in the second quarter and then couldn't go on with it.
Apart from Larkey, they don't have any tall forwards and they don't really have any key defenders either. They've recruited a stack of talented midfielders over the last few seasons but no key position players that I can think of.
If we get plenty of the ball and use it well, Charlie and Harry should have a very Good Friday.
Fisher got plenty of the ball but doesn't kick it more than 30m and got caught on his wrong side plenty of times.
Agree on Fantasia....probably came in earlier than expected with the injury to Motlop and Owies was also injured for a period in the pre-season. It's widely acknowledged that the small forward is a difficult position to play. He's there for backup/experience and while his output has been small, his ball use for the most part has been really good. He might make way for Motlop but I wouldn't be writing him off yet.
I still like the Owies/Motlop set up. Owies is already on his 1.5 goals/game average from last year and that's hard to complain about. Martin plays a slightly different role with his marking ability....so for mine, they're the 3 first choice options.
If both Martin and Motlop come back in for the game against North, it might be Fantasia and Cunningham that go out.
Take the 4 points and a week off to hopefully get it back on track. To their credit, Richmond were fantastic....but we blew numerous chances to put them away when we had control after 1/4 time.
Fingers crossed that Weitering, Motlop and Martin are right to go against North.
We looked very shaky down back at times. It's heart in the mouth stuff whenever Young is near it or is trying a short pass in the back half. Kemp was good but a couple of brain fades directly cost us goals.
TDK's second half was huge, especially his stuff around the ground. And another really good game from Harry...again, his stuff around the ground was very good.
This is the sort of game that could really set the season up. Bye next week and then North....by then hopefully guys like Weitering, Motlop, Walsh, Martin, Marchbank etc might be ready or close to coming back. Guys like Weitering, Walsh and Martin will come straight in and Motlop probably before then anyway.
Then I think it's Freo in SA for Gather Round?
A 4-0 start would be a huge launching pad before some really tough games.
Owies went at 1.5 goals/game last year but was injured for a period. Extrapolate that out over 23 games and it's about 35 goals for a season. Combined with the forward half pressure he usually brings, I'd have him along with Motlop as our two preferred small forwards. He played last week off the back of no practice games. This week we've got Owies, Fantasia, Durdin, Fogarty and Cunningham as well as Cottrell who'll play as forwards and run through the midfield. I would've thought it was a good opportunity for Moir this week so maybe there might be a late change.
