Re: VFL Rd 4: Northern Blues vs Collingwood
Reply #29 –
Just got back from the game... simply awful until half time. In the first qtr it was as if our blokes thought that Rottingwood was kicking with a 10 goal gale (it was about a 3 goal wind) and were simply content to tackle hard and go all out negating which was a terrible tactic/attitude - lost the game in the first qtr against pretty ordinary opposition. In fact, our first qtr was one of the worst qtrs of football I've ever seen.
The entire game, from our point of view, was marred by so many terrible decisions - kicking to blokes out numbered, handballing to blokes in worse positions, kick and hope into the forward line and absolutely not understanding how to play when blustery.
We had 9 CFC blokes (including our international rookie, Korcheck) and the rest were Preston blokes.
After half time our blokes were suddenly fair-dinkum and it was a much better game to watch though the dumb decisions persisted. Really missed some senior CFC player talent. There's no doubt had there been just 2 or 3 CFC players we would have won. In the first half it was the old story... we were so bad that we made them look good.
Don't be mislead by the number of possessions Everitt got. In hard contests he gave very little and even gave up possession too easily and a missed tackle in our forward line was a howler resulting in the Dagpies running the ball the length of the ground and goaling. In the second half when everyone had lifted Everitt was better and did some good things ...but demand recall? I wouldn't think so... when it was hard going he wasn't sighted and I would have thought that for a senior CFC listed bloke he would have shown some leadership and mongrel. For mine, still too soft but his skills were clearly better than many around him at times. When I saw he had 27 possessions I found it hard to believe. Love to know the effectiveness of them. And if he makes the best players I'll know that someone is bullsh1tting us.
On a more positive note... for mine Dick was probably the best 4 qtr CFC listed bloke, followed by Rainbow. I was also pleased to see Foster more involved and he was one of the few with good foot skills on the day (along with Rainbow). He has certainly improved over the weeks and with McCasker out he and Jaksch shared tall defender responsibilities (though Jaksch went forward when we had the wind).
Good - Dick, Rainbow and Wood.
Serviceable - Gallucci, Foster and Korcheck. The big American boy really competes hard and keeps getting a little better each time. Took some good grabs and actually did some hard and effective work at ground level as well.
Jaksch was used in attack and defence. Took a couple of nice grabs and kicked a good long goal... but, sheesh, he is so 1982 - straight lines, mark, kick, and that is it.
(a kid called Kerbatieh is worth keeping our eyes on... really impressive and did some very good things today... a very real future rookie prospect).
Willow was the best Preston boy by a mile... and emptied about 10 litres of fluid from his guts on the boundary line in front of us... nice!
Gorringe - Pfft.
Ps Everitt played the entire game... not a half.
Cheers.