Just before the end of the second quarter, Kemp gathered the loose ball and handpassed to Walsh. Kemp ran on and received the ball back forward of centre. Kemp could have blazed away and hoped for Harry to mark (Charlie was in the backline) but he spotted Ollie Hollands heading inside 50 on the flank. A perfectly weighted kick allowed Hollands to mark and he slotted the goal.
Back in the middle and a perfect tap from De Koning enabled Hewett to break away and pinpoint a pass to Kennedy. Kennedy kicked the ball to a contest and the ball was spoiled away from Curnow (back from being a loose man in defence). De Koning made it to the contest, crumbed the ball and snapped the goal on his wrong foot.
Those two goals got us back into the game. They also highlight our young, developing talent and the value of our established players like Hewett and Kennedy.
It's worth going to the replay to see how well De Koning and Hewett combine for the centre clearance; excellent ruckwork from De Koning and superb positioning, anticipation and execution from Hewett.
Then there's Tom's ability to get from the centre to the next contest, gather the ball and snap truly. Most ruckmen in that situation would play it safe and drop back into the hole or amble forward in case there's a stoppage.
Was a Dandenong support even though I lived in the Northern Suburbs near the Preston ground. They were the good old days, VFL on a Saturday and the VFA on Sundays.
Princes Park on the Saturday for me (when I wasn’t running around in the Ammos), then Coburg City Oval on the Sunday. Coburg vs Preston games were always special regardless of how each team was going.
Id persist with Lemmey at CHB in the VFL.....and Id be looking to give Moir a senior game or two sooner than later as the sub initially. Lemmeys blonde mate down back in Lewis also played an ok game and looks a solid player. Not sure Id be keeping Mirkov or OKeefe.....
I think the Mirkov experiment is coming to an end but O’Keeffe is worth persevering with. His last VFL game was very good and he can pinch hit as a key forward.
I wouldn’t be rushing Moir into the seniors but I’m sure he’ll be demanding a game before the season’s out. He did OK in the pre-season games and should adjust to the tempo without too many problems. He has been a bit wasteful with his kicking for goal so let’s hope he gets his radar aligned.
Lemmey looks a better player down back and maybe a chance to make a Key defender, won the ball well and used it ok for a big fella although his opponent from the WAFL who has a famous VFA name in Jimmy Miller had a decent game too. The other player who looks a class above most is Moir, dont reckon he will ever play too many four quarter games but everything he does is classy even when he tackles(laid a great one in the last quarter) and he knows where the goals are and plays with a bit of maturity. Binns can hit a target and runs hard, but lacks a bit of physicality when tackling and also can hang back a bit when he needs to be attacking the ball. Cincotta was ok without being great and both Okeefe and Mirkov lowered their colours to the Port ruckman(Flockhart?) who was impressive. Xavier Maher was BOG but for me remains a good VFL player only....
Calista got a fair bit of the ball but he and Miller were thumped in the ruck by O'Keeffe and Mirkov even if our midfielders couldn't capitalise. But, a good ruckman needs to do more than just win the hitouts and our two need to improve their marking, linking up, positioning and being a presence around the ground. Flockhart looked to have done his knee but came back on and picked up where he left off. Miller did a good job of the key forward second ruck role.
I wonder if Lemmey is playing back while Sam Durdin is out (suspended?) or if it's the direction his career is now headed. If he can play CHF with the same energy and application that he's showing at CHB, he could be a genuine key forward option. Perhaps he's just one of the many key forwards who play better footy in defence.
We didn't have that many AFL listed players out there, but I think that Moir showed the most potential. He works hard off the ball he will be rewarded for that.
Harry Lemmey laid a great tackle; long arms just reached the guernsey of an opponent who thought he'd run away from his slower opponent only to be reefed backwards and into the turf.
I think Harry looks more comfortable and involved in defence.
The two rucks worked exactly as the match committee desired today. Can they repeat consistently ?
It seems that Crippa is a huge fan of the two rucks structure and had been advocating for Pitto’s recall to address the clearance deficit. While that worked against Adelaide, Pitto and De Koning didn’t contribute enough around the ground to compensate for the loss of run and Harry’s input as second ruck.
Everything clicked yesterday with Pitto and De Koning dominating the hitouts, our mids dominating the clearances, Pitto pitching in around the ground, De Koning kicking goals and forcing GWS to put defensive effort into him, and Harry getting up the ground for telling contested marks.
There’s nothing wrong with playing two rucks, provided that they can do more than take part in ruck contests.
Don't be under any misapprehensions here, we were horrible in the first half. They applied some serious pressure and we once again fumbled & bumbled. Kicking for goal was atrocious as was the delivery into the forward line, same issues that cost us the game against the Crows.
The fact that Voss had to send Curnow deep into defence late in the second to try and stem the bleeding was a tell-tale sign of howbad we really were.
After half-time, we started to apply the pressure and bit by bit we edged our way back into the contest and as our confidence grew, we started to run all over them.
It was a very good win and one we just had to register after last week's letdown.
Lots of good players for the second half, way too many passengers, frauds & flat-footed onlookers in the first.
Somehow, our guys have to find that ferocious gear from the first bounce instead of halfway through the match.
Must acknowledge that sensational feat of pure athleticism from the Giants defender Aleer who spoilt McKay in a marking contest after an incredible leap that came from nowhere.
Bring on next week please.
As I posted previously, Charlie has taken over Silvagni's role of helping out in defence from time to time. In other words, Charlie has the licence to decide when he should be an extra in defence. To me, leaving it up to Charlie is great coaching by Vossy and reflects his philosophy of giving the players and assistant coaches responsibility.
We struggled for 15 minutes in the second quarter but controlled the rest of the game quite comfortably.
Our goal kicking did let us down some and could have robbed us of another world record for goals from centre clearances. Even so, we had 12 goal assists, scored from 57% of our inside 50s and kicked goals from 32% of our inside 50s. We had nine individual goal scorers, seven of whom were part of our forward rotations, and five multiple goal scorers. That is pretty impressive in the context of a high pressure game against the flag favourites. The Carlton of midway through last season would have folded after GWS's second quarter run of goals. Once we clawed those two goals back at the end of the second quarter, the result was never really in doubt .
Aleer's spoil was also spectacular in that he hit the ball straight to Cottrell for an easy goal. Athleticism is all well and good, provided you get the footy basics right.
According to coach Kingsley" its hard being Toby"...sometimes I agree he doesnt get calls go his way due to his previous reputation but he was undisciplined tonight and the incident with Boyd showed he had little duty of care imho and there was another I'm sure I saw with Kemp I think it was where he took a swing at him while contesting the ball falling to the ground. Good to see both Cowan and Newman looking after Boyd too and letting Toby know he wasnt going to get away with his BS.... Hogan struck Young in the jaw as well and that should be looked at too.....credit to Young when Weitering got his corkie and couldnt run it was Young who got the job on Hogan and shut him down and showed some physicality which has been lacking in his game...
Young showed a nice line of niggle that I haven’t seen before.
I think that he was below his best today and, like all of our defenders, was unsettled when Williams was subbed out. Like his teammates, he did step up when Weiters and Newey were hampered by injury.
Boyd is always the defender I choose to omit but I think I’m going to have to re-think that. His defensive work today was excellent, particularly when he was switched to Greene, and his ball use was typically good.
Greene reminds me of a pit bull - no matter how much the owner says “he’s friendly”, you’re still wary of getting bitten. He’s lucky Boydy got straight up and should only cop a week.
The MRO won’t consider Hogan’s past offences but he should go back to the punch to the jaw that concussed Sam Rowe. Young’s reaction suggested heavier impact than it probably was. I’d give him a week but he’ll probably get a fine.
So, in the third term leak aliir was off for a substantial period and that's when we did our damage.
Orazio played his best game in navy. Might not have troubled the stats sheet but his leadership (constant direction and chatter) as well as work rate (particularly during our surge) was good. He's probably first cab out when we get motlop back but don't underestimate his value. He linked up well a couple of times and when we were blazing away he lowered his eyes and hit up targets a couple of times leading to scores. He's not winning games himself but the usual suspects are going to perform when the Indians like Boyd, fantasia, durdin cotters, acres do the basics well and just keep giving the main events of cripps, McKay, curnow, Walsh, etc the impetus to impose themselves without having to worry about the others.
Also big kudos to voss. Gws I think kicked 5 in a row in the second term and they made the call to drop curnow back when our defense was all at sea. He didn't exactly do much but take one steadying mark, but it turned the game into an arm wrestle again and killed thr gws momentum. We scored the next goal and he went forward again. It just basically made them second guess what to do and they lost momentum.
Psychologically this was extremely important particularly as he was having a bit of an off day to that point. A lot of fans around me couldn't work out why he decided to do it, but I thought it's not a bad idea. It also has the effect of opening up our forward line and pushing a ruck forward and letting Charlie have a gallop.
Astute observations Thry.
I’m not entirely sure that Vossy sent Charlie back. Charlie has explained previously that he now has Silvagni’s role of plugging holes in defence and it’s up to him when that happens.
If the move was Charlie’s initiative, Vossy still deserves credit for giving him the licence and responsibility to do so.
Dunno if the rules have changed but Mrs G2G had ankle surgery last year and had to be minimum 7 weeks post covid for the surgeon to agree to perform it.
Ms DJC’s surgeon didn’t mention 7 weeks and just slotted her into the next free spot. She is still testing negative so it may be a non issue anyway.
The anti-virals are magic and my symptoms have diminished. I got a good night’s sleep last night and that always helps.
I was sitting in the isolation chair watching TV last night when I felt a shooting pain. I looked down and saw a huge black bullant latched on to my little finger and pumping venom into it.
Ice and Stingose eventually eased the pain and I guess it could have been worse but I was thinking what’s going to happen next 😳
Like seeing Monahan named on the half back... he'll learn more there.
You can’t give much credence to that line up; Jaxon Binns FB, Alex Mirkov CHB, Hudson O’Keeffe C, etc. I suspect it’s just the team list assigned positions at random.
I don’t mind Monahan deviating from the Irishmen are HBFers model. He shows a bit of flair as a forward and I’d persist with him there. An occasional run in the midfield and a defensive role at the end of quarters should round out his development.
I like how we can cobble together a decent side still.
Just for comparison the ins and outs for this week's game compared to when we knocked off the Pies last year in Round 20: OUT Cerra Docherty McGovern Saad Dow Marchbank Martin Motlop Cunningham Cincotta Fogarty In Walsh E.Hollands Z.Williams H.McKay L.Cowan L.Young Fantasia Boyd Carroll Durdin Kennedy
Yes, it seems that we have finally built up some decent depth ... but is it enough to knock off the best team in the comp?
Being named an emergency is sometimes a bit like a 'participation certificate'. It's a reward for effort and it sends the message that "you're not too far away" If we have to make a late change it's a pretty fair bet it won't be O'Keefe coming in....most likely it will be Cincotta, if he's fit.
O’Keeffe may have been named because Pitto or De Koning has a niggle.
Cincotta was “managed” last round but the Magoos are playing on Sunday and he won’t miss two games if he is the emergency.
