Charlie should have had 5 goals, but ended with 2. That mark in the square was brilliant; the play on and get a rushed behind was almost comical. His defensive work late was good and he generally had the better of his duel, but he has brain fades that need work to fix.
A very instinctive player who desperately needs a dose of poise to take the next step.
Kemp was terrific all night but that 'Mark of the Year' attempt on the last line of defense was also a massive brain-fade, it looks great when it comes off but its too costly when it doesn't. Just do the team-orientated thing and give a defensive punch and follow it up on the ground.
Displays great athleticism and skill but makes too many errors due to indecisiveness and second-guessing himself. Needs to create space for himself when he has the ball instead of hovering in the midst of the action.
I thought that Harry was our best player by quite a margin and his ruckwork has improved considerably. Geelong rotated four players through the ruck to our two (Young did contest one hitout when our ruck couldn't get there) so Harry's effort was quite impressive, as was De Koning's.
H appears to have been coached and looked much more at home in the ruck than ever before. Maybe there is an intention to have him spend more time in the ruck this season. If so, hopefully he will be resilient because I don't know if we can afford for him to get injured.
TDK also seemed to have more strength to body up against his ruck opponents - not that the pussies are generally considered to be strong in that department.
I like the games of both Hollands brothers but the big positive for me was the fact that Cripps appeared to be more mobile and to have a bit more zip - maybe he has dropped a little weight and done some speed/agility work or maybe he is just injury free for a change.
Dan Andrews has pulled the plug after his reign of terror and will officially take the money and run tomorrow at 5pm after spending all of our money and leaving behind a trail of debt..
I would like to add in a class small forward who pressures and kicks goals. We are slightly below par here imo. Not sure what we have will improve.
Motlop lacks the blistering speed that we associate with dominant small forwards but IIRC he has shown he can be a player - more so than Eddie Betts, who developed into a top player but who was gifted quite a few games in his early career.
Well it's over...but at some stage through the final series we had lots of players stand up to show they're more than capable finals performers.
Week three...and of course Walsh is there again I'll add Marchbank (please stay healthy in 2024) stood up and Boyd (good selection) stood up. There are a few more. Add them on.
The selection committee pulled the right strings for a change.
Bringing Boyd in seems like a reasonable decision to provide a better balanced defence to combat the Lions but I am surprised that Kemp would be omitted in favour of Marchy.
I do rate Marchy but Kemp has been very good and seems to have superior pace, a bigger leap and better kicking skills. The only negative I have seen with Kemp is that he has looked too likely to panic from time to time and March has greater experience.
Max wasn't his usual jovial self at the end of the game, got shoved around by Pittonet all night, missed some sitters then did his best Maradona impersonation to wind up what was a dirty night.
The Pitto/TDK tag team really nullified Gawn with TDK also making a massive contribution on the forward line.
