Thanks for your work Thryleon. Not many of them really demanding a game in the seniors is there?
No worries Jell.
Its hard to get an understanding of the reviews from outside and without having seen the match. So I couple what I see here with what Baggers had to say, and its positive news for the majority of the more senior bodies on this list.
Particularly when compared to the majority of reports I read from Fraser last season, the overall picture looks much more promising for much more of those players.
The Northern Blues ended their 2017 pre-season with a 23-point win over Werribee on Sunday morning.
With 16 Carlton-listed players involved in the win, senior coach Josh Fraser analyses their performances ahead of Saturday’s VFL season opener against Port Melbourne.
63. Blaine Boekhorst Stats vs. Werribee: 21 disposals, 5 marks, 3 inside 50s, 1 goal From the coach: Blaine had good game involvement offensively with his run, and he also showed a good intent defensively. He continues to build in-game on putting his good stuff together for longer.
7. Dylan Buckley Stats vs. Werribee: 12 disposals, 4 hard-ball gets From the coach: He had some really clear focuses in our back six and showed some good signs of delivering. He’s finding balance between when to attack and defend, but his good stuff was encouraging: he’s trying to build form in areas we’re after.
61. David Cuningham Stats vs. Werribee: 13 disposals, 4 clearances, 4 tackles From the coach: It wasn’t the same impact around stoppages from previous week but he showed glimpses of his cleanness around stoppages and burst out of congestion. We like him when he’s driving forward.
56. Zac Fisher Stats vs. Werribee: 15 disposals (7 contested), 6 hard-ball gets, 3 clearances From the coach: His pressure was good without being outstanding. Zac is working tirelessly on detail in his game: he keeps his feet and is clean and evasive in traffic. He sets us up offensively and is certainly an exciting talent.
49. Andrew Gallucci Stats vs. Werribee: 12 disposals, 3 inside 50s, 4 tackles, 3 goals From the coach: Terrific performance given he’s missed so much football. He gives us a different dimension up forward, and his ability to not only apply pressure but also cap off his game via the scoreboard with three goals was great reward.
11. Jesse Glass-McCasker Stats vs. Werribee: 4 disposals From the coach: He’s shown some great improvement in his game, Jesse. He has worked hard on his defensive positioning and his impact on the game. He’s still working on capitalising with ball in hand but his set-up and positioning showed good growth.
48. Kristian Jaksch Stats vs. Werribee: 12 disposals, 7 marks (5 inside 50), 4 tackles, 2 goals From the coach: KJ is competing as well as I’ve seen him. He has been brutal in air, his decision making when it comes to leading up at the ball is getting better and he’s adding forward-50 pressure to his game. If he keeps doing that on a regular basis, he’s in really good shape.
14. Liam Jones Stats vs. Werribee: 11 disposals, 5 marks (2 contested), 1 goal From the coach: His contest in the air was outstanding and he applied great pressure with ball in his area, while also providing a strong contest in ruck. He’s a massive presence around the ball.
26. Sam Kerridge Stats vs. Werribee: 23 disposals, 6 marks, 11 hard-ball gets, 1 goal From the coach: He found enough of the ball to impact the contest as a midfielder and forward. On the whole, he worked really hard on both sides of the game. It was a strong performance.
36. Matthew Korcheck Stats vs. Werribee: 6 disposals, 30 hitouts, 1 goal From the coach: He gave our mids first use with his ruck work, as well as competing hard and around the ground. He’s beginning to understand patterns away from the ball - he finished with a goal and his follow-up work was impressive.
15. Harry McKay Stats vs. Werribee: 10 disposals, 4 marks, 1 goal From the coach: He’s still building consistency with marking and has certainly showed improvement in that area: he’s launching at more balls and working hard on leading patterns and defensively. He could and probably should have finished with three or four.
23. Rhys Palmer Stats vs. Werribee: 23 disposals, 4 clearances, 4 tackles, 3 goals From the coach: Rhys had a strong offensive involvement. He’s a really smart player. He constantly ran to the right positions, he was strong in the contest and had great goal sense to finish with three.
65. Cameron Polson Stats vs. Werribee: 8 disposals, 3 inside 50s From the coach: He’s continuing to work hard on method. His intent is quite strong, almost to the point of having to slow down and getting his method right in the moment. He had more impact as the game went on. I think he’ll be a really exciting player given time.
66. Ciaran Sheehan Stats vs. Werribee: 10 disposals, 3 inside 50s From the coach: His defensive positioning continues to grow, he’s making clearer decisions when he is in possession and executing most of the time. ‘Gussy’ is continuing to build an encouraging line of form.
46. Liam Sumner Stats vs. Werribee: 12 disposals, 4 marks, 4 inside 50s From the coach: His work-rate and pressure around the footy was really strong. He was far more busy this week with his involvements, he had opportunities in front of goal and set others up.
12. Tom Williamson Stats vs. Werribee: 11 disposals, 7 handball receives From the coach: Tom was solid defensively, he made good decisions away from the footy and he’s really exciting with the way he goes forward and uses it.
Id be dropping your non event non contributer learners for this week, and bringing in Rhys Palmer and whoever else has a mature body to deal with the sort of work the Bombers will put into us.
Palmer in particular is a must for this one and I reckon bring back Kerridge too, and sit him on Merret.
The kids should get an education against teams that are not going to be ruthless at the contest, and that is what I have seen from the Bombers. We need to protect the younger kids in some matches, and this is one of them.
Reckon we might need three.....Heppell and Jab will need watching also.....need more size up forward as well....Essendon always have one player usually Hooker when played back who sits across half back and just racks up intercept marks thanks to our bombed ill directed kicks, drives me insane when we have no talls to contest...
They've switched it up this year.
They go with Patrick Ambrose in defense, and have moved Cale Hooker forward.
Well it has happened, Cooper is off to Sydney next season, to be with his missus!
The missus bit is just a stone cold furphy, like you would move states because your wife has a $100K job in Fox Sports!
Don't dress it up Cooper, do yourself proud. We've loved having you here in big town and now it's time for you to cash in up there in La La Land.
Just do us one favour, start a bidding war and bankrupt those goons north of the border!
Hmm, maybe not.
It might benefit her career more and at this stage of his career, its worthwhile putting time into her career as you need to develop your further pathway.
He was interviewing Jake Melksham last week, and asked him about the "injustice" of the players being banned.
These psychofantic idiots dont get it. No one corrected him, and hearing Basil Zempilas commentate their match was extra cringeworthy with the pandering to the drug cheats.
I really don't get why some so-called supporters have to find fault with our players. I guess that's what makes them happy
There are a few reasons, but I think its best summed up by personality types.
If you place a glass in front of a room of people, and fill it until halfway, ask people to describe whether the glass is half full or half empty, and you will get a variety of answers based on people's life experience, their personality type and how they have been taught to view the world.
These are more theatric than the half empty/full approach where people just answer without thinking, but they do a better job of showing how different people look at things in different ways.
It’s half empty now and it wouldn’t surprise me if it dried up completely. It's only half fulle. Hey! Whose job was it to fill up this glass? I bet my friend would like to have some water right now.... I can’t believe someone would leave this dirty glass out here! Clean up this mess right now! So? It’s water. Big deal. You call that a glass of water? Why, back where I come from... There’s a glass of water! You know, it’s healthy to drink a lot of water! Why, I remember when I was growing up, we used to... Holds up glass of water, tilts it from side to side, wiggles finger in it, licks finger, grins slightly, moves on. Glass is made from silicon dioxide, heated to a temperature of... The glass is full—half water, half air! There’s more than enough for friends to share. This glass of water is a metaphor for my life. Whooeeee! Water fight! But look! A crystalline vessel, filled with shimmering, life-giving nectar!
At the end of the day, its simply half a glass of water. The water is unchanged by any of the perspectives above, even if it is described differently by people. All you find out about is their nuances.
Thry, I'm not saying the umpires don't make mistakes, but as I'm sure you'll agree, believing "we woz robbed" by the umps is part and parcel of every footy fan's repertoire. I'm sure if you talk to a Dees fan about yesterdays game, they will have their own examples of biased umpiring.
I would really like to see either a video referee, or an extra umpire on the field to help minimize these issues.
I also think that any half decent coaching panel would anticipate some dodgy calls, and hopefully take this into account when coaching / instructing players - how to set up, not dropping your head despite putting in hard work etc.
Problem being is that I only saw them make a couple of mistakes that favoured us (Rowe infringed in a marking contest deep in defense and Thomas was borderline infringing in a marking contest against Jack Watts resulting in a dropped mark) and I saw some inconsistent calls that lead directly to score involvements favouring the Dees in their offensive 50's whilst we sit there and get free kicks paid to us for infringing in a marking contest where we have held the mark because that levels the free kick count with no interference in play.
Now that I have mentioned that, because I certainly am not a "we woz robbed" brigade, good teams find a way to win in spite of inconsistent umpiring, but it doesnt mean that we can't complain about it when we notice it.
@LP I am 100% with you on the in the back decision against Thomas.
What kills me the most is how the commentary team are of the opinion that the umpires are stiffing our opponents for free kicks when they do finally pull them up, and they are pretty happy to point out our "skill errors" when the umpires stuff up and pay the free kick against us like when Thomas tackled Jetta.
Free kick counts, as with all stats, can at times be misleading.
We won the frees 25-12 against the Tiges.
Apart from a couple of things, I didn't think the umpiring was any worse than usual.
I think AFL footy is pretty difficult to umpire to be honest.
I know what you are saying, and I for one wasnt necessarily looking at the count, but there were plenty of occasions where I felt that we were given an infringement against, and then on the flipside they were quick to continue play moving against us.
As for the TIgers free kick count, best not to worry about it, as the person counting forked that up. I know that we were up by 2 free kicks at half or quarter time, was surprised by that stat, and then on the ensuing bounce a holding free kick went the Tigers way and ours increased.
I don't care about the count. The majority of them are fair enough, but I did see Levi push Max Gawn in a marking contest in our defensive half near our goal the free kick immediately paid, whilst Max Gawn went two hands into the back of Kreuzer in our defensive fifty resulting in a shot at goal for the Dees with play on being awarded.
I wasnt the only one who thought it, as a couple of my mates agreed with me via messenger.
At the end of the day, it wasnt the reason we lost. Poor execution was, but I feel as though we have to work really hard to earn a free kick when its there, and they are pretty quick to reward the opposition when its 50/50.
Very lopsided slant on performances today. Murphy runs his guts out and gets battered and gets crucified for a few turnovers, yet Pickett does one or two good things and he did OK? Give me a break, the reason that Murph and Gibbs are turning the ball over is fatigue and the young kids playing with them don't know how to make space. I saw Simmo on the back flank searching for a kicking target and all Pickett had to do was run to the boundary and he could put the ball out in front, yet he stood in the centre square. Over a quarter of the team have not played 10 games yet, that is why we lost not Murphy, Gibbs and Curnow.
With that behind me, I thought we played well today. We looked like an AFL team. Ball was switched, targets were hit, a definite defensive structure that only broke down a few times. Tackles were laid and our players stood up for each other. Loved Weitering coming in after Lewis slugged Cripps, closely followed by Wright and Silvagni. That's what build team spirit, you walk a bit taller knowing that you have mates that have your back.
White and Dennis are both on borrowed time, we just need someone to stand up and take their place from the VFL. We don't have a small defender on the list, Cam Poulson this is how you get a game, you ask to go to a back pocket, learn the game, use pace shot down the small forwards that we have struggled with for too long.
An improvement this week blue boys and a piss weak start
+1
Our biggest issue is the usual.
Too much left to too few, and a few players running round trying to get a kick who don't seem to know what they're doing.
add a sprinkle of over using the footy and it's an almost should have been a win.
I thought the umpires were giving Melbourne an armchair ride all day too.
