Binns is the surprise one for me having not got a game yet but coaches must know who's ready and who's not. Last year, Round 1, we threw both Holland and Cowan straight into it. Holland from memory has played nearly every game since. Cowan fell outta favour after half a dozen games or so but comes back in last week and looked like he's hardly missed a beat and was right up for the contest. I can see him as the long term replacement for someone like Newman....can play a shut-down role but still get a bit of the ball himself and with a bit of mongrel too.
Owies for mine is a bit maligned....went at 1.5 goals/game last year in his 18 games and not far off that average again this season. There's not many small forwards who get 20 odd possessions per week but it's hitting the scoreboard and the pressure applied when the ball hits the ground in the forward line....I think both Owies and Durdin are pretty good on that front.
Pinot....not sure they'll risk Cerra....only been a week and a bit since the hamstring strain even though it was a mild one. Love him back but the midfield can do this one without him IMO. Cincotta is the likely one in for Williams if he doesn't come up.
Didn't watch the VFL game but Moir amongst the goals. Having TDK forward probably makes it a bit harder for Moir given he's more of a mid-size/3rd tall.
Pretty much a full team effort across the board....with outstanding contributions from Cripps/Walsh.
The 1 ruck v 2 ruck debate has gone on before and probably will again, but I thought Pittonet was superb today and was okay last week first up too. His contested work yesterday was fantastic and it seemed to allow TDK a bit more freedom when he went on the ball or drifted forward.
Missing Doc, Saad and McGovern down back but the likes of Young and especially Kemp and Cowan stood up. With Saad out for 6 weeks, great opportunity for Cowan now....looks as tough as nails and doesn't shirk the contest.
Charlie frustrates and should've had at least 3 goals at half time and sometimes looks like he needs to work a lot harder....but seems to be able to hit the scoreboard nearly every week. Similarly, Harry was clunking big marks up on the wings, but couldn't hold the ones closer to goal....but turned it around too.
Elijah Hollands looks like he'll be a player for us. Goes in hard and just some untidy disposals let him down yesterday.
Then the unsung blokes like Cotters, Kennedy, Durdin, Owies etc who chipped in with goals and assists.
Really surprised we went in as favourites with the bookies but that's close to the best win under Voss IMO.......missing blokes like Doc, JSOS, Martin, Motlop, Saad, McGovern and Cerra....that's 7 blokes likely in the starting 23....as well as Marchbank and Cunningham. What it shows is that we finally have some depth.
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.
