We open the season with a night game at Ikon Park. The game is set to start at 1905.
Very interesting to see who plays.
Is it on the telly?
All VFL games are supposed to be streamed. Fingers crossed... looking forward to watching this one this evening.
Stream your team: Watch VFL and VFLW games LIVE and FREE - https://www.afl.com.au/news/887080
Enjoy.
Go Blues
Thank you, LN. Champ. Go Blues.
Silvagni (Ben) playing for Collingoods VFL side this weekend
Anyone finding the broadcast unwatchable?
Unwatchable, stream stops and starts for me
Yep. I did a Speedtest and I'm at 100/40 so should be fine at my end
Ok just wanted to be sure it wasn't from my end.
Likewise at this end. Thought it was my computer. Stops, starts... all over the shop. Yep, unwatchable. Amateur hour stuff.
My telecast is pretty smooth and uninterrupted. Mostly dismal football in the first q, a bit of a surge late. Dow sticks out like dog's balls at this level. There's enough AFL names on our list to be doing a lot better than that.
Looks like it's okay now...
Looking through the stats to half time and they're pretty even, except for free kicks... 17 Pussycats, 6 Us.
Pussycats by 22 pts at half time.
Good to see Paddy D giving off more handballs bringing team mates into the game. He's a standout, as Pauly said... like dogs knackers.
Pussycats all over us though and should be further ahead.
Of the AFL listed lads... only Dow and LOB standing out. Sluggish effort to half time, punctuated by ordinary disposal.
I tried those links and only get the match centre (no streaming).
Oops! My screen was not showing the far left hand side (which has the icon). I resized and can see it now.
Boy that was a poor attempt at tackling Ollie Dempsey.
Classy finish by Crock
Excellent dribbling goal from Crocker, he has some talent at VFL level.
Plowman unlucky, I thought that was a solid tackle.
Lemmey at 'em! Good goal.
Great set shot by young Lemmy 50m out tight angle.
Got some serious concerns with this umpiring. That 50 against Plow, who's on the mark remonstrating with another Pussycats player who shouldn't even be there on the mark with him, and Plow cops a 50! Appalling decision.
Free kicks 24 to 8, Pussycats way. All other stats are reasonably even!
3/4 time. Us 7.8.50 to Pussycats 11.10.76.
Xavier Maher nice goal.
Hudson O'Keeffe! Play him at full forward!
Smart play there, great setup and good finish to Ben Ronke.
Mm... interesting, we've put the foot to the floor... 13 minute mark of the final qtr and we're down by 9pts! Go Blues.
20 minute mark... Pussycats by 10pts.
So many chances in the finals qtr, but poor disposal and chronic 'being where the ball aint' stuff.
Late final qtr, Pussycats by 16 - the eventual winning margin.
Forward line poor... no cohesion, little footy smarts, forwards playing from behind... very disappointing. The ease at which the Pussycat defenders intercepted, spoiled and waltzed out of defence was embarrassing.
An inglorious start to the season for us. Rucks and forwards need much attention. Good night, Gracie.
Yep, Cats flooded back well. No smarts going inside 50.
Final Siren.
Geelong 12.13.85
Carlton 10.9.69
Dow's had 30...22 of them handballs.
Dow was seriously good
Chris Judd in VFL and Jack Spud in AFL - why the huge gap in output?
Carroll was good I thought - his toughness and decision making is excellent.
Jaxon Binns showed alot
The dynasty teams of recent times tend to do well at VFL level as well as the seniors. Plenty of improvement left for us at both levels IMO, but certainly the VFL quality needs a fair bit of work IMO.
Watched most of the game online.
Cats kicked 5.3 before we had barely got the ball into F50, and the margin stayed in the 20s until the last quarter.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was similar last week against the Tiggers where we were a long way behind at the start. I think there's a focus point during training next week - switch on from the first bounce!
Dow is too good for VFL.
Lemmey looks a prospect and I like Cincottas defensive work and how he shepherds for teammates and does the 1% ers.
Dow got plenty of ball but is still playing U18 footy ie doesn't do enough when he hasn't got the ball and disappears when the other team have momentum.
I dont see Dow as a Judd type player who will pick a team up and carry it on his shoulders. I do see him however as a very good soldier with enough grunt, not super pretty but good enough. Again, like the question I posed earlier, who would he, along with Walsh and George, displace?
Especially with Edward C showing he can fill the breach in their absence.
Dom Akuei (shakes his head at the possibilities of what might be, but probably never will) ::)
Mark of the year one minute and easy fumble in the backline shortly after.
Dow was good from what I could see.
He wasn't on his pat malone when it came to hunting the man after the footy.
Considering who we played, I think we should have done better. We have a very young list, but this is about as good as gets for us.
Look at the Nth game last week and Uniacke Davies who was Dows main rival at U18 level.....had a similar struggling start to his career and looked like a dud waiting for the axe to fall but is now playing like a senior footballer unlike Dow who is still delivering U18's football output.
32 possessions last week, 19 contested, 5 tackles and looks like a senior player who is no longer a kid but has taken on the responsibility of being a leader in Norths midfield and can be trusted to perform.
Unfortunately Paddy is still doing what he did in the U18s and hasnt progressed his game, I thought Greg Williams was harsh but fair in his comments a while back and Paddy has to grow up and get more intense about his footy, learn that playing onball also includes finding your way down to the backline and keeping an eye on your opponent because his average ball use doesnt allow him a free pass in terms of being a one way runner only and he has to make up for those shortcomings by working as a two way player as he isnt good enough to live purely off his offensive work.
Yep. I actually don't think he's a midfielder, more a high half-forward though minding his opponent would be a challenge! Maybe backline... he'll learn hardness there (with some other side!).
Just keep Dow in our VFL set up just like we did with Parks whats it going to hurt? No club is going to pick him up he is going to be dominating the VFL next 10 years
Can he do that in the AFL though?
Could you imagine last Thursday night if Owies, Motlop, Fisher, Durdin didn't chase?
There was a VFL game last year that Dow spent the game chasing and tackling, the difference was extraordinary, but it was only one game and normal service returned.
I remember that game too. And only punctuates the frustration the club must have with the lad.
The ability is there, it's how to motivate and develop these other important aspects of the game, into
his game! The other night we did see him endeavour to bring team mates into the game with plenty of deft handballs... perhaps that's the first step that Luke is working on with him. I hope, for Paddy's sake, he can develop more strings to his bow during this season... but he got to want to, to take more risks with doing things differently and break out of narrow habits.