21st vs 19th, so we're not out of it.
However, having lost to Preston last week bodes poorly.
I doubt many of our emergencies will play, which is most of the talent we have available.
they'll fare better without our pretenders.
Would expect we might hold Marchbank out as we need height cover if someone does an injury in the warm-up or the like and we aren't overtall anyway. But unless there are injury queries I don't know about why we would rest any more? Maybe Binns could do with a rest at some stage but Motlop and little Durds need game time.
Our line-up. Note the number of Emergencies.
B: [38] Sam Durdin, [22] Caleb Marchbank, [33] Lewis Young
HB: [35] Billy Wilson, [41] Domanic Akuei, [55] Lachlan Young
C: [43] Ashton Moir, [25] Jaxon Binns, [50] Zavier Maher
HF: [80] Bailey Lambert, [34] Rob Monahan, [3] Jesse Motlop
F: [52] Liam McMahon, [31] Harry Lemmey, [54] Ned Cahill
R: [45] Alex Mirkov, [71] Cooper Lord, [51] Heath Ramshaw
Int: [74] Logan Prout, [77] Will White, [57] Luke Nelson, [63] Kristian Ferronato, [58] Michael Lewis, [64] Archie Stevens, [70] Darcy Hogg
Em: [69] Hugo Nosiara, [62] Hayden Gill, [75] Oliver Poole, [66] Luca Goonan, [60] Blake Kuipers
Interesting to see that Lord has guernsey 71: not what I expected.
[1] Our defence looks large and unwieldy. Not sure I like it. Now Marchbank might be held over, but...
[2] I would be interested to see Hugo Nosiara in action. He is supposed to be a decent talent. I like what I've seen of Poole as well, although his 2nd game was nowhere near as prolific as his 1st was. Also interested to see Ferronato.
[3] I was impressed with the Drug Cheats' Bryan a while back. He seems to have gone backwards, but I'd still expect him to beat Mirkov, who has also gone backwards.
VFL game is live on 7, about to start.
Was the lawn bowls always next to windy Hill?
All 3 emergencies are playing....... let's hope we don't have a warm up casualty.
What's happened to Cooper Lord?
20 minutes in and akuei has been moved into the ruck. Good move he isn't a good defender.
Our afl types are very peripheral though.
Different to last week. We gave up the first 2 then kicked the next 6.
Some of our much maligned are contributing ;)
We seemed to be aimlessly chook running at the start and then lifted our intensity at the ball and man and have reaped the rewards.
Pricks are going after Mots
Motlop looks lively.
Mots certainly busier this week. Binns busy as usual, Wilson developing nicely. Liked Lemmey's first quarter. 44-14 at QT a fair indication.
Binns finishing at half time and then doing yo the MCG lol
Motlop doing his chances of an AFL recall no harm. Being playing on ball.
All.that being said essendons vfl team have been smashed last two weeks. Lost by 82 points against box hill last week.
Will White has been very impressive.
Ferronato had a good first quarter but faded like most in this one. Anyone there know if it's breezy? Looks like it might favour left of screen.
Bombers smashing us now.
4 goals in 7 minutes
5 in 9 minutes
Diabolical >:(
Another one. Bombers in front
Good to see the commentators are using common sense, which is the opposite of what AFL says.
Lemmey got a free kick despite sliding into his opponent....simply because he hurt himself.
We'll take it, but by AFL rules, its wrong.
Nige stood up to help us steady.
Yep
Under the rules it probably should have gone the other way...I thought it would and was surprised when it went our way.
HT 75-40 but momentum keeps swinging. Motlop much more involved this week, looking like a player who wants a senior gig. Lewis Young playing much better, as he should. Likewise Marchbank and Big Durds looking solid down back. Binns again very busy, but getting benched for the second half to be an emergency for the firsts so we wont see him again for the match.
95-83 at 3QT. Blown off the park for the first half of that quarter but managed to steady after that burst. Game could go either way. Good sized melee at the 3QT siren. No-one really impressed that quarter, our best AFL boys still Mots and Wilson given Binns taken out of the game. Couldn't imagine anyone else pressing for the seniors.
Nigel Carmody should be calling AFL matches.
McMahon is a class above most on whats on display for us today, nice kick and mark just needs a few more kgs and seems a a reasonably intelligent kid going by his interview as well.
Yep. One of the best callers over the past 20 years.
EB....what sort of height is McMahon? Would he be a third tall option?
Surfie ,198cm.....more of a key position type, I like he can play both ends and has some X factor.
Wow. I wonder if we were close to choosing him in the MSD instead of another outside/mid sort. I guess he'd always be playing VFL unless one of Harry or Charlie went down with an injury.
And there goes the lead. Bombers want it more, we have stopped to a walk.
Yep. They're pumped. Motivated.
Apparently the Daniher boys were down at Windy Hill during the week pumping up the Magoos and seniors for today's clashes, as part of the MND publicity for Neil. They'll come out breathing fire tonight... hope we're ready.
Disappointed not to see Cooper Lord get a gig for today's Magoos.
Our "kids" aren't very good at all.
Terrible 3rd and 4th qtrs
They can have that one, as long as we win tonights one.
Lord was tired from training and held back...
So why the fark did we pick up a bloke in the mid season draft who is "tired".
Yes, I would have thought the mid-season draft should be a ready to go type, not long term project.
If they want to be drafted and need to get fit, let them do that before being drafted!
I guess he was a bit sore and maybe not used to the heavier workload, has been carrying an injury I believe so maybe that flared up.
When you give up a 41 pt lead in slippery conditions something went terribly wrong. Horrible 2nd half.
Who won?
We were panic merchants, basically giving them 4 goals in the last half with very basic skill errors.
CheatsFC by a few points, a 40+ point turnaround.
Cheers. I left with 10 minutes to go. Train is full of bomber fans.
Whilst I do believe your VFL and AFL teams have to both be strong to win flags, Ill almost cop the twos losing If I see something from the "kids". Forget the older blokes in the 2s, the likes for Marchbank and Young are finished. Its the likes of Wilson, Moir, Lemmey, Binns dont stack up against "kids" I see playing for other teams. Lets be honest, Binns is potentially an emergency tonight because he's the best of a very ordinary lot. Motlop seemed disinterested in the bits of the 3rd and 4th qtrs I saw.
Missed the run and linking up of Binns in the 2nd half?
Mirkov was very ordinary after half time and I thought Young was better value in the ruck, cant see him staying on the list. Woeful kicking error in the last quarter too. Our midfield stocks in the VFL are very ordinary and we dont have much to work with and Carroll was missed as was Binns when he was taken off to be an emergency for the senior game.
A player who impressed me other than the obvious like McMahon was Lewis down back...seen him a couple of times now and he makes good decisions and is very safe with what he does.
Moir was terrible, Motlop started well but faded, Marchbank did some ok things at times but also was exposed by Nate Caddy who kicked three on him and I cant see a future for Marchbank in the seniors.
Our deepest sympathy to you... don't make eye contact with any of them... and don't trip on any syringes on the train floor.
Can anyone help me understand why a 12 foot tall bloke chooses to try and grapple his opponent ?
Mirkov spends most of his time looking at the opposition ruck at centre bounces.
Lack of confidence....like to see Mirkov get angry for once, crash some bodies and impose himself. One of the commentators described him as a "telegraph pole" who telegraphed where he was going to kick the ball and had it picked off.
You couldnt pick him at senior level even as a fill in....
Reminds me of Robbie Warnock.
How many close ones have we blown now this year.
All of them.
Just no depth or leadership (ie experienced senior players).
Confidence pretty low too.
Yes. They've just removed the wall that used to hide it. Shocking ground.
Wanock had a lot more idea than Mirkov does.
I was really bullish about him a few years back, but he has gone backwards in a lot of ways. I can't see us keeping him on the way he plays now.
I know he had time out with a serious health issue, but his game awareness is zero.
I suspect, as Curley's boy mentioned, that we recruited Cooper with a more long-term view. So the high-performance team probably want to put a block of training into him before giving him a gig in the Magoos.
A shocking mistake from Akuei at the start for a gifted goal from them, but after that, he showed some things in defence and the ruck, particularly in the air. He looked alright in this game.
Agree, he played the best game I have seen from him and appeared to have more idea on what he was doing.
Agree he is still a teenager has plenty of time - needs to be indoctrinated with a training block
All credit to him. When I saw that start, I thought, no more man, this guy is gone, gone, gone at the end of the year. Good on him for bouncing back like that. There are a few question marks around his position. He's clearly got some way to go and lots have doubts on him, but he does have some other guys he's competing with who also have some question marks about their future too.
Maybe training standards aren't what they should be where he was so Cooper has a bit of ground to make up?
Was carrying an injury and moving between U18s and VFL so maybe got sore from the workload after a week with senior training..
Watched the game on TV. Just a couple of observations. Mirkov needs to get stronger. He got pushed off the contest too easily. Not sure if his illness and injury has stunted his development. I have noticed people critising Akuei and Lemmey but I thought they both showed why they are on the list. I liked Lemmey's 60 meter barrels. Not sure there is much future in big Durds. Not sure there is much future in Mirkov. Marchbank, Cuningham and Martin need to get on the park.
We need to stop wasting list spots on 'developing ruckman', and go and recruit them when we need them. Scour the national leagues, find the best available we think can offer a bit (play back, forward and Ruck), then recruit them in to try to force out Pittonet. If they can't then we either delist and go again, or if they show they are capable, then they stay as the understudy.
This game showed that Mirkov and Akuei have had 4+ years of developing and have developed into average VFL footballers at best.
Time to move both on and find someone who may actually play a game of AFL footy one day.
I thought the mid season draft is about picking players up for the now and given our injury list, we could have did a lot better than a boy who is tired. Thats a fail for mine, especially if we get another injury or two.
Mick Agresta said we were picking with the future in mind. Lord was close but overlooked in the draft and obviously a player we had on our list of potential draftees..
Which is smart recruiting.......until you see the position he plays and that its not a position of need at all.
With our draft capital in this years draft largely going to be taken up by the campo twins, it makes you wonder when we will get some kind of tall timber onto the list. Only been asking for it for about over half a decade now...
So long as we get some talls in the next couple of seasons the timing should be fine.
The bulldogs have a bit of an embarrassment of riches down forward and whilst I can fathom more talls equals better trade deals the ability to keep them all happy and playing can be a problem.
No, Agresta made it very clear that our MSD pick would be a long term prospect.
It’s interesting that Lord was ‘sore’ after one week of AFL level training, particularly since we wouldn’t be working our butts off at this stage of the season.
Learnings from that: Our AFL-listed players should dominate when they play VFL.
If you do a comparison, we have slightly more talls than some teams and slightly less than some other teams. Where we are in better shape than many is that we have injury cover talls and developing talls and no real angst from talls who think they should be getting games.
We should definitely be looking to refresh our talls at the end of the season given that Mirkov and Akuei probably won’t work out. Of course, we will get Silvagni back and Duffy should take up his rookie spot but another developing tall and a mature injury cover tall would be good.
Warnock generally played his best footy in September. He was lucky enough to play when we were playing finals in our 20 years of dark days.
Mirkov is miles off, he's not even in the debate at this stage, if Pitto isn't an AFL in after the bye, Mirkov might not even be playing VFL!
An important distinction LP. Not many afl quality rucks are going to be happy plodding around the vfl, and even less of them are going to be happy being no 2 in the vfl which might see akuei or mirkov get another 12 months in the role. All depends on the youngsters keefe and lemmey. I don't think lemmey is a ruck.
I watched Collingwood v Melbourne and it is interesting that Collingwood key forwards were Frampton and Kreuger. Both of these guys have been around for a long time. I am not much of a rap for Frampton but he is a Premiership player. Big guys often take a long time to develop and if you don't invest in people you will never get a return. I am not sure about Mirkov and maybe injury and illness has affected his development, only those at the Club will know. Akuei is a project player and he is on the Rookie B list so he is not clogging the list. He runs, jumps, kicks, contest and can mark, but whether he can play football is another question.
i seem to remember they used to carry a fair bit of weight. CheatsFC couldnt do anything without the Bowls Club ticking it off - some weird thing in their constitution/lease agreement that the Bowls Club and the Footy Club were equal tenants of the whole joint. It was one of the reasons the footy club moved out
Yes, I think you are correct.
Was Diesel somehow involved in some of the controversy back when he lived overlooking the ground?
Akuei isn't taking up a list spot so to speak, but he is taking the spot of a player who could be learning the same role who may actually have a hope of fulfilling it at AFL level, because he doesn't look likely.
2 points on the above.
1. It should not be underestimated the ability to keep 2nd fiddle players happy being on your list despite not playing AFL footy. Anyone with too much talent usually finds a team that needs them.
2. I disagree about our 'talent' in covering injuries. Lewis Young has all the attributes to be a standout player in the AFL, yet isn't. Call it a lack of confidence, a lack of heart, i don't know, but he is a break glass in case of emergency player rather than a capable AFL player. Then we've got Durdin. We've had emergencies and we still haven't got that desperate to play him. He is the size/shape that should be holding down FB/CHB for us but is kicking the dew off the grass in the 'burbs instead. He has played 4 games since 2019....and 3 of them were for North during 2020. Throw in Akuei who is a monty to be delisted IMO and who are we left with? An undersized Marchbank who is about 50-50 at best to be on our list next year and thats about it.
There exists a very real scenario in which 3 of those 4 are not on our list next year. The only thing that saves young is we gave him a long contract until the end of 2026.
Not saying whether we should or shouldn't, but can Mirkov be moved into the Cat B position to give us one more year to look at Lemmey and O'Keefe?
At this stage I can't see Akuei making it, hope he proves me wrong, and we have only Pitto and TDK as viable ruck options and I think we need one of O'Keefe, Lemmey or Mirkov to step up.
We picked Mirkov up from the VFL which basically makes him ineligible for Cat b rookie status right there. So no.
He needs to have not played footy at a high level prior to drafting.
Fair enough, if there was some loophole or appeals process it would be worth a crack.
As an aside I've heard we have an eye on yet another basketballer, apparently some kid who played footy into his teens then switched to basketball after a growth spurt, but I don't have any details yet. Probably should have posted that in Navy Andrew.
Akuei might get another year on the back of Mac Andrew having a break out year for Gold Coast and being seen as similar type of player and just needing perseverance and more responsibility like Andrew has been given.
I think we've exhausted all loopholes in that regard.
TBH, he's been on our rookie list for 3.5 years now, i know they've altered some of those rules in the new CBA which i'm not entirely across but 3 years on a rookie list was the maximum allowable at one stage. To help turnover of players. So he not be elligible to stay on as a rookie at all past this year.
Sounds like another Owies......without the growth spurt.
The kid is apparently Nic Nat size, fast in a straight line, strongly built but like Darcy at Freo hadn't respected the fitness part of sport until now as he gets that maturity.
Coming out of COVID has become a bit addicted to running, no longer on a list anywhere, was working on a farm, now working as a labourer / plasterer, doesn't need stilts!
I like the idea of a tradie getting a 2nd shot, bit like Sam Rowe, they can come in with a hardened edge.
That maybe true, but Mac Andrew probably has a good 8 CM's on Akui, and also seems to have some idea about how to play footy.
Agree on the height difference helping Andrew but I thought Akuei showed for the first time to me anyway that he had learned a bit more about the game and he showed a bit more nous. Not saying he will make it as a senior footballer but he might get another season to see if he can make a big leap forward like Andrew has.
I would be playing Akuei on a wing too :)
It's hard to know whether he's worth persevering with. It's his third year as a Cat B rookie and I believe that's the limit. A fourth year was brought in to compensate for the missed COVID season but I think that won't apply to Dom.