Re: JLT Round 1 - Blues v Hird's Old Crew (this Thursday, Princes Park)
Reply #159 –
I enjoyed going to the game last night, it's always a joy to win against the Bummers!
Thoughts on the game....
Gibbo is a lock for a small forward role, he showed his class last night, I would like to have seen him play more midfield minutes, but alas. His greatest weakness is probably penetration in his kicking, but as long as he plays within his limitations, he will do just fine.
McGovern looked good, he got on the lead or at least lost his man a couple of times to take a mark and get a shot on goal.
H and Charlie both seemed too content to sit in the goal square and let the mids bomb it long to the top of the square. Ok we did score quite a few crumbing goals from this, but I would prefer to see more movement and creativity in our forward movement and leading patterns.
Newman was solid, dependable and exactly what he needs to be in his role down back. Nothing flashy, but he wins his contests and plays his role. He doesn't have Docherty's quality, but I would consider him a competent replacement.
Settters seemed to have a quiet 1st half, at least I didn't notice him too much, but he seemed to work his way into the game from then on. To be expected for someone who has been out of the game for as long as he has I guess. He showed some class and skills and did enough in the end to encourage me that he will be a good addition to our midfield.
Schuey I didn't see until about 2 minutes before the final siren, so can't really comment. His stats read 2 tackles which might say something about his intent for the short time he was on the ground.
Walsh. Believe the hype, all of it. I could not have been more impressed, he was in everything, backing into packs, making 2nd and 3rd efforts when team mates were just ball gazing. Phenomenal game for a 1st year player. Very excited.
Sammo has stepped up. He probably needed to, but IMO he has, or did last night anyhow, he looked good, got involved and used the ball well.
Dow, a year below Fisher and Sammo and looked a step below them last night too, which is more observation than a criticism. I was impressed that every time it was his time to 'go' he did, and more often than not got the ball and did something constructive with it. I didn't notice any 'wow' moments, but that's ok by me.
Phillips was probably the standout tall player on the ground, dominated the 2nd qtr and made solid contributions in the other 3 with some great marks around the ground.
I thought Daisy was the best of our older guys.
Without looking at the stats, the ball seemed to spend a lot more time in our forward half than it did theirs, so we won that battle. When they did get the ball out it was out the front of a contest and then on a fast break. We had no answer when this happened. Over all though our defense was much better than anything seen last year, but our ball movement seemed a bit scratchy at times, so plenty of things still to work on !!
A fairly high scoring game, Im sure the AFL will be happy about that, although the new rules didn't make any obvious differences to me, which is probably a good thing.
I asked an Essendon supporter sitting next to me how many they had out from their best 22? He counted 4, I counted 4 for us as well, so no excuses for either side there.
Topic: JLT Round 1 - Blues v Hird's Old Crew (this Thursday, Princes Park) (Read 30638 times)
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