Welcome to the âyou slack â â â â â â â , the game finished Saturday and youâre only submitting a report on Tuesdayâ VFL review.
**McNiece** â Actually saw his number a few times â neat foot skills, other than that as I still canât readily identify him through the binoculars when he is facing me, so Iâll leave that to those better versed in all things McNiece.
Morgan â Can identify him now, but didnât notice him that much. May make a deliberate effort to focus on him next game.
Francis â As others have mentioned, just tried to do WAY too much â dancing around players is great but when youâve gotten a bit of space, best to give it off rather than attempting to dance around even more guys and get pinned. Was visibly severely frustrated at his own screw ups, so Iâd back him in for a much improved game next week.
Redman â Unsighted by me at least, until he moved back. Showed a bit of composure in that role, which was encouraging.
Merrett â Backline. Will pay a bit more attention to what he is doing defensively next game I go to, but there was nothing overtly terrible. In a team with limited speed and vastly average foot skills, he offers a point of difference as he can break the lines and can kick.
Nick Hind â Kept a close eye on Hind after the state squad nomination. BOG to half time for me personally, 2nd best for the game. Half back for the first half and played an AFL standard game. Good foot skills, isnât one paced and had plenty of composure to work through things if no options or poor options were prevalent. As mentioned by chris_64 he also turned out a highlight reel piece of play by baulking an opponent then hitting his target by foot. Second half, he was switched to playing as an inside mid largely, and I didnât think he was as influential, though he had a few instances of reading taps correctly and using his pace to get sufficient space between his opponent to easily assess the options and hit a forward.
Clarke â Not a great game. In that odd situation of being a specialist inside mid who barely got any inside mid time, as theyâre attempting to add some versatility by playing him as a forward flanker. On a couple of occasions, he ended up being the last kick into the 50 after taking a mark or getting a free, surprisingly nobody was around to call for the handball on either occasion, after turning over one by trying to pinpoint a target, he worked through things by just setting the ball up long âprobably where he is going to be until the end of the year at least, sticking to the basics rather than trying anything overly precise by foot. His handballing which usually I find to be very clean, wasnât to his usual standard. Will be a learning season for him, whilst he tries to adapts to different roles â I certainly donât expect him to be near senior selection this season barring injuries.
Long â Wasnât overly noticeable, which for a player with his attributes he needs to be. Year 3 on the rookie list, so time is running out.
T-Bell â OK. Personally Iâve seen him as a forward-ruck rather than the number one guy, so Draperâs game may help bring the best out of him. I wouldnât be overly exuberant about his 3 goals as they all came after Geelong decided to experiment in the last term by switching their key defender Gardner and Timm House, who hasnât played back before at VFL levelâŚT-Bell was a big fan of that switchâŚstill any confidence he can get as a forward is handy.
Draper â 3rd best. So this is where Iâll be potentially controversial and differ from the other reviewers, as whilst I thought he was very good, Iâm not basking in a Draper afterglow like the others. I donât rate Ryan Abbott as a ruck and Wylie Buzza is a tall guy who just pinch hits because he is tall, so there is that. He won plenty of hit-outsâŚmaybe it was because I was sitting in a different stand and had a different angle on thingsâŚbut either way, whilst we won plenty of clearances when he was rucking and he dominated the hit-outs, I just didnât think he was this hit-out to advantage beast that he is being exalted as - that said he did have some impressive taps in there, Iâd just dispute the 75% numbers DJR is tossing around. I was impressed by his contested marking around the ground, which I hope to see more of. Will face a much different prospect next week against Coburgâs Tom Goodwin, a tough, ultra-aggressive ruck who loves throwing his weight around.
Bird â BOG. Very surprised he didnât play in Perth with Jobe missing and Myers for some reason largely playing as a back.
Stanton â Average. Worked his way into the game, but if he is anywhere near selection, it is more because of who he is than how he played.
Alex Marklew â First half he played down back, second half he was up forward. Looked nervous down back and his decision making and foot skills were on the average side, however he looked much better up forward.
Alex Boyse â Want to see more of him to see whether he has more tricks, but there might be something there â he is a very good overhead mark
James Ferry â Pushed around by Aaron Black in the first, but fared much better against Buzza. Hard one to assess as he is that in between size (who is forced to play taller) and has the history of knee issues. Reads the play well, finds plenty of it and generally disposes it OK. A solid presence down back who wasnât overly tested in this game.
Hocking/Howlett â Didnât think either noticeably pushed their cases for selection.
Gleeson â Wasnât looking too hard at the defensive stuff today, but his kicking needs work. Too often he was either directly turning the ball over or kicking to the advantage of the Geelong player than our player.
Begley/Langford â Outside of thinking Langford could be a bit more defensively minded when the opponent he was standing next to at clearances (Lang) had just made the play, which led to him doing it again the very next occasion, I didnât have anything positive or negative jotted down for either player. Youâd love for Langford to play with even half of Francisâs intensity though.
