BOG yesterday for mine. Great to see a young man stand up in a hot final, massive fan of this kid has some genuine poise, reads the play well and is a lovely kick. Also seems to have the ability to play on a range of ‘types’, which is very important. It’s going to be exciting to see him Redman and Francis play plenty of football next year.
8 Likes
Ridley and Francis are going to be so valuable back there.
Francis is the bigger name, so he’ll cop a lot more attention. But Ridley will continue to go under the radar. both similar types of players. Both peel off their opponent to intercept mark. Both elite users of the footy.
Our backline has a seriously good future. Then add Zerk-Thatcher when he has added a few kg. Who is also in a similar mould.
So exciting!
2 Likes
Ridley’s kicking is elite. A backline of: Saad, Hurley, McKenna, Hooker, Gleeson, Ridley, Redman looks pretty good.
1 Like
No Francis 
1 Like
Loved seeing him briefly up around the wing at times,competing with opposition mids and just being too tall,with great agility…The size and strength will come.
Bodes well for my hope he can become a wingman and allow our forwards to benefit from his great disposal.
2 Likes
He would be Perfect as a tall winger.
2 Likes
Just looks classy, looking forward to seeing him with another preseason under the belt.
Could be anything at this stage.
sorry - forgot him.
1 Like
I can hear it already.
Bruce
“Geeeeeee Ridley looks a kid. He’s a rangey type, we like him don’t we?.?.?.?”
“Yeah Bruce he’s a ripper, love the way he reads the ball through the air” Ling said
Meanwhile off air both blow themselves …
1 Like
I must be the only one that likes Bruce Macca- a legit footy nerd who genuinely knows who all the players are.
7 Likes
He has seen better days as far as his Footy calling goes, he spends to much time inflating the egos of ‘stars’
I’d prefer if they allowed BT to swear like a sailor, and cannoned everybody else into the pits of hell
1 Like
He’s a terrible caller now. I’m not sure he actually watches the game now, because like you say, he’s too busy crapping on about the stars or their flavour of the night. It’s amazing how many times a player kicks or handballs and he calls it a good kick or handball well before it gets to its target, then it’s intercepted.
2 Likes
It’s grating when he misses a good bit of play by an unknown because he is too busy fellating someone else
5 Likes
Not the only one. He can be annoying with certain players, but he’ll destroy a few pairs of reg grundies on a few of our players over the next year or three.
That’s not because he’s become a bad caller it’s more channel 7 has changed how they want to commentate. It’s a conversation for the entire game. The special comments are not even based on statistics.
7 Likes
I don’t mind him, but I get why he can be very annoying. I don’t question his passion and knowledge. He is a true professional.
But with time he has become a caricature of himself and he is in 100% Bruce-mode all the time. If he toned down the Bruce-isms by half he’ll still be Bruce.
And I prefer my commentators to commentate. Hate the blokey banter.
5 Likes
I’m with you. He’s good background noise, crowd like ambience, at the very least. Mostly just calls the play and at least gets the names right.
Couldn’t care less about the actual opinions of the commentators, they’re either wrong or late, and BT is the biggest dead ■■■■ of the lot.
1 Like
To be fair Bruce is better than either Basil or Hamish, by a considerable margin
1 Like
Yeh it’s a bit of the boy who cried wolf idiom, leave your “specials” for the players who’ve had outstanding seasons or games or it loses its value.
If I had my way I’d have a heavy analytical special comments man. Wait until the boundary commentators have facts, no point guessing an injury. Commentate siren to siren and leave the conversations for breaks in play or during quarter breaks.
They don’t plan well enough pre, post game and during the breaks to say what they want to say about certain players or how the season is going, let’s see how it develops, it out of their control. They get stuck on moments, in the old days if a bad call was made they just moved on after one or to funny snarky comments. No one wants to hear the same opinion 5 times. People I watch with always say the obvious before commentators do because it’s that obvious, they don’t need to comment on that.
1 Like
It’s concerning that even after a bottle of red, I’m still more observant than the channel 7 commentary team and more coherent than Ling
7 Likes