Kinda wish you could morph Draper and Wright into one.
Draper has that dog in him, he got crunched and then the next kick in he made the big contest that Kako crumbed, he just wanted to crash that pack.
You just don’t see Wright do that.
If Draper had Wrights surety in kicking he be a freak.
Lots to like, plenty of mistakes of course it’s early in the season. It also looked like it got very slick out there after the sun set- Geelong were just as untidy at times handling and kicking the ball.
Aside from the obvious 7 goals from our teenage duo, was really happy with Nick Bryan and Andy McGrath’s game (I know they both had a couple of clangers too).
As a Leicester supporter, I really needed this.
And geelong fans will be putrid!
How good was Reid.
He’s really agile and a great kick. As well as being really tall. Incredible.
As long as one of them isnt Bryan
Why? Bryan was terrific.
What the hell?
Tsatas’ clean hands superb. Night and day compared to Shiel’s fumblitis
Hobbs gave us the full rollercoaster treatment tonight
Kako, wow
I think the play of the night was Draper jumping across the three Geelong defenders in front of him waiting to mark, getting the punch in and Kako is in the classical roving position, front of pack, collects and snaps the goal.
The desire by Drapes to impact the play was phenomenal.
That was very enjoyable.
We do not look anything like a bottom 4 side.
I thought ours was a very even team performance - dominating Q4 basically without Merrett playing in the middle - whilst Geelong’s game seemed still to revolve around Dangerfield and Cameron. Then throwing Stewart and Mitch Duncan into the middle.
Players seemed to understand their roles better and Jones has learned how to play the wing and dominated and probably was our best 4 quarter player.
Ditto Tsatas with 31 possessions and 10 clearances.
Great, even spread of goal kickers tonight is a good sign that we will have teams second guessing just who to focus on to stop.
Things to improve: too many easy turnovers, allowed the Cats too many centre clearance goals in Q2…like what happened late last year.
Votes - hard to give due to players being rotated.
3. Jones
2. Tsatas
1 Kako - he is going to immediately draw the oppositions’ best, small defender and this will allow Gresham to impact the game more.
Special mentions for Draper who was immense, Bryan (great Q4), Merrett and Martin early, Perkins in the first half and Caddy for his accurate goal kicking. Also thought Archie Roberts played a good game with Ridley and Reid getting better as the game went on.
If we can maintain the intensity, focus and pressure of tonight, we will be a difficult team to beat - and I haven’t thought that about an Essendon side in a long time.
We beat geelong. Great, but we beat them at the farking cattery with half the ground stuffed with geelong supporters. I love that
I’ve seen enough, love this young side.
Marto, Tsatas, Caddy, Kako, Duz are bringing us to that flag
And we won the Reserves too!!
Round one revision edit forgot Martin and Edwards
B - McGrath McKay Reid
HB - Redman Ridley Prior
C - Duursma Tsatas Jones
HF Perkins Caddy Martin
F - Kako Draper Langford
Foll - Bryan Merrett Caldwell
INT Durham Shiel Gresham Hobbs. Sub Roberts
Emerg. Setterfield El-Hawli Edwards Hayes
I actually thought Edwards was more impactful than Langford or Caddy. Between that and his quarter in the VFL, he may be giving some selection headaches.
Had that been round 0 would Kako have 3 Brownlow votes?
No.
Its a midfielders medal
Missed Martin
I would do Martin for Hobbs yesterday but after today, Hobbs plays