The only thing that matters to me is,
Hurley, JoeDan, Heppell, Merret, Parish, Raz and McG screams premiership core! It’s just about fitting the pieces around them. Not set on who it is we fit around them, but going to be exciting when it clicks into place. Lid off!
No injuries and hopefully Hep cleared the worst of that rust off.
Meh, it was ok, should have won it with the team we had v the team they had, but it matters very little.It was just great to see Jobe, Heppell, Hurley Colyer, Howlett and Myers back out there. Plenty of rust tonight, as expected.
Some thoughts:
If we play (and heaven forbid, win some) finals this year, it won’t be because of the returning 12. It will be because our young kids have gone another level.
Orazio is my favourite player by so far…
Not panicking at all, but Bags not only looked scratchy, he looked slow.
Mckernan is far too useful to this side to be on a rookie list.
We need some pace off half back, and we have too many small forwards. Hmm, I’m coming around to Wim’s way of thinking about Tippa.
hard to tell how the forward line looks without either of the two big guys, but geez our small guys look very dangerous.
Really, with our full midfield squad there, and Collingwood missing Pendles, Treloar etc, we shouldn’t have been so smashed in the middle.
Happy overall though, great to see some footy.
Great post, didn’t need to do a detailed summary as you pretty much nailed it. Agree on all points.
First preseason game ffs. Put the razor blades away.
No injuries, game time into key players who havent played for 18 months, a few moments of cohesive movement and running patterns. February 16th. Job done.
Footy’s back.
Shhhh, don’t talk about it.
1st quarter impressions.Heppell and Colyer are really off the pace.
Zerrett is a gun.
McGrath is short. And remarkably clean under pressure.
Parish’s delivery to Langford, oh my.
Stewart looks like he may be okay, but by golly I’d rather ave seen Francis playing that role.
Pies gameplan is atrocious and will not stand up in the real stuff.
A few passages of play for Essendon looked like all that was stopping them from being truly formidable is a little bit of confidence.
Smack is okay.
Either Joe or Hooker up forward and this is an entirely different game.
Elliott is a very good player. Bags struggled on him. Could have been a lot worse, actually. But that’s not a huge knock.
WHE can play.
Hurley is going to be awesome this year.
Is speed actually that important?
Tippa is wasted deep forward. Seriously. It’s the stupidest thing in the history of stupid things.
Fantasia is a serious talent.I think this is the first time I’ve said this, but I don’t see it with Langford. I have never seen it with Langford.
I keep waiting for a glimpse, so I can go…ahhhhh, there it is. I never have.
I’ve seen it with Laverde. I’m not talking about game-breaking perfomances, I just mean…there’s no real description. You just see them in a bit of play and say, yep. He’s got it.
But having said that, Langford is still very young and I’m not going to judge his future career on what I’ve seen so far.It’s the last quarter impressions that are the interesting ones.
Starting to agree with you about Tippa. Not because he’s no good up forward, we just don’t need him there anymore, and our run out of half back is non existent.
My prediction, McKenna to get a lot of games, McNeice to take Jerrett’s or possibly even Bags’ spot. McNeice to take a lot of kick ins, becomes our Lindsay Gilbee. Walla to be swung bw hf and hb with mid stints. 2017 has to be viewed as a very ambitious development year, risks have to be taken.
Footy's back. Shhhh, don't talk about it.
Looking forward to your second half analysis
It's FebuaryNo it isn’t
OK Donald . .
Donald would almost certainly spell February Febuary. Sad, unfair.
It's FebuaryNo it isn’t
That’s the way don McLean sings it in American pie and that’s always bugged me. Mind you I have a mate who very deliberately pronounces Wed-n–s-day and I find that weird too.
Ah . .
I’m with Wim.
I just don’t see it in Langford. I’m not sure if it is decision making, slowness or skill level but his execution of simple foot and hand skills were deplorable.
I am happy to be proven wrong. Love to in fact.
One of my favourite plays was on the wing, 50-50 ball and Green goes hard and gets absolutely smashed but manages to get the ball onto an Essendon player and we then kick a goal. Great sign.
Seriously its a practic match, players were managed. We lost who cares, would rather that than a returning player with a soft tissue injury because they were pushed too hard.
I'm with Wim.I just don’t see it in Langford. I’m not sure if it is decision making, slowness or skill level but his execution of simple foot and hand skills were deplorable.
I am happy to be proven wrong. Love to in fact.
Can happen in your first hit out of the year
Langford did some very nice things in contests last night but spoiled most of them because his radar was half a meter off. He’ll be better for the run.
Are we going to do a changes thread.
In: Conor, Hocking, laverde, Redman, JD? Stanton? Hartley?
Out: Kelly, jobe (he’s fine, hasn’t missed a beat), zerret (should be looked after a bit at this time of year), Fanta (ditto, too important), luey ( ditto)
Don't really care about the result, not going to argue with people who want to care about it but I will point out that it's very unlikely that a team will kick two supergoals to get on a roll in the regular season.Thoughts
We’ve got small forwards! Fantasia was great, Green looked like he’ll deserve a spot, Colyer’s finishing was a bit old style Colyer but thought he was otherwise good. I thought Tippa was disappointing but when he did get it, he’s still an amazing kick. I can’t see us playing all four forward on a regular basis though, and currently I’d lock in Fantasia and Colyer.
no idea how our tall structure will do on account of it didn’t play. Stewart didn’t do much to get excited about which is more or less to expectation.
I don’t know if we learned much about our non-tall defenders tonight. I thought McGrath was comfortable at the level (although I was surprsied he didn’t show any notable pace), Dea was his serviceable self, Gleeson looked mostly good, Kelly was just ticking over, Jerrett was uninspiring, Baguley was really off his game. McGrath doesn’t have to play because we’ve got plenty of decent options, but he won’t have to be mind blowingly good to get a game.
Ambrose did a good lockdown job. I’d really like him to do be able to do a bit more in the marking/rebounding department before I’m all aboard the bandwagon though. Hurley was ok all things considered. Brown’s not going to play unless there’s injuries I wouldn’t think.
Myers was the rustiest of the returning players for mine (also obviously the longest time out, too) but can still hoof it. Zaka looked a bit more like his classic round 14 knackered version than his round 1 smooth mover version, but I’m not too concerned about that yet. Parish yup, Zerrett yup, Jobe yup, Hepp mostly yup. I still don’t know about Langford, I can’t decide if he’s incredibly composed or indecisive. Bird and Howlett were both decent. I underrated Bird last year, and I’ll probably underrate him again this year.
Leuenberger continues to be a set and forget ruckman, he’s not going to win us games but we’re not going to be complaining about him costing us games. McKernan, on the other hand, good lord. Kicks an amazing goal that most forwards (large or small) in the competition would be bragging about for weeks, then tries to walk the ball out of the ruck in a centre bounce. I don’t know what’s going on in his head, but it must be a weird place to be.
Overall in the pre-season I mostly just like to see the occasional good thing from a player, and I thought most of the players showed a little bit. I’ll start getting worried about structures and systems in game three when we have something like our preferred starting lineup on the field.
Think McG mainly got the ball with close pressure and gave quickly, so no real opportunities to show pace. Also, he will need to get used to the pace as he won’t be burning or brushing u18 kids off now. He’ll get there, looked at home to me.
I think zaka was fine. Did quite a lot of good things, messed a couple up ( like everyone) but even then managed to lock the ball up when he couldn’t get it clean a few times. Pretty sure he played a lot of minutes to 3QT then not much of q4, although that was based on a few radio checks as I stopped watching just before the 9 pointers, really seemed a matter of getting the miles in and then get off.
I thought we managed at least a few kick outs quite well. One that ended with benny on the wing was especially clean and no-risk. By comparison up to 3QT I thought the pies struggled and often their kicks got spoiled. Maybe that changed when the throttle got pulled, as I say I wasn’t watching at the end.
I thought the smalls in the forward line looked really dangerous and if we can get some serious bigs like JD and CH bringing the ball to ground to any kind of advantage when they don’t clunk it, look out. Like when brown brought it down to trav. Combos of fantasia, green, Colyer with that tall timber will be exciting. Throw in laverde and…
Zach m is truly elite. Parish will get there and dys just needs a run to get back to that level. Nothing to worry about.
Last year we played Carlton first up who not only rested players but had players rest for entire halves and then swap over. Some people read to much into that win at the time and thought “yeah, we can avoid the spoon” of which I was one. After that we got smashed in the remaining JLT games and won the spoon.
Like then, there are some overreactions here as usual.
My view is it was a good hitout.
Our small forwards are exciting and I think Green may be great for our forward line and may change my thinking as I didn’t have him in our starting line up before last night. My thoughts would be Tippa to half back, Fantasia and Green up front with the four of Green, Tippa, Colyer and Fanta rotating through the forward line, midfield, half back roles. What an abundance of talent and pace!
For me Stewart looked ok and worked his way into the game. He isnt afraid to present which is all you can ask as we gell new, returning and existing young players.
Jobe in particular looked good (so great to have him back!); a few others were understandably rusty but will be better for the hitout. Its onward and upward for mine.
Its great to have footy back, loved being able to watch all the boys last night.
Dropped one meaningless practice match in the last quarter, with 7 guys returning to play their first game in 18 months, with a bunch of new guys.What is this? A run on the panic $$$ market. If so then l’m buying.
No, sell into the rally, buy back when the mkt calms down.
It’s interesting that Langford is such a divisive player. I understand the doubts, but I really don’t understand how people haven’t ever seen anything in him though.
Last night, sure. He had a Barry Crocker off the back off a very hyped pre-season.
As a midfielder, sure, I see and somewhat agree with that too. I don’t reckon he’s shown a single thing at AFL level yet that would suggest that he’s suited to playing midfield. In fact, he generally looks lost if he’s more than one kick away from forward 50.
But nothing at all?
To me, he looks like a medium sized lead-up target, sort of a ‘taller and better Angus Monfries’ type. I reckon he’s shown plenty at AFL level to suggest this, too.
It's interesting that Langford is such a divisive player. I understand the doubts, but I really don't understand how people haven't ever seen anything in him though.Last night, sure. He had a Barry Crocker off the back off a very hyped pre-season.
As a midfielder, sure, I see and somewhat agree with that too. I don’t reckon he’s shown a single thing at AFL level yet that would suggest that he’s suited to playing midfield. In fact, he generally looks lost if he’s more than one kick away from forward 50.
But nothing at all?
To me, he looks like a medium sized lead-up target, sort of a ‘taller and better Angus Monfries’ type. I reckon he’s shown plenty at AFL level to suggest this, too.
Yeah I agree. He’s coming into his third year and just looks a natural forward. I’d hate to see years wasted trying to turn him into something he’s not.