Zaka is back!!
Fark Carlton!!
Oh, and credit to Joe D for kicking a ball out of the ground!
He’ll probably get fined.
There was only one player worth watching, and that was the Number 1 draft pick Sam Weitering. No one else played and Essendon didn’t win by 10 goals.
3 Weitering
2 Weitering
1 Weitering
We should have drafted him. Sack Dodoro.
Just nice to play some footy.
Grimly and JD look good together. It will be interesting to see who is the most effective forward over the year.
No need to mention the JDs dropped marks but fark me it’s annoying.
There was only one player worth watching, and that was the Number 1 draft pick Sam Weitering. No one else played and Essendon didn't win by 10 goals.3 Weitering
2 Weitering
1 WeiteringWe should have drafted him. Sack Dodoro.
43 weiterings and 1 darcy parish.
JD at chf - Grimley at ff get it done
Hahaha Fark Carlton
Best wet Sunday ever.
Go Bombers.
There was only one player worth watching, and that was the Number 1 draft pick Sam Weitering. No one else played and Essendon didn't win by 10 goals.3 Weitering
2 Weitering
1 WeiteringWe should have drafted him. Sack Dodoro.
Dont worry, he will leave after his 2 year contract.
Highlight: run and carry with pace through midfield with teammates inside the 50 to kick to. Was fun to watch today.
Hartley’s kicking from full back will be a great weapon and Grimley will straighten us up. Lots of positive signs.
Would be very easy to get carried away after watching the fantastic effort by all the boys today… but we all the know the reality. Team probably had more trouble winning the intraclub match last Friday… 
Zaka looks in really good nick and could be like a new recruit running through the middle
Brown looks very capable of filling (mostly) one of the gaping holes left by the bans in the back half
Parish is all class… may not be Weitering but showed enough to suggest he will be a very fine player
Edwards showed consistent effort and pressure through 4 qtrs and could be ready to fill the ‘Colyer’ role through the wing
Grim and JD paired well and worked well together. Hard to see leading patterns on TV but seemed to be a lot more ‘space’ up forward rather than all leading to the same spot. Might have been Carltanks lack of defensive pressure that helped but our forward line looked a little better.
Gleeson, Zerrett and Long were all zippy and it might be a small blessing to see some guys with pace actually rotating through our midfield this year.
Will be interesting to see the boys live in Shepp next against a better opposition but lots of questions were partially answered today and the answers were all positive.
Early days against questionable opposition but Sam Michael might just cause some selection headaches-hopefully the good kind. Thought he and Smack were competitive in the ruck and very impressive when the ball hit the ground - in fact Michael had a bit of the raging bull about him. So what happens in the event that Leuy and Jamar are fit- we can’t play all 4 of them.
I was impressed by how well we moved the ball out of the back line especially off of turnovers. There is much more zip to the side so hopefully we can expose a few teams this year in that area.
Some Individual Positives
Mitch Brown- Inspired draft picks. Pretty obvious why the club has already extended his contract.
Zaka- Playing much more zip and intensity over the ball. Back to 2012 form
Zerrett- Class act. That goal and perfected weighted pass to Joey sum him up
Goddard- Great start to his reign as Captain. Led from the front
Edwards- Tackled hard, stayed in the game
Gleeson- Has definitely put on some size but hasn’t lost any zip or that ability to slip the tackle. Will be one of our better players this year I think.
Hartley- Settled into the game. Looks like he’ll be up for the big challenge
Parish- Didn’t get to see how damaging he can be by foot but I thought he showed he’ll have no problem winning his own football and made some excellent decisions by hand when under pressure. Lots of improvement to come.
FuckCarlton - are utter poo
Hope the fans really get behind Crowley too. Love the attitude he has brought to the club.
-Zaka and Beej looked fantastic.
-Hartley and Brown looked very solid down back.
-Parish and Long showed glimpses of good footy
-Dempsey looked brilliant off HB. Super fit and didn’t miss a target.
-Michael looks athletic and adds flexibility.
-SHRED!
Negatives:
-Joe dropped a lotta sitters. His goal-kicking accurate though.
-Fantasia was sloppy giving away several free kicks.
-Grimley can’t kick! However, can mark!
Zaha looked too good for my liking- reckon we swaddle him in bubblewrap right now and leave him that way till the real stuff starts. Let him run round with the VFL if we must.
Enjoyed our win.
Agree with the comments in to match thread re Parish, TippaWalla, Langford, etc, but I really liked Brown, solid, and I really liked that we were not timid in letting the opposition know we were there. Hope they keep that up for the next NAB game (which i’m attending) and through the season.
Zaha looked too good for my liking- reckon we swaddle him in bubblewrap right now and leave him that way till the real stuff starts. Let him run round with the VFL if we must.
That being …2017?
I was really impressed with Hartley today, very composed and a nice kick
Positives:
- I thought Zaharakis was very good, a harder game from him which was nicer to see also.
- Goddard a class above these peasents
- Edwards was BOG in the first half and then faded as the game wore on, but was everywhere in the wings when the game was on. A definite positive all day.
- Parish’s handballing under great pressure was a massive highlight, and won some centre clearances and looks like he’s going to be a player.
- Brown had an impressive first up game, playing very well down back and winning comfortably all day
- Hartley had a good game and looks like he’s going to be a very solid contributor this year
- Gleeson was good and had some nice run and carry but needs to find a better mix every so often.
- Croelwy was good early and good late, he’ll be the best of our top ups this year.
- Grimley took some strong grabs and could have kicked 5 if he could have kicked straight. Very promising game.
- Daniher was missing his marking early, but never stopped working hard and finished with 3.
- Simpkin was reliable as a journeymen and will be a good contributor this year for us.
- Didn’t notice Bird much offensively, but did have 9 tackles. Room for improvement.
- Langford has the class and just needs to win a bit more ball when the season proper rolls aound.
- Sam Micheal is a raging bull, trying to rugby style run through packs. Very competitive and a real competitor for us.
- Gwilt made me nervous all game with some dinky backward kicks, prefer Brown/Hartley over him.
- Tippa very quiet early but came alive later in the game. Some brilliant one touch pick ups and superb body use were his highlights.
- McKenna didn’t get much of it, but had a fabulous passage of play when he trapped it with his foot, picked up and dishes off, ran and received and then set up a goal for Merrett.
- Long has class most certainly, winning more ball is the next challenge.
- Dempsey had his moments.
Longy was good