Thanks guys
Thread needed more Francis.
Thread needed more DJR.
As promised, I can give a summary, and a few comments about individuals.
Firstly, it was about a four goal advantage to one end, but the wind died a bit in the last half and you could kick it from 45 to 50 at the other end. Frankston’s last qtr comeback wasn’t greatly wind assisted.
Frankston early were very poor. Nowhere near the standard of other VFL teams we have been playing. We absolutely dominated them to half time. It evened up a bit in the 2nd half when they won their share of the clearances.
It was a close hard contest with lots of ball ups and tackling, and we have some strong in and under mids like Coghlan, Wallis, Peart and Holmes.
Some comments and notes about individuals -
Francis - only an average game. Didn’t get a lot of the ball, but he is strong, and unwilling to just do the ordinary things. He wants to take people on and just oozes confidence. His fitness looked ok - he wasn’t overly tired or out of breath at any stage. His kicking was fine (not sure why people say he needs to clean it up). One 40m spear pass was a gem. He can play seniors any time. He will come unstuck trying to do too much, and playing off his man, at times. but the sooner he plays and gets to learn what he can get away with, the better.
Redman - played all over the ground today. A bit of forward and a lot of wing. Kicked some goals but not really the main thing for him today. He was quite strong in the contest, despite his frail build, which was an improvement on what I have seen from him in the past. His skills and decision making were pretty good. Probably best left in the VFL at the moment, but developing well. He got what may have been a corkie in a big collision in the 2nd. Played out the game, but under duress, He limped whenever he came off the bench, so maybe it was just sore and stiff.
Long - really loves the hard stuff and tackles with real intent. He doesn’t mind going on with the tackle even after the opponent has disposed of it, and is stronger than he looks. Not sure he wins enough ball to step up yet, but physical strength may not be as big an issue as it looks. His skills and vision are pretty good.
Morgan - I watched him quite a bit. He started both halves on the bench, and is not getting too much opportunity to shine. He is pretty much making sure he mans up all the time, in contrast to say Francis who doesn’t worry too much about his opponent. He has pretty good awareness in traffic, and a couple of really smart tap ons, and quick gives looked like he knows what he is about. He also got quite a bad knock to maybe his hip area and was labouring trying to run late in the game.
Ashby - he is a good all round player at VFL level. He is a bit bigger than I realised. Good game today without being a standout.
Nyuon - really ordinary today IMHO. He is non competitive in the ruck as he just shies away from any body contact. He didn’t use his athleticism at all and coughed it up with a couple of very poor handballs. Has a long way to go.
HeppA - I don’t want to say too much. I am worried other clubs will draft him before us. Hit the target with every kick today.
Grimley - surprisingly played back all day, in a side lacking established key forwards (although Van Unen and Dobson did well at times today). Was very good for 3 qtrs., but was exposed a bit in the last when he was led to the ball quite a bit.
Wallis - I don’t see much more than a poor man’s Will Hams to be honest. Not doubting his endeavour and his toughness, but doesn’t provide any outside run or polish. I know it is early days for him, but I’m not overly optimistic for him.
Kommer - very typical Kommer game. Probably filling in time to the end of the season.
Holmes - a bit similar to Wallis.
Edwards - did some good things, but also tried to do too much at times (a fairly ambitious speccy attempt that gave away a free). Nothing different from what we are used to from him. Not a bad game today, but nothing that would change your opinion of him.
Very long post I know, but in the absence of a decent radio coverage and lacking DJR’s contributions, I thought I might fill in a few gaps.
If anyone has any questions or wants to know anything about the non listed players’ performances, ask away, and I’ll try to answer.
I apologise for the long winded post as this will probably be the first and only time that I will be able to attend an VFL match this season, and in the absence of the legendary DJR VFL updates, wanted to try and provide a comprehensive account for anyone on BB that would be interested.Thanks for your long windedness!
Did anyone win the wheelbarrow of booze (minus wheelbarrow) raffle?
Top effort BillyBewick, much appreciated.Thanks samwoods, hope I covered most of what everyone wanted to know.I aplogise for not giving rolling updates at the game as I don’t have the multi- tasking abilities of our highly esteemed DJR.
Blows me away at how he does it.
You would be surprised…
Top effort BillyBewick, much appreciated.Thanks samwoods, hope I covered most of what everyone wanted to know.
I aplogise for not giving rolling updates at the game as I don’t have the multi- tasking abilities of our highly esteemed DJR.
Blows me away at how he does it.
Top effort BillyBewick, much appreciated.
How did Francis go?Solid but no domination. Got out marked a couple of times when Frankston was pressing, couple of errant kicks, not demanding a senior spot on the strength of today’s performance.
Francis says for you to SHUT. UP.
Went along today to see the Francis and HeppA show.
Unfortunately got there late with the score being 7.2.44 - 1.1.7 just before qtr time. This was probably our best period of the match, of which I missed, as the rest of it was fairly ordinary football to watch up until Frankston’s run on in the final qtr to finally make a game of it.
One bit of play caught my attention just before the end of the first qtr as the siren sounded was a gather and run by Francis in heavy traffic in the centre of the ground.
He looked quite quick for a big guy and he seemed to glide through the congestion with ease whilst changing direction before getting a chance to deliver the ball into the forward 50 just as the siren sounded.
Was excited to see what he would produce for the rest of the game after the break, but as mentioned by other posters here, didn’t do too much thereafter apart from a couple of contested marks down back and some big spoils.
That was about it for him though. He does need to tidy up his kicking a bit too, but overall despite not doing too much, you can see that there is something to get excited about in the future with him with the few small positive things that he did do.
With the margin staying around the 7-9 goal margin for most of the day, I was hoping that the coaching staff may have given him a run on the ball and at centre bounces just for his development, even a stint up forward would have been good but I noticed that he did have a lot of stints on the interchange when he wasn’t on the ground.
Perhaps this is the plan for him as part of his development by the coaching staff not to over cook him too early in his career.
So based on today’s performance, I’d agree with the others here who believe that he’s a while away from senior selection.
Was interested to see how both Mason Redman and Alex Morgan went too.
I believe that Mason scored two goals in the first qtr that I missed and ended up with three for the day, I think.
He was quiet for long periods of the game but also when he was involved it was a bit of a mixed bag with him.
To be fair to Mason though, he did get hurt in the second qtr after a particularly courageous attack on the ball, with his head down, near the centre square between hff and wing which caused him to come off gingerly for a short time but finished the game without any discomfort.
Alex Morgan had a similar type of game to Redman but with a little less impact from what I could tell.
He too copped what looked like a nasty injury of which he was able to shrug off and come back on to finish the game.
Jake Long was quite good.
As mentioned before, he can tackle well and also scored a very good set shot goal, in the third qtr, from about 40-45 mtrs out directly in front, of which he looked very composed and confident of taking, a feature which would have helped the seniors in tonight’s match.
I believe that Long is tracking along nicely and today’s effort would’ve helped towards him cementing some self belief that he could become a decent AFL player in the future.
Gach Nyuon impressed me in the ruck, both at the centre bounces but more in particular in the around the ground stoppages.
He won many tap outs to advantage in the stoppages which obviously helped with clearances, has a nice leap and is also quite clever in the way he sets himself up to beat his opponent at the around the ground ball ups.
He just needs to learn to demand the ball more and to get involved a lot more in general play though as I feel he goes missing too often in this part of his game.
He’s only just a pup though and that will come with time.
HeppA was probably the player that I was most interested in watching today after reading many comments on BB about his rapid improvement and progress this year.
I love the way this kid plays the game.
He is tough, smart and an absolute terrier around the ball.
This guy’s on- field attitude is outstanding, he just does not know of the concept of giving up.
Every contest, every tackle, every shepherd, absolutely every little 1%er is done with great intent and purpose.
His skills are quite tidy too, very rarely wastes the ball.
It would be great to get him onto the rookie list for next season and give him a chance to be an AFL footballer, he deserves the opportunity imo.
The highlight today from a team perspective, from my observations at least, was the ferocious tackling and forward pressure in the middle stages of the match which I believe helped set up the win.
Despite a late rally by Frankston in the final qtr which saw them come to within 16 pts very late in the game after Essendon being up by around ten goals at one stage late in the third qtr, I thought that it was a very even team performance without anyone being outstanding individually.
I apologise for the long winded post as this will probably be the first and only time that I will be able to attend an VFL match this season, and in the absence of the legendary DJR VFL updates, wanted to try and provide a comprehensive account for anyone on BB that would be interested.
Overall though I must admit that being back at grass roots level, I thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of watching footy leaning on a fence near the boundary line, in the cold and drizzle, drinking beers in the outer and listening to the opposition supporters going spare over the umpiring (of which they were probably justified) as I thought that we got a decent run with them even though it wasn’t a badly umpired game at all, compared to the sometimes sterile feeling of sitting in a stadium watching a game.
Went along and saw the last 2.5 quarters had three of the kids with me so didn’t get to make a lot of notes
On thing I noticed is that Francis had a shocker. Had no impact on the game, seemed to struggle to get involved in the game and on several occasions in the last quarter when Frankston were making their run he lost all body contact on his direct opponent and the end up taking uncontested marks in the forward 50.
Also… don’t wait for rookie draft to get Hep-A. Kid is sensational.
Tell Nash Holmes to fk off.
Anyone got the bests and goal kickers?
Went along and watched it. Seemed a similar story with playing one good half. Few things stood out.
Francis is class but was just average today. Needs to tidy his kicking
Long was pretty good. Love how he tackles. Seems to want to hurt people
Gach could be anything once he learns how to catch and kick. Had some amazing attributes
Michael Long appears to have lost some weight although was on crutches so may not be ready for a run just yet
Thread needed more Francis.
How did Francis go?
Solid but no domination. Got out marked a couple of times when Frankston was pressing, couple of errant kicks, not demanding a senior spot on the strength of today’s performance.
This Van Unen is not like the other Van Unen.
Maltese Terrier, not farkin Shitzu
How did Francis go?
Sorry, I slept through this one o:)