“Will end up at Footscray”
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Howlett stuck in that ‘way too good for VFL, but not really good enough for AFL’ zone.
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May not have been an actual choice to be made there mate as Marklew has already played 3 games as 23rd man - which to the letter of their law means both Peters & Marklew have maxed out their games for that spot. Though to the letter of the law, they’ve been overly generous with Marklew in the first place, given he is 21 rather than 18 or 19 and isn’t in his first year on our list.
They have readily allowed us in the past to get away with playing guys past that cut-off point, due to the lack of actual players that fit the criteria on the list, as they have done so with other standalone clubs…it is possible they’ve finally decided to crack down on clubs not being able to play guys past the 3 games, or given TAC had the weekend off, they may’ve just wanted us to give a TAC kid a chance.
Wilson Berry is the only other guy on our list that meets the criteria to play as the 23rd man.
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EDIT: Didn’t read Dunlop’s post.
Can’t remember where I read it @Dunlop, but I thought eligibility for the 23rd man rule was 1st VFL season and under 21 as of 1 Jan in the season. Which would explain Marklew’s eligibility.
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Wil Berry never plays home games, only plays when we’re travelling
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Read this three times trying to figure out what you were talking about. God damn it, hap
Yep, it was very hard to see. Add on going straight to the main game, which we then lost, and enthusiasm for reports is probably down.
With the caveat that I missed a lot of play because of updating this site, don’t know all the players, and finally couldn’t actually see, here are my high level thoughts:
Overall, with the exception of the second half of the first quarter it felt like Richmond had the edge. We got goals after quarter time, but it always seemed a struggle. Richmond dominated across our HF line, and repelled many attacks, and were able to lock it into their forward half. Although we generally stopped them scoring from most entries, time and pressure told. 21 scoring shots for the time spent in their forward half is probably not bad. Howlett was the main guy I noticed getting possessions, and Hind a little bit. Got to say I missed a lot of Clarke’s possessions.
Having said all that - we actually only had one less scoring shot. So I may have had the result impact how I perceived our performance.
Draper: I can see the promise, but not much more at this stage. Didn’t really notice him hitting to advantage, and generally lost the ruck. Not too involved outside of the ruck contest.
Howlett: Had a good day, but I think he fills his long term slot - good depth for AFL, but will struggle if a regular. But was critical to our game with many possessions and a couple of goals.
Francis: pretty meh. Had one or two good leads and kicks, but missed every shot at goal. We were crying out for someone to be a path through our HF line, but he just wasn’t that target on the day.
McKernan: very similar story to Francis.
Begley: lively once or twice, but seldom seen.
Jerrett: Did one or two nice things, and has nice disposal. Outmarking Chol and then passing inside 50 was a highlight (and hilarious). But for a player with his experience, nowhere near the required impact.
Long: Did some good stuff early, and looking at the stats had it a few times (18). But reality is that he didn’t have a huge presence, but on an average day for most was in the upper group. Probably.
Redman: I quite like the move to defence, and thought there were a few times he showed sublime skills disposing it out of defence. I think he kept his man tight, but, well, who really knows.
Gleeson: For a senior player with his number of AFL games, I was disappointed. Really want him dominating at this level, and he didn’t.
McNeice, Morgan, didn’t really notice a whole heap, but the backline was solid so they were part of that.
Boyse: Right place, right time a lot. Those guys can often walk straight into AFL and either hit it off or be absolutely rubbish with no middle ground. I’ll leave it to others to rate his AFL chances, but he was vital for us with 5 goals on the weekend.
Langford: Did some good things, but you need to do more to push the seniors.
Clarke: third most possessions from the stats, but that was only 20. Didn’t notice him a huge amount (still learning to recognise him) so don’t know how well or badly he used it. When I did notice, seemed perfectly average disposal. Still, third highest possie getter for a first year player isn’t bad.
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Overall, a little disheartening. There are one or two players I’d consider dropping from the seniors (cough, Colyer, cough), but really didn’t think anyone was putting their hand up from the VFL side. We really
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