17 rounds still is 'fixāture. Some clubs will have more interstate travel than others, some Victorian clubs will have more away games against other Melbourne based teams.
It will never be an fair fixture unless itās 34 rounds.
Iāll gladly admit that I was critical of him pre trade period and pre the three SSS nominating us, and I certainly had my reservations as to how heād get them to Essendon. But heās made me eat my words and good on him. Heās done extraordinarily well in what was balls on the line kind of stuff. The strategy and execution of it was outstanding.
Off topic - I also think that Woosha deserves a bit of credit as well. He is obviously appealing enough for players to want to come over.
Watson didnāt play that game; he was still doing his loooong pre-season.
It was roughly CD first quarter (later went to the midfield), Kickett second quarter (sent forward in the second half), Hird from the third quarter onwards. Hird conceded goals at a similar rate, but at least he played aggressively and provided plenty of rebound.
Harvey was forward at the start of the last quarter, not sure what the thinking was there for our usual CHB. He missed the next week, maybe he was carrying an injury.
(Fletcher was on Neeld and OāReilly, at least in the last quarter.)
Salmon was clearly injured at the start of the last quarter and went off half-way through the quarter, just as Ablett kicked his thirteenth goal to put Geelong in front. Within a minute Ablett goaled again, for the last time. Alessio replaced Salmon at full-forward and kicked successive goals to extend our lead from 6 to 18 and confirm the win.
Wanganeen takes THAT mark with six minutes to go, knocks himself silly, and goes off.
[Why yes, I have just watched the highlights and then full last quarter. THE NAME OF THE GAMEā¦ IS AUSTRALIAN.]
Ablett 25 kicks, 21 scores, 0 handballs. Two of those non-scoring kicks were in the last and were inaccurate snaps at goal around the body. Greedy.
Yeah, I had my reservations with Woosha when we brought him on board. I wasnāt sure if tactically he was up to it and whether he was to conservative for what we needed.
I can happily say that Iām thoroughly impressed with what heās done in such a short time.
Iām probably going against the grain with what most want but I think this attacking brand of football is the right direction.
We obviously still need to improve our defensive side but that will come.
I still think we have a good 15-20% improvement in us and that puts us in flag contention.