14 hours after I left home… a little report on a very satisfying VFL performance. The wind was strong all day to the northern end of the grounds, but it wasn’t till the third quarter of the AFL game that the attacking team used it well. Our seniors also adapted to the conditions to win their game in the last, and then the reserves pretty much won all four quarters despite the challenges it posed half the time.
The game was pretty clearly won by our midfield, which included a broad rotation of smalls and 3 rucks. The last quarter was an excellent showing for our defenders. My bests were Langford, Hind (maybe more for quality than quantity), Smack/Draper/Strachan never letting up the pressure, Clarke, Hartley, and encouragement award for Mynott.
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1 HepA — played down back. I can’t say I noticed him much till the last quarter
3 Nick Dixon — um, he was there? Like most of the newbies, I doubtless failed to recognise him a few times and hence he gets no credit/takes no blame
4 The Langford — 100% midfield time bar one rest down forward early? Watching stoppages he absolutely plays a defensive role with body contact, but he still got a stack of clearances. Not that he was alone, Draper made it very easy for midfielders a lot of times.
6 Matthew “Big Red” Darby — played defense. Not great.
10 Hocking — very good forward early. Also spent time in the midfield, but faded from view.
11 Hind — very important player for a team without many speedsters. His ability to cleanly take the ball at pace and voom be gone is very damaging.
12 Bags — didn’t notice him much till the last quarter, when he and many of his fellow defenders murdered their opponents despite the huge wind bringing what should have been dangerous attacks.
14 Ridley — didn’t notice much
19 Lazzaro — didn’t notice till late. But he has a distinct look so I’m sure that won’t be a problem in future!
20 Merrett — forward pocket. Usual refrain of what he did was good but he didn’t do enough of it.
22 Strachan — the kid is good. So much stronger than he looks (and he doesn’t look to have got much bigger over the summer).
24 Houlahan — mostly deep forward, meh.
26 Edin Sibbald — potential here. We have a stack of legit mobile big men who can clunk… and we also have Leuenberger.
27 Redman — half-back, didn’t really notice till the last.
29 Joe Harrison — didn’t play, I think. We had 7 on the bench in the last quarter.
30 Younan — kicked an amazing goal in the third, the type where you say “HTF did he do that?”. Surrounded by opponents forty out, he did about four fakes on a postage stamp to earn the smallest of gaps and get the kick off. I’m generally under-impressed by him, but this was all class and he is in the leadership group.
33 Wil “The Traveller” Berry — yeah, played?
34 Jake “the hero” Long — forward early, wing the rest. Not remarkable, but hey, winning one game for the day is normally enough.
35 Guelfi — didn’t notice much, but the stuff he does is generally very composed
36 Hartley — lesser opposition, sure. But this is what you want. He got ten fists in to kill marks, and as the game went on he just decided to start marking it himself. Proactive, not reactive.
37 Clarke — not sure I saw him have more than one kick (it was OK, with the wind) but was really good inside. His handballs out of packs were influential.
38 Draper — you know I rate him. A lot of lovely taps to advantage, some brutal tackles and second efforts, and a few bonus clunks.
39 Mynott — reasonably impressed with him during his stints on ball. Went in hard and got it out.
40 Ottavi — did both forward and back
44 McKernan — can’t knock his pre-season form. Was in beast mode.
49 Dea — a few dumb moments, but mostly very composed