I knew I invited the statsman into the booth for a reason.
Then he lost his wallet, went searching for it, and on return I glanced towards his seat and saw it instantly. So he’s not perfect.
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Excellent Team win.
Defence.
I was very impressed with Hartley. I am not a particular fan of his, but at this level, taking the best opposition KPF he stays ice cool, goes for his marks when possible and does not give away silly frees for holding. If he can translate this at the higher level it would be really good. Zerk has not recaptured his form of last year, but clearly needs to be given a bit of time. Also, Matty Dea was good in defence in the first term in particular. I was a bit worried going into the match, with Redman, Francis, McNiece and Marty all out of the lineup, but really Geelong never looked like beating our defence consistently. Plenty of depth there.
Midfield
Draper Mynott and Clarke are a tight group. Clarke is a good contested player who got the ball out to our outside runners really well, Mynott is better as both an inside and out player, and hit the scoreboard. Draper has had successive weeks against big experienced AFL ruckmen and found it tough, but he covers ground well and taps to advantage nicely when he does win the hitouts. Ham is a classy wingman and played well. Mossy had a couple of stints on the wing.
Forwards.
No one from our AFL group stood out, and our VFL players including Hocking did the necessary. Mossie needs to improve fitness to get to more contests, but he does go in for the contest and tackles as much as he can and kicked a ripper goal from a long run We are at our limits of depth in the forward area both in small forwards, mediums and talls. Begley and the recent draftees are not coming on fast enough at this point.
Edit. Mynott has improved a lot. He also looks good up forward. He should be tried out there more, to see if he can debut at AFL level in the small forward area where we do have a bit of a gap. Just my opinion.
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Great post Chris!
But please don’t make a habit out of it, BB doesn’t need factual & informative posts, it’s a dangerous precedent
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I think I spotted the Geelong mids specifically ganging-up to block Clarke out of ball-ups…
…but then Mckenna would come in with his big barrel chest, and bump them back out of the way.
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Bring him in.
Landt was very good for a 23rd player.
6 points if he had kicked straight would’ve been a big story.
i Really like lazarro, good footy smarts, just wished he had more size.
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To be fair to Mozzies fitness, he doesn’t get the work in as much as the other guys due to school, so it’s going to take longer.
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Yes. I saw this also. I was surprised, because there was more than one player blocking him at the same time. He is respected and gets extra attention at stoppages.
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I hope we keep building his body over the year without over training and injuring him. Give him a taste late season and set him up for a VFL finals series. The goal should be getting him fit and strong enough to get through a full preseason.
Another very “fair” assessment, six goals shown for each team. Clearly they think Mynott has no tricks too. Bizarrely they left out most of the best goals (e.g. Mynott’s forty metre dribbler and the six-handballs-to-Berry-The-Bee goal).
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Standalone Mo22ie video:
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I have officially departed all wagons and have reserved first seat on the Liam McKenna wagon.
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No winning stats for us this week… except on the scoreboard.
Essendon ’s 42-point defeat of Geelong came despite the Bombers being dominated at stoppages. With Ryan Abbott and Zac Smith on top in ruck contests, the Cats won 49 clearances to 25 but could only generate 42 inside-50s – the same as Essendon. The ability to find space of Brayden Ham (game-highs of 21 uncontested possessions, 11 marks and six inside-50s) helped the Bombers break through where Geelong could not.
At least this page includes the goal they didn’t want to include in the highlights package!
And here it is: smooooooooth.
Excuse me, I’m happy to share the first seat on the McKenna train. Even @theDJR can back me up on this one.
I just adore his attitude.
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“Even”?
Pls.
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Okay… “and”…
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He’s a joy to behold. I have a huge grin on my face watching him. He just has a knack of doing the right thing at the right time, then giving somebody a biff for good measure. Sure is a bit limited speed wise but good positioning make up for that. Look forward to seeing a lot more of him.
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Josh Begley
Stats: 11 disposals, three tackles
From the coach: I thought Josh’s work rate was really good. He spent some time in the midfield and also some time forward – he probably didn’t get the reward in terms of possessions like he had last week, but the pleasing thing was that his work rate was still there. He transitioned hard up and down the ground and was physical in the contest for us.
Irving Mosquito
Stats: 11 disposals, six tackles, three inside-50s, one goal
From the coach: ‘Mozzie’ was good - he was a bit more consistent than the previous couple of weeks in terms of laying some pressure and being able to reset. We know how dangerous he is with ball in hand – he hit the scoreboard again with a really nice goal and we’d love to see him do that more but he’s doing a lot right and is progressing really nicely.
Jordan Houlahan
Stats: 10 disposals (eight kicks), six marks, two tackles
From the coach: ‘Houlas’ played a bit of forward and a bit of wing time again. He got up the ground and transitioned well. He took a couple of big marks too. He probably didn’t capitalise on his opportunities (finishing with three behinds) but if he can turn them into two or three goals, then it becomes a pretty solid game from a small-medium forward.
Brandon Zerk-Thatcher
Stats: 15 disposals (seven kicks), two marks
From the coach: Brandon’s game was better than his previous two coming back from injury. He looked a lot more assertive, and was strong in our key defensive post. He played on some good players throughout the day but he positioned himself nicely. I thought our whole back six set up well behind the ball and he was an integral part of that.
Noah Gown
Stats: 11 disposals, five marks, four inside-50s, one goal
From the coach: ‘Gowny’ again competed hard and worked his way up and down the ground as a forward. He took some really nice marks with some safe hands and his movement gave us a few outlets when we were transitioning from defence to attack. I liked his work rate in that aspect – he’s developing nicely as a key forward.
Brayden Ham
Stats: 21 disposals, 10 marks, six inside-50s, one goal
From the coach: Ham’s game was excellent. He played a bit on the wing and some forward minutes. I thought he transitioned hard up and down the ground. He held his shape on the outside well, and got on the end of a bit of ball. He also got back in defence and was able to help out, and then when he was forward he got into some good spots and ran some smart patterns.
Jake Long
Stats: 19 disposals (14 kicks), six marks, four tackles
From the coach: I thought this was Long’s best game since he’s come back from injury – he positioned himself really well in the back half and found himself free at times. He was aggressive at the game and got ball in hand, and then used his run and dash to bypass Geelong’s defence. He was also strong and communicated well in the back six. It was a solid game.
Michael Hartley
Stats: 17 disposals (14 kicks), four marks, six tackles, nine rebound-50s
From the coach: I thought ‘Harts’ was terrific actually. He was physical and showed that when he’s aggressive in the contest he can be an intimidating force. He backed himself in the air to take some intercept marks, which was a credit to him. He used the ball really, really well and some of his kicking was a highlight coming through. We’d love this standard to be what he can put in every week.
Dylan Clarke
Stats: 17 disposals, five marks, eight tackles
From the coach: I think they sent a (tagger) to ‘Clarkey’ in the first half, trying to negate him which is a credit to how he’s rated around the competition. He probably struggled to get his hands on the ball but was still typically strong. In the second half he went to (Charlie) Constable and did a role for us in shutting him down a bit, so a real credit to ‘Clarkey’ in terms of the selfless role he played for the side.
Sam Draper
Stats: Eight disposals, three marks, nine hit-outs
From the coach: ‘Drapes’ played the first half of footy after unfortunately rupturing his ACL. He competed hard coming up against some AFL-quality ruckmen in Zac Smith and Ryan Abbott, and gave us good targets down the line. We’ve been so impressed with his development and we know he’ll come back bigger and better.
Trent Mynott
Stats: 21 disposals, two tackles, four clearances, three goals
From the coach: Trent had a mixture of mid and forward time. I thought he made some good decisions around the contest and was also aggressive with the ball in hand. He was pretty clean and held his shape well when he was playing on the outside. When he went forward he finished off really well, kicking three goals in the third quarter, which showed a lot about his finish and positioning. He’s in some solid form this year.
Matt Dea
Stats: 14 disposals (11 kicks), five marks
From the coach: Matty had the week off last week but this week he was really physical in the contest, competed hard both on the air and in the ground. He’s really important for our structure in setting up our back six and I thought they (the back six) positioned themselves really well all day which was largely due in part to Dea’s direction. I hope he’ll build into some nice form and get some good continuity. It’s a good platform for him moving forward.
Brooke Varney is in the final year of her Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) degree at RMIT University. As part of their strategic partnership, Essendon Football Club and RMIT University are committed to providing opportunities for students, staff, players and the wider community.
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They’re pumping out the content today:
HepA may be of the opinion that the boys played their roles really well.
LOL at me and @chris_64 both leaning over to guide that goal through below.
And you find out what the mythical Brooke Varney sounds like.
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