Review Finals debutants

[jackcass]

I think the team played well. Both teams did. The Eagles found an extra gear late and we couldn’t go with. The umpiring was in general fair too. One team has to lose.

In general I'd agree but to my mind there was few incidents that certainly got the hometown effect. Just off the top of my head:

1. Maynard high contact. Eyes on the footy, contact was incidental, should have been play on.
2. Grundy push in the back in the ruck contest that resulted in Vardy's goal.
3. Rioli ducking into head high contact, should have been play on.
4. The Cox mark. Similar to Hutchins on Thomas, McGovern had no eyes for the footy and just took the body of Cox.

In isolation, they're not overly significant but each impacted the flow of the game.

No doubt the Weagles supporters will be able to rattle of an extensive list of similar decisions that went against them given the amount of booing that was going on.

 

[Vicky Park]

That thing about the heat of finals bringing out your best and worst? I'd rate our younger players generally as doing OK. Not great, but not cowed either. The taste will be good for them, they will learn from it, and this week I'd hope to see some improvement.

Re Cox, he's smart and I'd expect a better performance this week too. I hope he gets mad, that the negative reporting angers him, as he plays better when he's p1ssed off.

 

[mwhop]

we are a team that is still improving and learning. with every game the players are becoming more composed, settled and predictable to each other. potentially playing this as an extra final could well be a good thing for us.