Lindsay Smith to makes his Blues debut

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Smith has come in for Allan. Franchina has been dropped and Prendergast comes into the starting side.

The Blues have now blooded Sporn, Livingston and Smith this season while giving more game time to Wiggins Merrington and Prendergast compared to last year. Times they are a changing. It might be a forced change but better late than never. Each has looked pretty good so far.

Immediately this has a two fold effect. The senior are invigorated with the youngsters enthusiasm while the VFL side is strengthened by regular senior players trying to win back their place. Despite Fevola and Hotton being out, the Blues VFL side upset the Murray Roos today by 5 goals. Suddenly there is hope and competition for places.

We have to win tomorrow obviously but things are looking up at last.

 

[tashibatts]

Mm.. agreed...

Poor Murray Roos

U better not beat the Roos tommorow.. I am goin

Go Roos

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Well I hope that Lindsay can take the leap even faster now. We are going to need him to assert himself around the ground right from here on in without being given a chance to develop slowly.

 

[The Spornstar]

I thought he was ok on Sunday. He did nothing round the ground, but that doesn't bother me much as I'm not a big fan of giving ruckmen the ball around the ground, they tend to just handpass to a player whose about to be tackled (at least Matty Allan does!). I would've liked to see him tighten up a bit on Burton when he ran forward.

However, in the centre bounces he was as good as I could have hoped for. Whenever the ump bounced the ball straight, Linsday more than held his own. The problem was that the stupid maggot kept on bouncing it straight to Burton. Anyone else notice this?

 

[Carlos]

As a North supporter, i saw a lot of Lindsay in our reserves team over the couple of years he was on our list and the kid has talent to burn. He has a massive leap, is very good over head and has a very good goal sense. He didn't spend a great deal of time in the ruck, but is capable of being an adequate second ruckman for a quarter or so as he does know how to get his hands on it and is precision like with his taps. Fitness and work ethic was always the concern though. He didn't have much of a defensive side to his game and you would often see his opponent miles away from him up the ground when the opposition had possession. However this did improve a little towards the end of last year where he showed a little more inclination to chase and provide defensive pressure to keep the ball in our forward line.

He was discarded by North purely because the perception was that he didnt do enough work to take the next step and because Denis Pagan fealt that he'd never be able to get the best out of him. Mind you, he wouldn't be the first talented tall player to cop that wrap from Pags (Mark Stevens premiership CHB with the Crows, Evan Hewitt, Cam Mooney to name a few)

At his best, he reminded me alot of Matthew Richardson. He is 199cm, but has immense pace and would often lead hard up the ground to gain possession. Hopefully for his, and your club' sake, Brittain can push his buttons and get this kid to click because he is a huge talent.

 

[Briedis]

I still remember THAT mark he took against the Blues in the seconds game at the MCG last year. Would have been grab of the year last year if it was in the ones.

 

[Aramari]

Lindsay Smith

I was impressed at his closing speed to reach a contest and spoil, very quick!