Late report because life has been busy since immediately after the game. Have avoided seeing others’ views yet so no doubt will have missed some stuff.
The game
- Pressure not at 100% at all times especially with tackles, as it was a scratch match. But then again it often ramped up to full intensity as competitive young men and new players with something to prove went at it.
- Tapping the ball on volleyball-style was a big feature early and weirdly nearly every time it was used it worked, so players were moving the ball quickly without the risks attendant on taking possession. Must have been a coaching instruction as I don’t reckon it was being done later in the game.
- The odd imbalance in performance between the two teams with the skills and positioning of the White team being way better in Q1. Minor tinkering with who was in what team after that improved the competitive balance but the Black team remained the Washington Generals.
- It seems Houston and Johnson were missing, on top of those previously named as unavailable.
Edits
This spot left for the shamefaced corrections.
- PatientMental says #31 Aidyn Johnson did play
- NoddyHolder says Johnson played in #30, on the handout as Maggie's player Jack Elsworthy
- Fairly consistent feedback that Drew was much better than I gave credit for.
The players
2 Sam Powell-Pepper
Seemed to play the whole game and did so with speed, skill and at times almost brutality. Late in the game at one point burst through about 3 attempted tackles to an admiring ‘Wooh!’ from the crowd. Exciting and if a couple more years in the team and a few less incidents I reckon he’d be considered for captaincy as he leads, and he changes games.
3 Ryan Burton
Nothing of note. I was primed to see something special, anything really but if it happened I missed it.
4 Paddy Ryder
Dominant early. Kicked a bizarre hook-shot goal from about 40m. Given more on-field time than I’d have thought so that’s promising regarding injury management.
5 Matthew Broadbent
Nothing of note.
6 Steven Motlop
Sparky early without affecting the game
7 Brad Ebert
A little bit on fire. For much of the 2nd half had Tom Clurey directly assigned to him as a tagger, a contest I enjoyed.
8. Jack Strange (Port Magpies)
No cape, no spells cast. Stands out to me as the sacrificial lamb who couldn’t compete at this level.
9. Matt Appleton (Port Magpies)
I don’t know if was just me or the club was trolling the media/the AFL but this kid looked like Robbie Gray and damn me if he didn’t move like him at times.
10 Travis Boak
Played a really good game. Still has a bit of an aura of leadership around him IMO.
11 Tom Rockliff
In it a lot without much direct effect on the game.
13 Todd Marshall
Just wow! Early on 2 highly accurate goals from 40-50m out, one from the flank, one from in front. Around the same time a bouncing dribble goal from 45% which from most of other players would have been considered arse. Also late in the game a looong centimetre perfect pass to Ebo right in front of goals. Still struggles with physical contact when marking.
14 Billy Frampton
Worked to get into it but too slow at AFL level
15 Karl Amon
Was Karl Amon. Running around a lot, not much effect.
16. Cam Sutcliffe (Port Magpies)
Played OK in flashes. Of course 16 catches the eye.
17 Tom Clurey
Had fun. Played intercept defender/linkman early. Tagged Ebo most of the latter part of the game.
18 Zak Butters
Nothing of note.
19 Jack Trengove
Had a really good game IMO. Often found useful space and would have clocked up quite a few disposals. I’m unsure how much game time he got.
20 Connor Rozee
Relief, he can find the ball and disposal is good. And it’s clear he feels he belongs, which is always a relief to me at Family Day games. Like the Hoff and SPP’s first intra-club games where the reputation and experience of the players out there meant nothing and they just went for the ball.
21 Xavier Duursma
Well damning with faint praise but I’d expected more. The club’s media puff pieces made him sound as if would have torn this game apart.
23 Jack Watts
You got to see whatever Jack Watts you wanted. Skilful, highly competitive in patches. Not really doing much at others. One of a few players on the Black team (Motlop, Byrne-Jones were others) who didn’t really fire, and made that team much worse in reality than they looked on paper.
24 Mitchell Mead (Port Magpies)
Nothing of note. Of course I’d been hoping for something special from Darren’s oldest.
26 Riley Bonner
Nothing of note.
27 Joel Garner
Nothing of note.
28 Willem Drew
Nothing of note. I mean he worked hard, that was obvious. But no notable effect on the game
29 Scott Lycett
Workmanlike performance. Nothing to prove. Main task was to stay injury free and he did.
30 Jack Elsworthy (Port Magpies)
Nothing of note.
31 Simon Wong (Port Magpies)
I sort of feel there was something good to say here, his name came up in the conversations around us.
32 Dougal Howard
Can’t recall much about his game. One cry of ‘Doogs’ by the crowd that I recall
33 Darcy Byrne-Jones
Probably controversial but a bit of a quiet and ineffectual game as I saw it. Like the ‘meh’ Maggies’ DBJ we used to see before he cracked the AFL team. I want the return of DBJ who played Pittard-style but without the nightmare moments.
34 Sam Mayes
Was giving it a crack early but I don't recall any noteworthy achievments.
36 Boyd Woodcock
Nothing of note.
37 Jake Patmore
Nothing of note.
38 Peter Ladhams
Nothing of note.
39 Justin Westhoff
Casual and cool but still effective. I think he was moved from the White to the Black team after Q1 to even things up. But not before he’d kicked a 45m goal for White which amused me because he was going to pass it closer but after a microsecond decision there was no good option just went ‘Pow!’ and kicked it himself.
40 Jarrod Lienert
Went hard for it all game, and a lot of contested stuff. A bit like SPP in that he delivered the intensity of an H&A match
41 Tom Corcoran (Port Magpies)
Nothing of note.
42 Tom Jonas
Can’t recall much about his game.
43 Sam Davidson (Port Magpies)
Nothing of note.
44 Cameron Hewett
A few good patches. I mean how vague a report is that? But I did notice him a couple of times and then to me it was like he turned invisible
45 Martin Frederick
He’s my player in the Buddy Draft and I was looking for something +ve to say. But while he gave it a crack he didn’t seem to have the speed/skills to make up for his small size.
46 Sam Gray
As with Jack Watts if you like/don’t like him you got the type of game that confirms your impression. Brave and worked hard. Goaled once (twice?) in a poor team. Kicked wide or short with another couple of opportunities.
47 Tobin Cox
Nothing of note.
48 Kai Pudney
I’m not sure if it was work-rate or skills (probably the former) that impressed me but he did pretty well. I do think he probably looked a little better than he is because he played with the dominant team.
The team list the club provided
More amused exasperation than a whinge but the team lists (see below) were more chaotic than ever. Not in numerical order so a lot of time hunting back and forth to identify players. Then the photos were a smorgasbord of options. Obviously no-one has bothered to photograph anyone and edit their photos since the draft/trade period, something you can tell by looking at the club website.
So some players in their pre-draft rep footy tops. Some unedited photos taken hurriedly on someone's phone. No photos of any of the Maggies' players.
Click on thumbnail to see full size team lists