Great win built on a team first mentality where everyone knows their role and plays their role to the letter. What I really love about the team at the moment is that when mistakes are made, they are not dwelt on and the players go back to the well the next time an opportunity presents. A handball gets missed in a linking chain, it is still attempted the next time, if a kick is missed the player doesn't mope about it, they go again and next time still take the option to make that same kick. When that happens it makes it easy for the team to know what is going to happen and to continue to run and push to the final siren. It also means that when we have first/second year players like Ross Stack Balta & Baker come into the side they know what is expected and what they need to do to ensure they deliver.
Having said that I want to give credit to a few individuals who have been whipping boys in the past.
Ellis - 3 weeks ago his career with us was almost over. Was struggling to have an impact and was being exposed by opponents. Since the Port game he has proven that if he wants to remain there is a future for him playing on a wing opposite McIntosh for the next 4-5 years. He is back to the type of form that saw him finish top 3 in the Jack Dyer medal and make the AA squad. The difference is that in this side that form doesn't stand out as much as it did back then. Played on Brayshaw tonight and rendered him ineffective despite having it 30 odd times. Some of his work where he put his body over the ball and at worse made it a stoppage is the type of stuff he wasn't doing when everyone was hammering him. Maintains this form and he won't be getting dropped any time soon.
Castagna - I have not been a big fan of George for a while, but the last couple of weeks he too has shown the type of form that he was playing with in 2017. His defensive work is outstanding and he is now getting the rewards on the scoreboard. Could have easily kicked 5 tonight and it would have came about because of his ability to lay crunching tackles that kept the ball locked in our F50.
As for the Dogs game, given the game is in 10 days and Cotchin is unlikely to play I'm going in unchanged as I think Astbury will be able to recover in time from the ankle and nobody else looked like they picked up any new injuries, and I doubt Jack gets rubbed out for the chicken wing incident the media were talking about.