Humble Minion
Team Captain
Started it off with two floggings in metro round today.
Firstly, I should mention I've paid basically no attention to the kids for a couple of years now, so I don't know who has been talked up, i don't know who's missing, who's in the AIS squad, who's under or overage, who I should be looking for, and I don't recognise ANYONE. And to make things worse, I got there too late to get a record, so I don't know heights/weights either, and at least one bloke (#43 for the Chargers) wasn't listed on the teamsheet I did manage to find. So this is very much an early-season report and there are a lot of cobwebs still - bear with me!
Chargers won the first game in a canter, knights didn't kick a goal after the first couple of minutes of the 3rd. Oakleigh just running in waves, too precise by foot. Northern with the bigger bodies, but sloppy kicking to a target, no discernable forward line structure, and frankly just kept losing contests. Margin flattered northern in the end.
Only arrived at qtr time so probably missed a bit. Crocker in particular was getting talked up when I got here, he had a decent qtr 2 but pretty quiet 2nd half.
For oakleigh, I thought Johnston was excellent, tall mid who can do inside work but can also deliver well to a leading forward. Once or twice tried to do too much or hit too hard, but was a clear bog for me.
McLirty has an awesome name, and really impressed me in the back line. Vicious tackler, very strong in the air, kicked reliably and accurately to smart options and just didn't lose a contest all day that I saw. Looked to be playing as a 3rd tall role but was pretty mobile, will be interested to get my hands on a record to find out how tall he is.
Larkey impressed as a lead out fwd, quick off the mark and with sticky hands. Kicking let him down a time or two, should have ended up with a bag.
Pirrie really came in to his own in the 2nd half, playing as a roaming chf and marked everything that came near him even when he was caught out of position and it was coming from all sorts of strange angles. Another one who should have ended up with more goals but for some kicking issues.
I probably should mention silvagni out of completeness. Lean, agile, clean, and exceptional below his knees. Very light and lacking strength yet. He'll play for the Blooz, I look forward to watching him fail to touch jake long's goal of the century on the line, as Carlton lose another grand final to EFC.
For northern, only Gresham really rates a mention. Stocky, physical, aggressive, & gave drive out if the back line, even though his height/speed don't look like much special.
second game was an absolute smashing. After a tight and hard-fought first quarter i was hoping I'd get at least one good game out of the double-header, but it was not to be. Eastern just too good all over the ground. Very much a midfielder's game, probably the only tall who had any major influence on the game was the unlikely-looking Eastern ruckman Collins, who initially appeared to be a lump who lumbered around the field at a speed that continental drift would sneer at, but as the game wore on, showed good ball handling skills, a reliable pair of hands, a knack for being in the right place at the right time, and even a surprising turn of straight-line speed (once he'd gotten in gear) which saw him beat a nippy hbf in a footrace to the ball at least once I can remember. His ruckwork was nothing to write home about though - he was opposed to Daw (some sort of relation to Majak I believe) who had a lot of height advantage over Collins and, despite getting bugger-all of the ball around the ground, won every tap decisively, though the benefit his team got from this is debatable.
Hardwick (no relation, as far as I know) will probably get the votes, you don't kick 8 as a medium forward every day. Played deep, led fast, very strong in the air, sure ball handling, and an incredibly tight turning circle even at full speed. Only criticism is that he led deep to the pocket a bit too often - he was normally unselfish enough to give it off to teammates rather than hog the shot himself, though his kicking looked very good and he probably could have taken a few more.
I'll give you a group of 4 who would also have a best on ground claim though. Sheridan-Ferrie, Parsons, D Clarke, and Lynch. All eastern midfielders, all big, well-built kids. Sheridan-Ferrie a bit more explosive (he had something like 5 touches and a goal after 2 minutes of game time and i thought we were going to be in for a show, but while he continued to play very well he didn't keep that level of production up). Lynch more comfortable deep in defence. Parsons exccellent in close, strong in the air, and a goalckicker, and Clarke just so very good at picking up the ball in traffic and accelerating away, also a goalkicker. Seriously impressive midfield unit, with good support from a couple of others like Fenton (classic little rover type with a Hurley hairdo who buzzed around being busy, had a dose of the 'nearlys' early in the game but settled to be very dangerous) and Brolic. Another one who caught my eye was R Clarke, solid medium defender playing the quarterback role, and I lost count of the intercept marks he must have taken as Western desperately tried to hack it forward.
Western - yeah well. Not a great day for them. No run, no forward structure, continually beaten at he stoppages, and too many blokes heaving out helicopter punts all over the place. I can't really comment on their bests in any great detail - in the first game of the season I'm still getting to know who blokes are, so i focus the first quarter on one side, then the second on the other, just to learn numbers, names, positions etc. Unfortunately I left learning the Jets guys til the second quarter, and that's basically when they started to basically not touch the ball at all. So not all that much informative to say. I thought Coulton was very good early, mid/hb who looks spookily like Dal Santo - had time in traffic, read the ball well, used the ball constructively, and ran hard. Got taken out of the game later on though. Volpato was ok at times down back, good leap on him for a little guy, and plenty aggressive, but didn't manage to turn the tide in the middle. Bertollo didn't really influence the course of the game, but showed some exceptional agility for a taller guy and some nice ball handling at times. But I'm really searching hard for a silver lining here. They lost by 21 goals and it very easily could have been more. Not a nice feeling in round 1. Still, we haven't seen how bad the perennially awful Pioneers will be this year yet, so the Jets shouldn't get too discouraged yet...
Firstly, I should mention I've paid basically no attention to the kids for a couple of years now, so I don't know who has been talked up, i don't know who's missing, who's in the AIS squad, who's under or overage, who I should be looking for, and I don't recognise ANYONE. And to make things worse, I got there too late to get a record, so I don't know heights/weights either, and at least one bloke (#43 for the Chargers) wasn't listed on the teamsheet I did manage to find. So this is very much an early-season report and there are a lot of cobwebs still - bear with me!
Chargers won the first game in a canter, knights didn't kick a goal after the first couple of minutes of the 3rd. Oakleigh just running in waves, too precise by foot. Northern with the bigger bodies, but sloppy kicking to a target, no discernable forward line structure, and frankly just kept losing contests. Margin flattered northern in the end.
Only arrived at qtr time so probably missed a bit. Crocker in particular was getting talked up when I got here, he had a decent qtr 2 but pretty quiet 2nd half.
For oakleigh, I thought Johnston was excellent, tall mid who can do inside work but can also deliver well to a leading forward. Once or twice tried to do too much or hit too hard, but was a clear bog for me.
McLirty has an awesome name, and really impressed me in the back line. Vicious tackler, very strong in the air, kicked reliably and accurately to smart options and just didn't lose a contest all day that I saw. Looked to be playing as a 3rd tall role but was pretty mobile, will be interested to get my hands on a record to find out how tall he is.
Larkey impressed as a lead out fwd, quick off the mark and with sticky hands. Kicking let him down a time or two, should have ended up with a bag.
Pirrie really came in to his own in the 2nd half, playing as a roaming chf and marked everything that came near him even when he was caught out of position and it was coming from all sorts of strange angles. Another one who should have ended up with more goals but for some kicking issues.
I probably should mention silvagni out of completeness. Lean, agile, clean, and exceptional below his knees. Very light and lacking strength yet. He'll play for the Blooz, I look forward to watching him fail to touch jake long's goal of the century on the line, as Carlton lose another grand final to EFC.
For northern, only Gresham really rates a mention. Stocky, physical, aggressive, & gave drive out if the back line, even though his height/speed don't look like much special.
second game was an absolute smashing. After a tight and hard-fought first quarter i was hoping I'd get at least one good game out of the double-header, but it was not to be. Eastern just too good all over the ground. Very much a midfielder's game, probably the only tall who had any major influence on the game was the unlikely-looking Eastern ruckman Collins, who initially appeared to be a lump who lumbered around the field at a speed that continental drift would sneer at, but as the game wore on, showed good ball handling skills, a reliable pair of hands, a knack for being in the right place at the right time, and even a surprising turn of straight-line speed (once he'd gotten in gear) which saw him beat a nippy hbf in a footrace to the ball at least once I can remember. His ruckwork was nothing to write home about though - he was opposed to Daw (some sort of relation to Majak I believe) who had a lot of height advantage over Collins and, despite getting bugger-all of the ball around the ground, won every tap decisively, though the benefit his team got from this is debatable.
Hardwick (no relation, as far as I know) will probably get the votes, you don't kick 8 as a medium forward every day. Played deep, led fast, very strong in the air, sure ball handling, and an incredibly tight turning circle even at full speed. Only criticism is that he led deep to the pocket a bit too often - he was normally unselfish enough to give it off to teammates rather than hog the shot himself, though his kicking looked very good and he probably could have taken a few more.
I'll give you a group of 4 who would also have a best on ground claim though. Sheridan-Ferrie, Parsons, D Clarke, and Lynch. All eastern midfielders, all big, well-built kids. Sheridan-Ferrie a bit more explosive (he had something like 5 touches and a goal after 2 minutes of game time and i thought we were going to be in for a show, but while he continued to play very well he didn't keep that level of production up). Lynch more comfortable deep in defence. Parsons exccellent in close, strong in the air, and a goalckicker, and Clarke just so very good at picking up the ball in traffic and accelerating away, also a goalkicker. Seriously impressive midfield unit, with good support from a couple of others like Fenton (classic little rover type with a Hurley hairdo who buzzed around being busy, had a dose of the 'nearlys' early in the game but settled to be very dangerous) and Brolic. Another one who caught my eye was R Clarke, solid medium defender playing the quarterback role, and I lost count of the intercept marks he must have taken as Western desperately tried to hack it forward.
Western - yeah well. Not a great day for them. No run, no forward structure, continually beaten at he stoppages, and too many blokes heaving out helicopter punts all over the place. I can't really comment on their bests in any great detail - in the first game of the season I'm still getting to know who blokes are, so i focus the first quarter on one side, then the second on the other, just to learn numbers, names, positions etc. Unfortunately I left learning the Jets guys til the second quarter, and that's basically when they started to basically not touch the ball at all. So not all that much informative to say. I thought Coulton was very good early, mid/hb who looks spookily like Dal Santo - had time in traffic, read the ball well, used the ball constructively, and ran hard. Got taken out of the game later on though. Volpato was ok at times down back, good leap on him for a little guy, and plenty aggressive, but didn't manage to turn the tide in the middle. Bertollo didn't really influence the course of the game, but showed some exceptional agility for a taller guy and some nice ball handling at times. But I'm really searching hard for a silver lining here. They lost by 21 goals and it very easily could have been more. Not a nice feeling in round 1. Still, we haven't seen how bad the perennially awful Pioneers will be this year yet, so the Jets shouldn't get too discouraged yet...
