Toast The Unheralded

[Kong]

Thought it could be a nice weekly thing, to highlight something from the game that might otherwise go unnoticed; akin to the 1%ers that coaches love.

It might be 200 metre chase, it might be a "pressure act", a courageous mark, or a selfless game that shuts down a star oppositon player.

I've got two this week, one of which I posted elsewhere.



- Monfries wasn't amazing today, but he did some important things.

What impressed me most was a repeat effort from last week (maybe the week before?), where he ran right into the path of the streaming forward (Waite), knowing full well he was going to cop a whack.

Courageous, and prevented a sure Waite mark.

Good stuff to see.



- Ben Howlett. Just his game in general. It's so, so underrated. Watching him from the ground, you always seem him straight into packs without fear.

If he can't get first hands (and he's got quite a clean pair), he'll ensure that he latches onto the ball and/or man and prevents them from getting away.

He's getting better at bustling his way through two or three opponents with ball in hand, and his poise in heavy traffic is awesome.

He's got the feet of a boxer; light on them, and able to change direction quite quickly (see: that baulk on our half forward line, where he went right, stopped, stepped left, and delivered a lace out left foot kick to set up Hurley's mark and goal)

His tackling is ferocious. Still leading the AFL for tackles, IIRC.

His 2nd and 3rd efforts. There was one particular passage of play in the 4th I think it was, where he ran to Judd, laid the tackle, got up, tackled the next bloke, then chased after the next. Had he made only 1 of those efforts, they were off. It's the stuff coaches love.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

One major thing these two have been doing is forcing the stoppages, if Watson can't get his hands on it, these two are throwing themselves at the contest to stop the opposition getting clean possession and forcing the reset. With our rucking dominance and Stanton/Watsons form, they (along with Melky and Zaha) are a big part of the reason our "average" midfield has been dominating.

 

[Lord Nicholson]

Loved Leroy's tackle on Jamison. The game was well and truly over and there was a bit of conservation for ANZAC Day, but following up from Dell'Olio's tackle on... Henderson, I think? Great "Cop That" moment. The referred pressure was beautiful all game, basically.

 

[donspremiers]

Heath hocking, killed Judd all day but I loved one passage of play in particular. I'm the last 10 minutes of the game after giving in to Judd all day, hocking just finished a sprint for the ball on the wing and was absolutely spent but still managed to get back to Judd for the stoppage and start niggling him again. Judd ended up getting frustrated and high tackling one our players and gave away a free kick. He's a mongrel but glad he's our mongrel.

 

[theboxmike]

Yes that passage was awesome from Hocking

Looked like he almost cracked Judd completely.

 

[Pweter]

My man crush on Hibberd is becoming quite disturbing.

How many intercept marks does the guy take? One day he is going to get killed by a charging power forward but I get the impression he'll just brush himself off and do it again at the next available opportunity.

His ability to read the play is underestimated. He knows when to go and when to stay with his man. When he goes, he times it beautifully, stays with his man long enough to ensure he's not a realistic option, then breaks away and intercepts or kill the contest. Has clean hands too, always one grab.

 

[Grey Smith Bar]

Yep - I was at the game and Howlett was my 'under the radar' player - blind freddie could tell you that Watson & Stanton had blinders but Howlett was at the bottom of every pack affecting the contest.

 

[Childish Gambino]

Thought Stanton's two on one in the second? quarter where he effected the spoil was the moment of the game for me.

 

[Coldacre]

Hocking just nagging at Judd all afternoon, reminded me of Denham giving it to Williams. GOLD

 

[stugots]

My man crush on Hibberd is becoming quite disturbing.

How many intercept marks does the guy take? One day he is going to get killed by a charging power forward but I get the impression he'll just brush himself off and do it again at the next available opportunity.

His ability to read the play is underestimated. He knows when to go and when to stay with his man. When he goes, he times it beautifully, stays with his man long enough to ensure he's not a realistic option, then breaks away and intercepts or kill the contest. Has clean hands too, always one grab.

Yep, he is impressive isnt he, really enjoying his work

 

[Kong]

Thought Stanton's two on one in the second? quarter where he effected the spoil was the moment of the game for me.

Was that near the wing/half forward line, where he ran back with the flight and managed to turn around (to avoid a free for "interference with the contest") and make the spoil?

An incredibly hard thing to do!

 

[Childish Gambino]

Was that near the wing/half forward line, where he ran back with the flight and managed to turn around (to avoid a free for "interference with the contest") and make the spoil?

An incredibly hard thing to do!

Yep, and he had to go through his direct opponent to do so.

 

[rines]

Hocking on Judd.. a true sacrificial game if there ever was one. Stuck with it all game and showed the rest of the league how to get it done.. was probably lucky Judd didn't demonstrate some more martial art moves on him during pack situations..

He probably got a little bit of glory but I thought Davey was also very important, particularly in the first half. I thought he ran hard, tackled, pressured and did all the things that brought him to our attention in the first place. Carlton defenders were worried about where Alwyn was.. I just thought that was really important.